People arrived at Washington Square Park for the Elizabeth Warren rally late Monday afternoon. It started getting crowded around 6pm as the event was about to get underway. A New York City Parks and Recreation spokesperson said they expected around 8,000 to 10,000 people to turn out.
There were also less than a handful of Trump supporters holding their own counter-rally. They held signs praising the president and criticizing Warren for a genetic test she took last year proving she had a small but detectable amount of Native American DNA. It remains a conservative line of attack.
Mehdji Belizaire, a 19-year-old Warren volunteer, was busy handing out campaign buttons to rally goers. She says she's "still on the fence" about Warren. But Belizaire is drawn to Warren's plan to cancel student loan debt for tens of millions of Americans, given that she's taken out $60,000 to support her education at Marymount Manhattan College. "I'm a college student and it would be nice to graduate without student debt," Belizaire says.
Ellen Friedman, 76, sported her "I heart Warren" button on her denim jacket. The part-time community counselor and die-hard Warren supporter said "this is the scariest time I can ever imagine." She believes Warren is a "personable candidate" who can address the issues that keep her up at night. "I'm worried about healthcare, I'm worried about education, war, my children and grandchildren," she says. A lifelong progressive, Friedman also believes Sanders is "past his prime now."
Andre Mirabelli, 72, was happy to see Warren release a plan to tackle corruption earlier on Monday, saying its one of the main issues he believes is burdening American politics. "Gun control, abortion rights, healthcare — unless you have the right people in the room, nothing else matters," he says.
Data analyst Sean Marrin, left, and law clerk Chris Sheppard came to the Warren rally together. Both supported Warren's "big ideas" and her eagerness to bust up monopolies.
It briefly started to rain before the rally began, and scores of people pulled out their umbrellas.
But the rain didn't deter the crowd. Many held light blue "I'm a Warren Democrat" signs as they waited for the rally to start.
Warren campaign surrogates encouraged people to take selfies and upload them to social media as they warmed up the crowd for the Massachusetts senator.
Warren was met with raucous cheers when she took the stage at 7 p.m. local time. She immediately touted her endorsement from the Working Families Party, a major progressive group that previously backed Sen. Bernie Sanders in 2016. Warren said if she is elected, "working families will have a champion!"
Warren also spoke about the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, which occurred only a few blocks away from the park. “We’re not here today because of famous arches or famous men. In fact, we’re not here because of men at all,” she said. “We’re here because of some hard-working women.” She drew parallels with the substantial workplace reforms enacted after the tragedy, and cited the efforts of advocate Frances Perkins, who later became President Franklin Roosevelt's labor secretary.
Warren characterized the tragedy as "a story about power." She went on: "A story of what happens when the rich and the powerful take control of government and use it to increase their own profits while they stick it to working people. But what happened in the aftermath of the fire is a different story about power — a story about our power, a story about what’s possible when we fight together as one."
Warren's supporters were cheering and chanting throughout the evening, highlighting the enthusiasm the ascendant 2020 Democratic candidate is generating on the campaign trail. When she brought up her signature two percent wealth tax on the nation's wealthiest people, the crowd broke into chants of "two cents."
The address lasted roughly 50 minutes, but for some the event didn't end then. A volunteer reminded people they could take a selfie with Warren. The huge crowd numbered over 20,000 people, according to the campaign. Insider could not independently verify this number.
The selfie line was initially a muddled mess. But Warren stayed for over three hours to take pictures with supporters and the last one wrapped up as it neared midnight. Selfies with Warren are a campaign staple that will repeat the next day.
