Young Supporters Excited After Sen. Warren Launches 2020 Exploratory Committee
CAMBRIDGE (CBS) - Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced Monday she is launching an exploratory committee for president in 2020.
Days after she was able to vote for the very first time, 18-year-old Maddy Ranalli took a selfie with Senator Warren.
She says waking up to Warren's announcement Monday morning felt surreal.
"It was crazy. Everyone posting about it and it kind of all hit me and I knew people were going to post and announce their runs and I was like wow it's really happening," she said.
Ranalli is headed for Harvard in the fall and hopes to run for office herself someday.
Keller @ Large: Here's What Elizabeth Warren Will Be Exploring
"So I think for us, it's really exciting to see this big race that everyone's been talking about that there is so much momentum behind, really start. People are starting to throw their hats in the ring. It's really cool," she explained.
Ranalli has spent the last few months traveling to Washington D.C. and pushing to end gun violence through March for Our Lives Boston, a non-profit organization Warren has worked closely with.
"We think she has proven and she has made an effort to reach out to us that she is invested too and she has concrete ways that she wants to go about fixing them," she said.
Sixteen-year-old Felix Brody also met the senator this year. "I think it would be great to see her as president," he said.
While he can't speak for everyone, he can really see a younger generation connecting with Warren.
"I think she's a big supporter of the young people and that's showing up to events we've organized. Showing support for young people on social media and in person she listens to the future generations and she cares about what we care about," Brody said.
"I think also that Warren has been a very accessible candidate. In the sense that she's very active on social media she doesn't really sugarcoat any of her messaging," Ranalli said. "It's easy to see where she's at and where she stands on it she's also just very well known."
After this New Year's Eve announcement, Brody and Ranalli can see the countdown to 2020 a little more clearly now.
"I think 2019 is a year of a lot hope. I don't think that hope is going to come easy, it's still going to be very hard and we will have to work very hard for it but it will be well worth it," she said.
As excited as the two are to see what's next for Warren, they are also eager to see who else could be making a similar announcement next.