Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Ann Warren was born June 22, 1949 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She became a star member of the debate team at Northwest Classen High School and won the title of "Oklahoma's top high-school debater" while competing with debate teams from high schools throughout the state. She also won a debate scholarship to George Washington University at the age of 16. Initially aspiring to be a teacher, she left GWU after two years to marry her high-school boyfriend, Jim Warren. She moved to Houston with her husband and there she enrolled in the University of Houston, graduating in 1970 with a bachelor of science degree in speech pathology and audiology. After having two children, Amelia and Alexander, she and Jim Warren divorced in 1978. In 1980, Warren married Bruce Mann, a Harvard law professor, but retained the surname Warren to try to make things easier for her children.

During the late 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s, Warren taught law at several universities throughout the country while researching issues related to bankruptcy and middle-class personal finance. She became involved with public work in bankruptcy regulation and consumer protection in the mid-1990s.

On September 14, 2011, Warren declared her intention to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2012 election in Massachusetts for the US Senate. The seat had been won by Republican Scott Brown in a 2010 special election after the death of Ted Kennedy. On November 6, 2012, Warren defeated incumbent Scott Brown with a total of 53.7% of the votes. She is the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts,