Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) will address the future of the Democratic Party and what it means to be a big-tent party at a National Press Club Headliners Newsmaker event on Monday. “For a lot of powerful people, wealthy people from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington, too progressive is code used to undermine any economic agenda that favors working people,” Warren said. “Look, they put it more politely, but these movers and shakers want the Democratic Party to respond to the 2024 losses by watering down our economic agenda and sucking up to the rich and powerful, claiming that a less progressive Democratic Party will win more elections. They are wrong.”

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Thank you, and thank you all for inviting me here today. I’m delighted to be with you. This is a dangerous moment for America and for the world. A global contest is escalating between democratic institutions governed by the rule of law and lawless dictators who seek to enrich themselves and their cronies. Here at home, President Trump’s tariffs are driving up costs for families. Millions of Americans have lost their health insurance so that Republicans could fund tax breaks for rich people. ICE is sowing chaos and terror in our communities, resulting in the tragic killing of Renee Good in Minnesota. And Donald Trump’s view of the First Amendment is that he gets to say whatever he wants, and he gets to use the power of government to silence, extort, bankrupt, or even prosecute anyone who criticizes him. Acting like a wannabe dictator that he is, Trump is trying to push out the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board and complete his corrupt takeover of America’s central bank so that it serves his interests along with his billionaire friends. And he has invaded Venezuela to boost the profits of oil companies and has announced that he will run the country. Now, none of this would be happening if Democrats hadn’t been wiped out in 2024. And according to some self-described experts, Democrats lost power because we were too progressive. For a lot of powerful people, wealthy people from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington, too progressive is code used to undermine any economic agenda that favors working people. Look, they put it more politely, but these movers and shakers want the Democratic Party to respond to the 2024 losses by watering down our economic agenda and sucking up to the rich and powerful, claiming that a less progressive Democratic Party will win more elections. They are wrong. Americans are stretched to the breaking point financially, and they will vote for candidates who name what is wrong and who credibly demonstrate that they will take on a rigged system in order to fix it. Revising our economic agenda to tiptoe around that conclusion might appeal to the wealthy, but it will not help Democrats build a bigger tent, and it definitely will not help Democrats win elections. A Democratic Party that worries more about offending big donors than delivering for working people is a party doomed to fail in 2026, 2028, and beyond. So let’s start with some basic math. By definition, the top 110th of 1% of the economic ladder doesn’t have a lot of votes. So when the question is raised whether Democrats should build our tent by sucking up to the rich, it’s sure not about attracting their votes. It’s about attracting their money. There are, of course, extremely wealthy people who are also deeply publicly minded. For some, it’s about living their values. For others, it’s the recognition that massive economic instability is ultimately bad for business. Either way, these very wealthy people advocate for better healthcare and universal childcare. They embrace sensible regulations to stop corporate scammers. They press the government to raise taxes, including on themselves and their businesses. Over and over, they push for an economy that works for everyone. But there is a different and, frankly, much larger group of extremely wealthy people trying to influence policy. This group might align with Democrats on some social issues. They certainly are not MAGA Republicans. But they’re also not interested in changing an economic game that is already rigged in their favor. And in exchange for their financial support, they insist that the Democratic Party turn its economic agenda in a direction that mostly benefits the wealthy and further undermines the economic stability of tens of millions of families all across this country. These people push Democrats to embrace candidates who will slow walk popular economic policies. They lobby for deregulation and special tax breaks that will pad their own bottom lines. They promote making big-time corporate lawyers federal judges. They pressure presidents to appoint tepid leaders at regulatory agencies, people who, once in office, seem positively allergic to enforcing the law when that might make life uncomfortable for big business interests. In their effort to shape the Democratic agenda, the ultra-wealthy wield outsized power. And we all know why. Rich people can fund super PACs to prop up political campaigns for their chosen candidates. They can fund their own lobbying efforts. They can build or simply buy whole media empires in order to bend the news to their liking. And, as we’re seeing right now with AI and crypto, they can try to crush anyone who gets in the way of their business interests. Over the past generation, the wealthy have avoided accountability time and again. Regular Americans must play by every rule or face real consequences. You don’t need to read every news article about Jeffrey Epstein and his good buddies like Larry Summers and Donald Trump to understand how consistently rich and powerful insiders protect each other, regardless of politics and regardless of how obscene the situation has become. The Epstein scandal is real and enormous, but the slew of white-collar pardons issued in recent months by President Trump reflects the same, the rules-only-apply-to-someone-else mentality that pervades Washington. So, how does this affect winning elections? After the 2024 election, pundits sliced and diced demographic groups across race, age, religion, and geography to show how Democrats need to grow our coalition in order to win again. And yes, we need support from rural voters, men, and voters without a college degree. And yes, in 2025, we won back some of these folks, partly because Democratic candidates from every wing of the party ran against Trump’s betrayal of working people on affordability issues. But in the long run, to build a strong Democratic party with a sturdy big tent, it is not enough simply to attack Trump. Democrats need to earn trust, long-term, durable trust, across the electorate. Trust that we actually understand what’s broken and trust that we have the courage to fix it, even when that means taking on the wealthy and the well-connected. Democrats weren’t always just the default option when the other guys were worse. Once, we were trusted by working people to fight for their interests. And we delivered, even against tough Republican opposition. Social Security, strong unions, the 40-hour work week, overtime, Medicare, Medicaid, home ownership for veterans and first-time homebuyers, the Affordable Care Act, over and over and over. We showed that we could fight and we could deliver.

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