I love a rebel. My political heroes tend to be the ones who not only say what they think but shout it from the rooftops. With her fiery speeches and tendency to rile ­Donald Trump on Twitter, Senator Elizabeth Warren fits the bill.

Her outspokenness made headlines on February 7: During a debate over the confirmation of Senator Jeff Sessions as the United States attorney general, Warren read a 1986 letter from Coretta Scott King opposing Sessions’ nomination for a federal judgeship. Republican leaders moved to silence her, and in an extraordinary roll call vote, Warren was prevented from speaking further on the matter. Defending this decision, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Big mistake. Warren read the letter, uninterrupted, on Facebook Live. #NeverthelessShePersisted started trending on Twitter. Images appeared with the phrase emblazoned over photos of Shirley Chisholm, Malala Yousafzai, and Rosa Parks. Women even had the phrase tattooed on their arm. And Warren officially cemented her reputation as the representative not only for Massachusetts but also for the much-needed, as-yet-­unrepresented DGAF party.

It’s not surprising that so many women had such visceral responses. We’ve all endured the humiliation of being talked over in meetings, ignored in the classroom, and silenced at the dinner table. This experience is universal and infuriating, and it cuts across political and socioeconomic lines. “Women have been told since the time they were in elementary school to be quiet,” says Warren. As for how she feels about McConnell’s line becoming a rallying cry? “Those are now our words. They belong to us.”

Warren is a feminist icon, but she’s also a bona fide representative of the working class, a story she shares in her new book, This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America’s Middle Class. “I’m the daughter of a janitor. My mom worked a minimum wage job at Sears,” she says. “I went to a commuter college that cost $50 a semester.” It’s no wonder that many progressives across the country see her as their candidate for 2020, despite the fact that she’ll be 71. It’s safe to say it wouldn’t be an easy campaign—conservatives hate her just as much as liberals love her.

So, of course, when I spoke with her for Glamour, the first thing I asked Warren was whether she’s planning to run for president. Despite her penchant for shooting from the hip, I got the practiced answer I was expecting: “I am going to run for reelection to the Senate in 2018,” she says. “I love this chance to fight. And I am deeply grateful to the people of Massachusetts for giving it to me.” She refused to be drawn into the subject any further, but it’s a question she’ll be hearing a lot over the next three years.

What Warren does want to talk about is economic inequality, which she sees as a moral failure. “How we spend our money reflects our values. Period,” she says. “As a country, as a people, do we care more about protecting tax breaks for billionaires or for giving young people a chance to get an education? That’s an economic question. But it is also, fundamentally, a values question.”

Women’s voices are an important part of the national transformation she envisions: “Telling women to sit down and be quiet is not only morally wrong; it’s also economically wrong,” she says. “We need strong people, both men and women, everywhere: in leadership, in business, in government.” (And her economic vision for the country is staunchly inclusive: “Do you know one of the things that would help stabilize Social Security? Comprehensive immigration reform that brings in real workers from the shadows.”)