Updated 12:34 p.m.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren's goal for Super Tuesday is "to compete everywhere" and continue bringing voters a message of "big solutions," she said after voting for herself for president.
The latest polls have shown Warren lagging behind Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden in several states that vote Tuesday, and some have given Sanders the edge in Massachusetts.
"We're in all of the states today, and I feel like this has been our chance to get our message out and get into the fight," Warren told reporters outside the Cambridge elementary school where she cast her ballot.
They're chanting W-a-r-r-e-n. And "it's time there's a woman in the White House". And one woman told me "I'm not talking about Ivanka." #supertuesday2020 #SuperTuesday @SenWarren @wgbhnews pic.twitter.com/z11uV2770j
— Phillip W.d. Martin (@phillipWGBH) March 3, 2020
Warren brushed off a reporter's suggestion that Tuesday, when 14 states hold their primaries, is a "do or die" day for her candidacy, responding that she's focused on building a "grassroots movement" and talking to voters. She said she isn't worried about the prospect of losing her home state to Sanders.
"I am not worried," she said. "I am happy to be a part of this democratic process."
When polls close in Massachusetts, Warren is scheduled to be in Michigan, which holds its primary next week. She plans a 7:15 p.m. event at Detroit's Eastern Market. That move, Warren said, is "because it was just next on the schedule to get out there and talk to people."
"I don't think you should read anything special into it, but I'm delighted to be there," she said.
Elizabeth Warren making her way slowly to her polling station. #supertuesday2020 pic.twitter.com/3sXGt5zWHL
— Phillip W.d. Martin (@phillipWGBH) March 3, 2020
In between the Michigan trip and a speech in California last night, Warren's sole election day public appearance in Massachusetts was her Tuesday morning trip to the polls.
Warren supporters and volunteers lined the few blocks between her Linnaean Street home and her polling place, cheering and wishing her well as the candidate, her husband Bruce Mann, and their dog Bailey walked by. They chanted, "It's time for a woman in the White House," "I believe that she can win," and "I am a Warren Democrat."
"Policy rocks!" Warren told one group, who moments earlier had been chanting about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She stopped to greet young girls and hug longtime neighbors, and several people brought dogs who wagged their tails as Bailey approached.
After voting, Warren briefly addressed the crowd from the back of a pickup truck, telling them that this election "is a moment we've been called to in history, and it is a moment not just to get rid of Donald Trump."
"It is a moment to build the America of our best values," she said.
Reader, her enthusiasm was rewarded #mapoli #SuperTuesday @ewarren @wgbhnews pic.twitter.com/JndzHJKHxq
— Adam Reilly (@reillyadam) March 3, 2020
State Rep. Marjorie Decker and her predecessor in the House, former Rep. Alice Wolf, were among those gathered outside the school.
"It's just so exciting to not only see the possibility of a woman president, which is long overdue, but the president of the United States who actually has a record, for decades, of working to uplift people and to really ensure that the system that has often left many behind is actually recognized and addressed and changed," Decker, a Cambridge Democrat who counts Warren as a constituent, told the News Service.
Warren's name is on the Massachusetts ballot along with 14 other Democrats. Many of those one-time contenders, including former Gov. Deval Patrick, have already suspended their campaigns. Former candidates Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar each endorsed Biden on Monday.
Wolf described the Democratic field as "very dynamic" and said the winnowing "allows people to begin to focus."
"It's hard when there are eight or 10 or 12 people to really focus, so people are going to focus, and I think Elizabeth will get the focus of many people around the country," Wolf said.
Warren said she wasn't surprised by Buttigieg and Klobuchar backing Biden, who represents a more moderate wing of the party than the progressive space where she is vying for support against Sanders.
"Look, I think that's where their politics were all along. I don't think there's anything surprising here," she said. "I do believe the Democratic Party is a progressive party, I believe that Democratic ideas are popular not just within our party but across our country, and I think that people across this country see big problems, and they don't want somebody to nibble around the edges. They want to see big solutions, so I feel confident about getting out and talking to people about what's broken, and the best part is, how we're going to fix it."
Warren was a Harvard law professor when she became the first woman elected to the Senate from Massachusetts in 2012 after unseating Republican Sen. Scott Brown.
She struck a reflective note on Tuesday after making the same walk between her home and polling place that she had made years ago, before her political career began.
"I was a teacher, I was not any part of this electoral process other than as a voter, and I had been spending my whole life studying what had happened to working families in this country," Warren said.
She continued, "I talked about a lot of solutions and tens of people heard about it. I'm now a candidate for president, and I get to talk about what's broken and I get to talk about real solutions and now people across this country are talking about canceling student loan debt, they're talking about universal child care that we can actually pay for. We're starting to put universal health care within reach and expand Social Security. For me, this is just an amazing opportunity to be able to talk to people around this country about what we can do to build a better America."