WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced the formation of an exploratory committee for a presidential run, making her the highest profile Democrat to formally move toward a bid for the White House in 2020.

"If we organize together, if we fight together, if we persist together, we can win. We can and we will" Warren told supporters in a video posted online Monday morning.

Warren has long been viewed as a potential 2020 candidate. The former law professor is expected to be part of a large field of Democratic contenders that could include former Vice President Joe Biden, Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the runner-up in the 2016 Democratic primary. </s> New York: Democratic senator Kirsten Gillibrand took a major step toward announcing a 2020 presidential bid on Tuesday, saying she is launching an exploratory committee for a White House run.

"It's an important first step, and it's one I am taking because I am going to run," the New York senator said on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. She listed a series of issues she'd tackle as president, including better health care for families, stronger public schools and more accessible job training.

Gillibrand, 52, has already made plans to campaign in Iowa over the weekend, more than a year before the leadoff caucus state votes.

She joins what is expected to be a crowded primary field for the Democratic nomination that could feature more than a dozen candidates. Already, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren has announced her own exploratory efforts, and decisions by a number of other senators are expected in the coming weeks. </s> BOSTON (CBS/CNN) – Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Monday she is launching an exploratory committee for president in 2020.

Warren released a statement and a campaign-style video in an email to supporters formally declaring her intentions.

The senior Democratic senator for Massachusetts has been considered a potential front-runner in the 2020 race for the White House. In September, Warren said publicly for the first time that she would “take a hard look at running for president.”

“I’ll announce a plan early in the new year. But there’s one thing I do know: I can’t do this alone,” she said in the statement Monday. “I’ve spent my career standing up to big banks and powerful corporations, and I didn’t stop when I got to the United States Senate. I don’t have binders full of bankers and CEOs to call for ginormous checks to launch this committee – in fact, most of them aren’t going to like what I’m doing and will probably spend their money somewhere else. That’s ok by me.”

Warren, 69, is the first U.S. Senator to take official steps to begin a 2020 presidential campaign. Her announcement signals she’s serious about running. Warren already has dozens of staffers on her team and about $12 million that she can transfer from her Senate campaign account.

“It allows her now to essentially start raising money to pay for the dozens of staffers, to pay for travel to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, places we expect her to go in the coming days,” said CBS News political correspondent Ed O’Keefe.

An Oklahoma native, Warren went on to become a Harvard Law professor and former President Barack Obama nominated her to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau she helped create in 2010. But Obama later withdrew his nomination of Warren, a fierce critic of Wall Street financial institutions, when it appeared she would not be able to win Senate confirmation to the post.

In 2011, Warren decided to run for Senate in Massachusetts. She easily won the Democratic nomination and defeated Sen. Scott Brown in November 2012. She won re-election in 2018 with over 60 percent of the vote.

Warren has traded insults with President Donald Trump since he was a candidate in the 2016 election. She has called the president sexist and a “thin-skinned, racist bully” while he has frequently labeled her “Pocahontas.”

The derisive nickname references the controversy over Warren’s claims of Native American heritage. Warren has said that a great-great-great-grandmother was at least partially Native American. Critics have accused Warren of using claims about her ancestry to get ahead, but Harvard has denied that race was a factor in her hiring.

In October, Warren released a DNA test reportedly showing that a Native American relative appears in her family tree 6 to 10 generations ago. So far, the test has not silenced critics and the Cherokee Nation has called using DNA tests to lay claim to Native American heritage “inappropriate and wrong.”

In the Senate, Warren serves on the committees on banking, health, aging and the armed services.

Below are more facts about Warren and a timeline of her life via CNN:

Other Facts:

 She was a state high school champion in debate.

Before the mid-1990s, Warren was a registered Republican.

Warren is an expert on bankruptcy law and was an adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission in the 1990s.

Warren has co-authored two books with her daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke” and “All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan.”

During Warren’s 2012 Senate race, a controversy erupted over Warren’s claims of Native American ancestry. Warren listed herself as a minority in a directory of law teachers from 1986-1995, based on, she says, stories of her family’s Cherokee heritage. Opponent Scott Brown claimed she did this to advance her career.

According to Congressional disclosure reports, Warren’s net worth is between $3.7 million and $10 million.

1966-1968 – Warren attends George Washington University on a debate scholarship. She drops out after two years to get married.

Early 1970s – After graduating from college, Warren works as a speech pathologist at a New Jersey elementary school.

1978-1983 – Assistant, and later associate professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

1983-1987 – Professor of law at the University of Texas Law School in Austin.

