Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) “will make her first trip to Iowa as a potential 2020 presidential candidate just days after formally launching a committee to explore a White House bid,” the Des Moines Register reports.

John Cassidy: “The rap on Warren is that she missed her best chance in 2016, allowing Bernie Sanders to seize the mantle of populist tribune, and blundered last fall by rekindling the controversy over her ancestry. These are backward-looking critiques, the force of which is yet to be determined. What we know for sure is that, with at least a dozen Democrats thinking seriously about entering the primary, it will take someone resolute, resilient, and well organized to prevail. The successful candidate will need a message that distinguishes her or his campaign from the pack and resonates with Democratic voters. Since the prize is a head-to-head contest with Donald Trump, the winner will have to be someone who doesn’t shy away from confrontation.”

“On all of these grounds, an argument can be made for Warren, who has been in the Senate since 2012. Ever since Trump launched his 2016 Presidential bid, she has been mocking him.”

Nathaniel Rakich: “Ideologically, Warren is right where a Democratic primary candidate should want to be — it’s one of the strongest cards in her hand. According to FiveThirtyEight’s Trump Score, she votes with the president just 13.1 percent of the time, making her the third-most anti-Trump senator in the 115th Congress. Although she’s best known for her stands against income inequality and big banks, she is deeply liberal on both social and economic issues, according to an analysis of her votes and positions by OnTheIssues — although not quite as liberal as Sen. Bernie Sanders, one of Warren’s potential 2020 rivals.”

“Warren’s base is likely to overlap quite a bit with Sanders’s, the self-described democratic socialist who turned heads in the 2016 presidential primaries by winning 40 percent of Democratic delegates. Warren even seemed to make an explicit play for Sanders voters when she devoted a full minute (mid-personal bio, no less) of her four-and-a-half-minute announcement video to an economic-populist message.”

Playbook: “Minimal windup, on the last day of the year? After her DNA test stumble this fall, it shows some wariness of a press-pundit-industrial complex that is ready to pounce on any perceived mistake. Her team clearly sees a need to make her come across as warm and accessible — hence the video kicking back with the beer.”

“Warren generates a lot of excitement on the left, obviously, but many top Democrats fear she won’t be strong enough to take on the president. Last month, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told us that in attacking Warren over the DNA stuff, Trump is ‘picking his opponent.’ We’ll see. If there’s one thing we know about politics after 2016, it’s that nobody knows anything. After all, many on Team Hillary wanted Trump as their opponent — and look how that turned out.”

“The anti-Elizabeth Warren narrative was written before the Massachusetts senator even announced she was exploring a presidential run… In interviews with Politico, advisers and allies project confidence that perceptions of her as cold or aloof will fade once people see her campaign.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren jumped into the 2020 presidential campaign Monday, offering a message of economic populism as she became the best-known Democratic candidate yet to enter what is expected to be a crowded race the Washington Post reports.

Warren’s announcement that she was establishing an exploratory committee — the legal precursor to a run — came as other candidates, including several of her fellow senators, made final preparations for their own announcements, some of which are expected in days.

New York Times: “The race for the 2020 Democratic nomination is poised to be the most wide open since perhaps 1992, with the party leaderless and lacking obvious front-runners.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren “has yet to make an appearance in Iowa, but she’s personally reaching out to Iowa Democrats as she considers a possible 2020 run for president,” the Des Moines Register reports.

“Warren is one of the few possible Democratic presidential contenders who has not visited the first-in-the-nation caucus state in recent months, though she did deploy staff and resources to aid Iowa Democrats ahead of the midterms.”

“Sen. Elizabeth Warren has the core of her 2020 team in place if she runs for president,” Politico reports.

“She has the seed money — there’s $12.5 million ready to go, left over from her recent Senate run — and a massive email list she’s amassed over years, boosted by a $3.3 million investment in digital infrastructure and advertising in the last election alone. Her aides have been quietly shopping for presidential campaign headquarters space in the Boston area in recent weeks, according to a source with knowledge of the move.”

A Boston Globe editorial urges Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) not to run for president:

Warren missed her moment in 2016, and there’s reason to be skeptical of her prospective candidacy in 2020. While Warren won reelection, her margin of victory in November suggests there’s a ceiling on her popularity; Baker garnered more votes than she did in a state that is supposed to be a Democratic haven. Meanwhile, a September poll indicated that Massachusetts voters were more enthusiastic about Patrick making a White House bid than Warren.

Those are warning signs from the voters who know her best. While Warren is an effective and impactful senator with an important voice nationally, she has become a divisive figure. A unifying voice is what the country needs now after the polarizing politics of Donald Trump.

New York Times: “Advisers close to Ms. Warren say she has privately expressed concern that she may have damaged her relationships to Native American groups and her own standing with progressive activists, particularly those who are racial minorities. Several outside advisers are even more worried: They say they believe a plan should be made to repair that damage, possibly including a strong statement of apology.”

“The advisers say Ms. Warren will have to confront the issue again if she announces a presidential campaign, which is expected in the coming weeks, and several would like her to act soon.”

“Publicly, at this point, the senator isn’t second-guessing her actions.”

A new Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that 49% of voters say that Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-MA) decision to release the results of a DNA test indicating she has some Native American ancestry makes no difference in their view of her.

Jonathan Swan: “President Trump loves nothing more than when his opponents try to litigate his insults, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is trying to do with ‘Pocahontas,” a staple riff at his rallies.”

“Trump’s never more comfortable than on this terrain, and ‘Pocahontas’ is one of his all-time favorites.”

“In Trump’s mind, his 2016 nicknames weren’t a sideshow, but were one of the central reasons he crushed his primary opponents (‘Little Marco’ Rubio, ‘Low Energy Jeb’ Bush, ‘Lyin’ Ted’ Cruz) and ultimately beat ‘Crooked Hillary.’

Politico: “Monday’s grandiose, made-for-media detailing of her Native American ancestry — complete with DNA documentation — erased any questions about the Massachusetts senator’s intent.”

“Something approaching a 2020 campaign slogan is beginning to take shape: ‘Persist.’ Her political team rolled out a nationwide ‘PERSIST Project’ campaign on Facebook this past June, hawking free state-specific ‘Persist’ bumper stickers. At the progressive conference Netroots Nation this past August, Warren’s team distributed signs with the single word to the audience to wave during her speech. The front page of her website currently includes a mosaic slideshow of supporters wearing ‘She Persisted’ t-shirts.”

“The breadth of her national political operation was made clear in an exhaustive account on Sunday.”

From the Boston Globe on July 5, 2018:

President Trump joked Thursday night that he would give Senator Elizabeth Warren $1 million to a charity of her choice if she took a DNA test and it proved that she has Native American roots.

Warren released the results of a DNA test this morning which shows that she has “strong evidence” of Native American roots and she reminded Trump of his challenge on Twitter.