To rise above the Democratic pack, Elizabeth Warren tries ‘nerding out’

By playing up her instincts as a wonk, Warren is trying to define herself and her candidacy on her own terms before Democratic rivals try to cast her in a more unflattering light.

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks to potential supporters at Columbia College in Columbia. (Travis Dove/The New York Times)

(Written by Astead Herndon)

The gym was hot. The lights malfunctioned. But the audience of nearly 1,000 people was engrossed as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a presidential hopeful, did what she does best: “nerd out,” as she puts it.

After talking up gun control laws and criminal justice reform on a recent South Carolina campaign swing, Warren dug into the nitty-gritty of free market regulation and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a federal agency she helped create, which has returned more than $12 billion to people in refunds and canceled debts. Nothing made her more enthusiastic.

By the end, she had many in the audience cheering.

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“You may leave here and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I must be turning into a nerd, I was applauding a government agency’ — how did that happen?” Warren joked with the crowd at Columbia College in South Carolina.

Almost one month into her presidential campaign, Warren’s passion for policy minutiae has become her way of standing out in an increasingly crowded Democratic field, establishing herself as a wonk’s wonk whose expansive ideas and detail-oriented speaking style are her bid for a good first impression on voters.