Amid Native American Identity Claim Controversy, Can Warren Sustain Presidential Run?

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is scheduled to become an official candidate for president three days from now. But as her campaign moves forward, it's having trouble moving beyond a long-standing controversy: whether she has Native American heritage, and whether that heritage is significant.

In October, Warren released a video along with a DNA test that shows she has some distant Native American ancestry.

Warren claims she never benefited from minority status, but the senator is apologizing again, after documents discovered by the Washington Post revealed she listed "American Indian" as her race when she joined the Texas Bar in 1986.

Tufts University political science professor Jeff Berry joined WBUR's Morning Edition host Bob Oakes to assess the importance of the issue.