Article snippet: WASHINGTON — Senator Elizabeth Warren was just days away from officially announcing her presidential bid last winter, and a pack of reporters was doggedly chasing her around the bustling US Capitol. They didn’t want to ask about her campaign, which had struggled to build momentum in the early going. Instead, impatient reporters peppered her about an issue that had long cast a shadow over her political career — her past claim to Native American heritage and a DNA test of her genetic lineage she had just apologized for releasing. “I am not a tribal citizen,” she told them solemnly, with none of the upbeat energy she displays on the campaign trail. “I have apologized for not being more sensitive to that distinction.” To Warren’s allies and fans, the moment felt like a nightmare. To some political analysts and critics, it felt like something more — the beginning of the end. Now? It seems a distant memory. Warren has been surging for months in early state polls, regularly attracts crowds in the thousands, and, with her steady stream of policy proposals, has dominated the substance of the campaign debate. It can be hard to recall that, for four long months after she jumped into the Democratic primary, she struggled to break out, overshadowed by less experienced rivals and written off for her early mistakes. Still, she stayed the course, and her success so far has proved no accident. It turns out she had a plan for that, too. And stuck to it. While the press and her cr... Link to the full article to read more