With many of the candidates focusing their attention on impeachment proceedings this past week, I’ve decided to do things a little differently. Rather than giving you a rundown of what happened broadly throughout the week, I’m going to focus on giving you some more information on the new frontrunner of the democratic candidates: Elizabeth Warren. 

Or, maybe I should say co-frontrunner. According to The Independent, there were four polls that put Warren in front of Joe Biden, three of them being from some of the first states that hold primary elections. 

Though this push shouldn’t come as a surprise — considering how well Warren has been doing in debates — I do think it’s time we focus on what Warren actually stands for.

Warren has 45 plans listed on her website, each outlining exactly what she wants to do to solve certain situations. These plans range from getting rid of the electoral college and developing a fair immigration system to universal childcare and affordable housing.  

Even though Warren has plans for so many things, she does have her top five plans listed at the top of her website. Those are the plans I’m going to focus on. 

Her website begins with a plan to strengthen our democracy. This one’s a doozy, but essentially, Warren wants to make sure every citizen is able to vote. 

Warren wants to “eliminate unnecessary and unjustified rules that make voting more difficult, and overturn every single voter suppression rule that racist politicians use to steal votes from people of color,” according to her website. 

The website goes on to say how our voting system needs to be protected from foreign interference which is especially timely given the information behind impeachment proceedings regarding President Trump. 

The next plan on her list is to rebuild the middle class. To Warren, this means allowing unions to flourish and giving workers a larger say in what happens within the company they work for. 

Part of this plan includes an Ultra-Millionaire tax, with the money going toward projects like student debt-relief, universal childcare and universal healthcare. 

According to her website, Warren wants to “build an economy that works for everyone.”

Next up on the list is equal justice under the law. Here, Warren addresses what we’ve been seeing more and more lately: how there is different treatment under the law for those who are rich versus everybody else. Warren calls for criminal justice reform.

“That means ending racial disparities in our justice system,” according to her website. “It means banning private prisons. It means embracing community policing and demilitarizing our local police forces.”

Warren goes on to acknowledge that this won’t be an easy process, but it’s not the only difficult plan she has. Ending Washington corruption is fourth on the list. 

Once again, Warren seems to want a full re-working in the way the system works. Or, I suppose, in the way the system is not working.

Warren wants to stop lobbying by banning senators and congressmen from trading stocks while they are in office, make supreme court justices follow a code of ethics and strengthen the code of conduct for those justices. 

Finally, Warren calls for a foreign policy for all. According to her website, Warren wants to bring troops home and start investing in diplomacy and fighting against climate change. According to her website, Warren is tired of our foreign policy only benefiting the wealthy in Washington — it’s time for it to benefit all Americans. 

While some of Warren’s plans seem too big to pull off, it’s still important to look into what she stands for. It’s important to look into what all the candidates stand for, which is why I’m going to keep doing some spotlight weeks where we focus in on one candidate. 

Remember, I just want everyone to be educated about who they are voting for come next fall, so let’s stay informed friends. 

Kuchta can be reached at [email protected].