Good evening, Kibitzers. As I teased last night, I attended Elizabeth Warren’s town hall held on the University of Houston campus yesterday. I thought I’d briefly share the highlights and some more of the pics I took of the event. (Full disclosure: I’m leaning Harris right now, but Warren is a very close second for me.)
I am not the type to go to these kinds of events alone—I’m too anxious and introverted. I thought I could get one of my friends to go with me, but she wasn’t feeling well enough to go. So I almost stayed home. But something told me I’d regret it if I didn’t go, so after a good amount of internal coaxing, I decided to make the short trek to campus. I tried to get there early, but I clearly didn’t arrive early enough, as the line to get inside was wrapped around the entire second floor of the student center.
While in line, I couldn’t help but purchase pins when the opportunity arose.
Once the line started moving, it moved pretty quickly, and we poured into a ballroom with giant Texas flag at the front. The people kept coming and coming, until about 2,000 of us were packed into the room. I was somewhere in the middle—not the best spot, but far from the worst. I tried to get some pics of the crowd:
Then, we waited...and waited...and waited some more...and then, finally, a disembodied voice seemed to signal that the moment we’d been waiting for had arrived. Please welcome...State Representative Shawn Thierry! (Poor Shawn Thierry...nothing against her at all, and she didn’t deserve the collective groan she got from the crowd, lol.) The reason it was taking so long is because there was an overflow room and Warren was greeting them first. Thierry gave a pretty good speech, ending with a personal story of how she almost died in childbirth—Warren, of course, recently unveiled a plan to make childbirth safer for women of color.
I didn’t take much video of the event, but I did get the exciting moment when Thierry introduced Warren:
Before starting her stump speech, Warren called Representative Sheila Jackson Lee to the stage to recognize and greet.
Warren was great, of course—I don’t need to tell you that. She gave what I imagine is her typical stump speech, but she personalized it for the crowd. As you may know, she has a deep personal connection to Houston and the University of Houston—she attended UH, although you’ve probably heard her describe it as a “small commuter school.” (Current UH students and others affiliated with UH have questioned why she calls it that, and she explained that she calls it a small commuter school because that’s what it was in the 1960s. It’s not a “small commuter school” anymore, by the way.) In the late 1970s, she got her first tenure-track job at the UH Law Center. She pleased the crowd by doing the UH hand sign and saying “Go Coogs” a few times.
With so many plans to talk about, where to start? She hammered especially on her anti-corruption plans (her plan to make it a requirement for federal candidates to post their tax returns online drew the loudest applause), her proposed wealth tax, an end to gerrymandering and voter suppression, and universal pre-K and free tuition for college. She also promised that she would appoint a former public school teacher for Secretary of Education—“Betsy DeVos need not apply” was one of her best lines.
There was only time for three questions, unfortunately. She was asked about how her cabinet would reflect a diverse America, what she would say to people who cite her age as a reason she shouldn’t run (she rightly asked if a man would be asked the same question), and how she would address the Flint water crisis.
I didn’t get very many good pics—the lighting on the stage made it very difficult. I did like this one, though:
Here are some pics/vids I found from Twitter, starting with a tweet from Warren herself:
What do you want to kibitz about tonight?