1987-1995 – Law professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

1989 – Warren, along with co-authors Teresa Sullivan and Jay Westbrook, publishes her first book, “As We Forgive Our Debtors: Bankruptcy and Consumer Credit in America.”

2007 – Warren writes an article outlining her idea for a federal agency designed to protect consumers from fraudulent or misleading financial products, like mortgages and credit cards.

November 14, 2008 – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appoints Warren to a Congressional oversight panel overseeing the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program.

September 17, 2010 – U.S. President Barack Obama appoints Warren as assistant to the president and special adviser to the Treasury secretary in order to launch the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

July 2011 – Due to opposition from Republicans and some Democrats, Obama declines to nominate Warren as permanent director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

August 1, 2011 – Warren steps down as a special adviser to Obama.

November 6, 2012 – Wins the race for Senate in Massachusetts, defeating incumbent Scott Brown.

December 15, 2014 – In an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, Warren repeats four times that she is not running for president in 2016.

June 2, 2015 – Warren writes a scathing letter to Mary Jo White, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), saying “I am disappointed by the significant gap between the promises you made during and shortly after your confirmation and your performance as SEC Chair.” In a statement released in 2013, Warren said that “the SEC needs to be a tough watchdog for the American people.”

February 7, 2017 – During a debate on the nomination of Jeff Sessions as U.S. Attorney General. Senate Republicans vote to rebuke Warren as she reads a letter that Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986 criticizing Sessions.

April 18, 2017 – Her book “This Fight Is Our Fight” is published.

June 5, 2017 – FCTRY, a Brooklyn-based product design company, starts a Kickstarter campaign to fund the production of Elizabeth Warren action figures, and surpasses its goal within hours. FCTRY says it wants to partner with Emily’s List, a non-profit that promotes getting pro-choice, Democratic women elected to office.

November 27, 2017 – At an event honoring Navajo code talkers, US President Donald Trump references Warren by the nickname he gave her, Pocahontas. In an interview with MSNBC Warren remarks, “It is deeply unfortunate that the President of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur. Donald Trump does this over and over thinking somehow he is going to shut me up with it. It hasn’t worked in the past, it isn’t going to work out in the future.”

October 15, 2018 – Warren releases results of a DNA test showing she has distant Native American ancestry, with analysis performed by Carlos Bustamante, a professor of genetics at Stanford University and adviser to Ancestry and 23 and Me.

November 6, 2018 – Is re-elected for a second term in the U.S. Senate. </s> Although U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has yet to officially enter the White House race, Massachusetts political observers cast the Democrat’s formation of an exploratory committee as the latest telltale sign that she’s running in 2020.

Warren announced Monday that she will formally explore a presidential run -- a legal mechanism which will allow the 2020 contender to fundraise and secure support for a possible campaign before formally throwing her hat into the ring.

Candy Glazer, the outgoing Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee chairwoman, said she was not surprised to see Warren announce the formation of an exploratory committee, arguing that it’s become standard protocol for many presidential contenders in recent election cycles.

“I think the message is out. I think today is the informal drop. ... I think this is just symbolic: It’s turning to a new year, 2019. I think the timing is great," she said in an interview. “New Year’s Eve, it’s a new beginning, it’s a new candidacy. I actually think this is perfect. And why not be the first? Don’t be coy.”

Contending that many people -- especially Massachusetts Democrats -- are “very happy today,” Glazer said she’s personally excited to see Warren focus on the White House.

The Longmeadow Democrat, who stressed that she’s “on Team Warren 2020," argued that the senator has a special bond with Western Massachusetts -- the home of her 2012 state party convention nomination and a famous debate with Republican incumbent Scott Brown.

“I think people are excited, she’s got a tremendous, tremendous base here -- that goes for the entire state, not just here in Western Massachusetts,” she said. “Although, I think here in Western Massachusetts we do have a very special bond with Elizabeth Warren -- she is here all the time. She’s had a very active district office here. She’s part of the community. ... I think a think a lot of people are very happy today.”

Candy Glazer steps back from Longmeadow Democratic Town Committee, but not away from Western Massachusetts politics (photos)

Glazer said she expects a formal campaign announcement to come “pretty soon.”

Warren tweeted Monday that she’ll announce “a decision early in the new year.”

Springfield-based political strategist Tony Cignoli agreed that rumored presidential candidates, like Warren, don’t go through the trouble of setting up exploratory committees and sending former staffers out to key primary states unless they’re serious about the White House.

“This is more than an exploratory committee, she’s in and she’s running,” he said in an interview. “That’s why you do this early, you try to make it clear to the other candidates that you’re a significant player -- You’re in this to run and win.”

Warren, who ended 2018 with more than $12 million in the bank, is expected to use the exploratory committee to ramp up her high-dollar fundraising as she mulls a possible presidential bid.

The growing use of exploratory committees in recent cycles has allowed contenders to hire operatives and court donors outside the gaze of the Federal Election Commission and other potential challengers.

Cignoli offered that while federal law bars candidates actively running for two different federal offices from transferring money between their separate campaign accounts, “there is so much that you can do with your exploratory (committee) that will benefit the campaign itself.”

“Certainly it’s separate accounts, but the money, the time, the energy that you put into the exploratory it’s very much like being in the early stages of an actual, full-blown campaign,” he said. “Because what you’re doing already is hiring operatives; you’re putting people on the ground who are making phone calls to get you commitments from potential delegates, superdelegates from the activists who are out there in the key states. It allows you to do an awful lot of work that would just be early regular presidential work anyway. You differentiate the money, but it’s hard to differentiate the activity.”

Cignoli further argued that exploratory committees offer potential candidates “a little bit more wiggle room as to where (their) money’s coming from, who it’s coming from.”

“It allows you to keep a little bit close to the vest -- or secret -- who some of your support team is going to be,” he said. “The other thing that it does is it allows potential supporters to be with you who may not want other campaigns to know that they’re there.”

Warren, whose campaign officials are expected to meet in Cambridge Tuesday, reported a cash balance of $12.5 million in wake of her 2018 U.S. Senate re-election -- a cycle in which the senator repeatedly raised an average of about $1 million per month.

The senator’s ability to draw down large fundraising amounts could give her an edge over other Democrats who are reportedly eyeing 2020 runs.

Such fundraising prowess will be needed to compete against President Donald Trump, who announced his re-election bid shortly after being sworn in to office.

The Republican incumbent reported a $35 million cash balance for his 2020 re-election bid as of Sept. 30.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel argued that if Warren officially enters the 2020 fray, “Americans will see her for what she is: another extreme far-left obstructionist and a total fraud."

“Voters know President Trump’s agenda gets results and they will make their voices heard at the ballot box in 2020,” she said in a statement. </s> Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand held her first press conference this morning as a 2020 presidential candidate in her home state of New York. She announced Tuesday night that she is forming an exploratory committee to run for president, throwing her hat in the ring for the Democratic nomination in an appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

"I have the passion and courage and fearless determination to get this done," she said during her announcement Wednesday morning. "I'm going to run for president of the United States because as a young mom, I will fight for your children, as my own health care should be right not a privilege."

Gillibrand is the second U.S. senator — and second female senator — to announce plans to begin the legal process of running for the Democratic presidential nomination. The 52-year-old is one of the most active and outspoken critics of President Trump and she earned acclaim from party activists when she began voting against all of the president's Cabinet and senior government nominees in early 2017.

She joins a Democratic presidential field that is beginning to take shape. Over the weekend, former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary Julián Castro formally launched his presidential bid, while Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren launched an exploratory committee on New Year's Eve. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said over the weekend she plans to form an exploratory committee in the coming days. Several other senators, current and former governors and mayors, and former Vice President Joe Biden are still mulling potential campaigns. </s> Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, considered one of the most progressive members of the US upper house, officially launched her campaign for the US presidential election of 2020.

"This is the fight of our lives. The fight to build an America where dreams are possible, an America that works for everyone...and that is why I stand here today: to declare that I am a candidate for President of the United States of America," Warren, one of the country's leading Democrats, announced to a crowd in Lawrence, Massachusetts. </s> The 2020 presidential race is starting to heat up, and the Democratic field could get crowded — fast.

Elizabeth Warren, Julian Castro and a handful of other well-known Democrats have seemingly tossed their hats into the presidential ring, and more popular politicians are likely to follow suit in the coming weeks. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said he'd consider a comeback after aiming to inspire a progressive movement during his 2016 campaign.

“If there’s somebody else who appears who can, for whatever reason, do a better job than me, I’ll work my a-- off to elect him or her,” Sanders told New York Magazine in November. “If it turns out that I am the best candidate to beat Donald Trump, then I will probably run.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden — as predicted — has stayed silent about his plans thus far.

Apparently, Biden's advisers have floated Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, as a potential running mate, given his recent rise in popularity. Despite losing the Texas Senate race to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, O'Rourke is still considered a "rising star" in his party.

In a January op-ed in The New York Times, titled "Run, Joe, Run," a columnist advised Biden to enter the race because he has "strengths that no other Democratic candidate does," citing his decades of experience and ties to the Obama administration.

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, an outspoken Trump critic, is expected to announce the formation of a 2020 exploratory committee during a Jan. 15 appearance on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," CBS News reports.

As some political heavyweights continue to mull it over, take a look at those who have already made moves ahead of the 2020 election.

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren took a major step in her political career by launching an exploratory committee for president in late December.

She made a splash on Dec. 31 when she released a campaign-style video that slams the "corrupt" government, making an appeal to her party's base.

5 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN

"[The government] has been bought and paid for by a bunch of billionaires and giant corporations that think they get to dictate the rules that affect everyone," Warren tells supporters, adding, "that’s not how the government is supposed to work. You know it. I know it. And we know it is time to fight back."

Warren, who was reportedly a registered Republican well into her 40s, already tested out a stump speech in Sioux City, Iowa, telling a crowd in the first-in-the-nation caucus state "we need to make a structural change."

“We need to return politics to the people,” Warren said at the Jan. 4 event.

“I can’t stop Donald Trump from what he’s going to do, I can’t stop him from hurling racial insults, I don’t have any power to do that, but what I can do is I can be in this fight for all of our families,” she added.

The 69-year-old previously taught law at Harvard University. When Warren was hired at the Ivy League school in the early 1990s, there were only 60 tenured female professors, according to The Daily Beast. According to Harvard, Warren has written more than 100 educational articles and ten books. She’s also been awarded several teaching awards — at least two from Harvard.

Warren has also been a vocal critic of Wall Street — originally conceiving what became the government's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Former President Barack Obama appointed Warren to serve as assistant to the president and special advisor to the secretary of the treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in September 2010. Warren burst onto the national scene during the financial crisis with calls for greater consumer protections. She quickly became one of the party's more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.

Former Maryland Rep. John Delaney was the first person — by far — to announce his 2020 campaign. Delaney announced his intent to run for president in July 2017, just six months into Trump's presidency.

“I'm running for President,” Delaney, a wealthy former bank executive, tweeted on July 28, 2017.

Delaney, who is socially liberal, emphasized his pro-business views in his announcement.

PRESIDENT TRUMP GETS HIS FIRST 2020 CHALLENGER

“We need to encourage a more just and inclusive form of capitalism and reduce barriers to small-business formation, start-ups, job creation, investment and growth,” Delaney said.

He has already invested considerable time and money in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro is hoping to make history as the country's first Latino president. Castro, who served under Obama, announced his campaign for president in his hometown, San Antonio, on Jan. 12.

"I’m running for President because it’s time for new leadership and to make sure opportunities I had are available to every American," he said during his announcement speech, which focused on immigration.

Castro, the grandson of a Mexican immigrant, mocked Trump for claiming that the U.S. faces an "invasion" from its ally to the south. "He called it a national security crisis," Castro said. "Well, there is a crisis today. It's a crisis of leadership. Donald Trump has failed to uphold the values of our great nation."

Castro, 44, became San Antonio's youngest-ever city councilman in 2001 at just 26 years old, The Atlantic Journal-Constitution reports. Years later, he became the city's mayor, serving from 2009 to 2014. During that time, he was thrust into the limelight. In 2012, he delivered the Democratic National Convention keynote speech, leading political pundits to grant him the nickname "Latino Barack Obama," according to the Texas Tribune.

The Stanford University and Harvard Law School graduate was in the running to become Hillary Clinton's potential presidential running mate but ultimately lost to Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.

Democrat Richard Ojeda, a retired Army paratrooper and West Virginia lawmaker, formalized his campaign for the presidency on Veterans Day 2018. He announced he was going to resign his state Senate seat on Jan. 12 to focus on campaigning for president in 2020.

The so-called "Trump Democrat," who has been branded as a "JFK with tattoos and a bench press" by Politico Magazine, is of Mexican descent and became a champion of teachers during their fight for better pay and benefits. He sponsored successful legislation to make medical marijuana legal and has stressed health care and economic issues.

Ojeda came under fire in September 2018 for allegedly threatening state delegate Rupie Phillips, writing in a Facebook message, "When I'm done with you, you will beg me to ease up. I’m going to make you famous… and it’s not going to be in a good way."

At the time, the Ojeda campaign didn't deny the message was sent but pushed back against its meaning.

“This is absurd and obviously not a threat of physical violence,” the campaign’s spokeswoman told Fox News. “Richard was speaking about exposing Del. Phillips for his corruption in the West Virginia legislature."

Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii is also planning to run for president in 2020.

"There are a lot of reasons for me to make this decision,” Gabbard told CNN on Jan. 12, though she plans to make a more formal announcement within the week. “There are a lot of challenges that are facing the American people that I'm concerned about and that I want to help solve.”

The 37-year-old Iraq War veteran, who served two tours of duty in the Middle East, is the first Hindu elected to Congress and the first member born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. She has visited early primary and caucus states New Hampshire and Iowa in recent months and has written a memoir that’s due to be published in May.

The lawmaker made news during the 2016 presidential campaign when she opted to back Sanders instead of Clinton.

TULSI GABBARD, HAWAII DEMOCRAT, SAYS SHE WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT IN 2020

“As a veteran of two Middle East deployments, I know first hand the cost of war,” Gabbard explained in a YouTube video in February 2016, per The New York Times. “I know how important it is that our commander-in-chief has the sound judgment required to know when to use America’s military power and when not to use that power.

“As a vice chair of the D.N.C., I am required to stay neutral in Democratic primaries, but I cannot remain neutral any longer. The stakes are just too high. That’s why today I’m endorsing Senator Bernie Sanders to be our next president and commander in chief of the United States," she concluded.

Gabbard’s run would not be without controversy.

In 2016, she alarmed fellow Democrats when she met with Donald Trump during his transition to president and later when she took a secret trip to Syria and met with President Bashar Assad, who has been accused of war crimes and genocide. She questioned whether he was responsible for a chemical attack on civilians that killed dozens and led the U.S. to attack a Syrian airbase.

She said she doesn’t regret the trip and considers it important to meet with adversaries if “you are serious about pursuing peace.” She also noted that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was based on faulty intelligence and said that she wanted to understand the evidence of the Syria attack.

Fox News' Madeleine Rivera, Alex Pappas, Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report. </s> Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren formally kicked off her 2020 presidential campaign on Feb. 9 . Here's a look at Warren's background:Warren was born in Oklahoma and attended the University of Houston and Rutgers School of Law. She initially had a career in academia, teaching at Rutgers, the University of Texas, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.She emerged as a national political figure in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, chairing the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. She quickly became one of the party's more prominent liberals even as she sometimes fought with Obama administration officials over their response to the market turmoil.Warren then worked with the Obama administration to establish the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.Warren won a Senate seat in 2012, becoming Massachusetts' first female senator. She was re-elected in 2018 before launching her exploratory committee.Should she launch a campaign, Warren must move past a widely panned October release of a DNA test meant to bolster her claim to Native American heritage. The move was intended to rebut Trump's taunts of Warren as "Pocahontas." Instead, her use of a genetic test to prove ethnicity spurred controversy that seemed to blunt any argument she sought to make.Warren's campaign is likely to revolve around the same theme she's woven into speeches and policy proposals in recent years: battling special interests, paying mind to the nexus between racial and economic inequities. She has $11 million left over from her commanding 2018 Senate re-election victory that can be used on her presidential run.One of her most significant competitors could be Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who is eyeing another presidential run harnessing the same populist rhetoric. </s> Becoming the fourth official Democrat candidate for a White House bid in 2020, Democrat Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has announced her intention to run for President.

Senator Gillibrand made the announcement in a rather goofy and awkward appearance on the Late Show with Steven Colbert. Senator wind-tester doesn’t stand a chance; no-one likes her, but it is a fun intellectual exercise to start putting the various candidate parallels together in the growing field of Democrats against the prior 2016 field of 17 Republicans.

Knowing it’s likely the ♦UniParty DNC is following a similar ♦UniParty RNC strategy, we can start to put the personal characteristics and political traits together and contrast them against 2016. Here’s the way it looks so far:
• Senator Ted Cruz was to 2016…. as Senator Elizabeth Warren is to 2020
• Senator Rand Paul was to 2016…. as Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is to 2020
• Senator Rick Santorum was to 2016…. as Senator Sherrod Brown is to 2020
• Governor Bobby Jindal was to 2016…. as Julian Castro is to 2020
• Governor Jim Gilmore was to 2016 as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is to 2020

Once we get a few more names on the DNC side, we can start to have fun with the celebrity squares graphics:
Joining several other Democrats in the race, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announces the formation of a presidential exploratory committee for running in the 2020 presidential election.