Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren is a Senator and Democratic presidential candidate.

Elizabeth Warren was a Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and part of the Risk Policy Working Group at the The Tobin Project.

Support for Lori Chavez-DeRemer

According to an article at the Huffington Post titled: "Elizabeth Warren Signals Possible Support For Trump Labor Nominee", Elizabeth Warren offered conditional praise for Lori Chavez-DeRemer as a "strong candidate" for Labor Secretary:

"Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) told HuffPost it’s a “big deal” that Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department, outgoing GOP Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (Oregon), endorsed the pro-union legislation known as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act. Only two other House Republicans signed on to the bill in this Congress.

Warren takes that as a hopeful sign for the nominee’s approach to workplace issues.

'If Chavez-DeRemer commits as labor secretary to strengthen labor unions and promote worker power, she’s a strong candidate for the job,' she said in a statement."

Presidential campaign

Elizabeth Warren 2020 presidential campaign

Endorsing Warren

Hundreds of former officials from the Obama campaign and administration are endorsing Sen. Elizabeth Warren's White House bid.

The endorsements came after a campaign by Sara El-Amine and Jon Carson, who respectively served as national director of former President Obama's 2012 reelection campaign and national field director for his 2008 campaign prior to joining the administration.

Both later worked on Organizing for America, the Obama grassroots organizing network.

The endorsements of more than 200 Obama alumni, which was first reported by CNN and confirmed to The Hill, could serve as a boon to Warren less than two months before the first primaries and caucuses take place in February.

"We are a group that really uniquely knows that electability is self-determining and that oftentimes it's the people with the boldest vision and the most unlikely candidacies early on who can really shift the field," El-Amine told CNN. "Sen. Warren really has the zest and the grit and the gumption and the audacity that we loved that President Obama really embodied."

Among Warren's newest endorsers are Robert Ford, ex-US ambassador to Syria, and Sean Carroll, a former senior official at USAID, as well as Obama alumni who are working for Warren full time, including chief strategist Joe Rospars, senior adviser Emily Parcell, national political director Rebecca Pearcey and national director of public engagement Alencia Johnson.

The slate of endorsements could be viewed as a slight against former Vice President Joe Biden, who served alongside Obama for all eight years of his presidency.

"We all got to know each other working on a campaign, but we're doing different things now and I think we all really believe in the need for big structural change that she is promising," Carson told CNN, noting that Warren is also an Obama alumna from her work creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "I think that's why we're with Sen. Warren."

Warren lauded the Obama administration and campaign alumni as having "changed what we know is possible in American politics."

"I am honored to stand beside them, and with their support, we will win in 2020 and make government work for all people, not just those at the top," Warren said in a statement.

Bio

She has written eight books and more than a hundred scholarly articles dealing with credit and economic stress. Her latest two books, "The Two-Income Trap" and "All Your Worth," were both on national bestseller lists. She has been principal investigator on empirical studies funded by the National Science Foundation and more than a dozen private foundations. Warren was the Chief Adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission, and she was appointed as the first academic member of the Federal Judicial Education Committee. She has recently served as part of the five-member Congressional Oversight Panel created to oversee the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act.

Warren was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 6, 2012.

Personal life

Warren is married to Bruce Mann, a legal historian and law professor also at Harvard Law School. She has a daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, with whom she has coauthored two books and several articles, and a son, Alexander Warren.

Influence

The National Law Journal named Warren one of the Most Influential Lawyers of the Decade, and she has been honored by the Massachusetts Women’s Bar Association with the Lelia J. Robinson Award.

In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Elizabeth warren served as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Her "independent and tireless efforts to protect taxpayers, to hold Wall Street accountable, and to ensure tough oversight of both the Bush and Obama Administrations won praise from both sides of the aisle". The Boston Globe named Elizabeth Warren Bostonian of the Year in 2009 for her oversight efforts.

JStreet PAC endorsement

In 2024 JStreet PAC endorsed Elizabeth Warren.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee

Progressive Change Campaign Committee endorsed Elizabeth Warren in 2022.

Native Organizers Alliance

During Deb Haaland’s confirmation hearing Native Organizers Alliance hosted a watch party and celebration with hundreds of Native leaders from all over the United States, and VIP guests Mark Ruffalo, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Rep. Sharice Davids and even – Secretary Deb Haaland herself, along with her sisters and partner Skip.

Forum on Antiracism as Health Policy

US Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and US Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) will join Boston University’s School of Public Health and Center for Antiracist Research during a three-day program beginning, Monday, April 5 2021, that will explore the role of race in shaping health in the United States.

Titled Antiracism as Health Policy: Race, COVID-19, and Policy Reform, the Public Health Conversation will feature a series of virtual panel presentations and conversations featuring Sandro Galea, SPH dean and Robert A. Knox Professor, Ibram X. Kendi, Center for Antiracist Research director and founder and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, and other health experts and race scholars in academia and government. Monday’s session will begin with a conversation between Galea and Kendi, followed by a panel discussion that will explore the importance of collecting and utilizing data on race to better understand the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic.

Tuesday’s program, also cohosted by the Rockefeller Foundation–Boston University Commission on Health Determinants, Data, and Decision-Making, will feature a keynote address by Pressley and a panel discussion that will explore how to incorporate evidence-based research into policymaking. The program will conclude on April 7 with a conversation between Warren and Kendi, followed by a panel discussion that will identify antiracist policy solutions informed by data.

“We have long known that racial disparities exist in health outcomes for Black and brown communities, but the federal government has yet to tackle the main driver of these disparities,” says Warren. She, Pressley, and US Representative Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) recently reintroduced legislation that would identify racism as a public health crisis and support the development of antiracist federal health policies.

“By naming structural racism as the root cause, we can start treating health disparities like we would any other public health crisis: by investing in research into their causes and treating the resulting ‘symptoms’ of centuries of structural racism,” Warren says.

“More comprehensively and more frequently than any other government agency, the COVID Racial Data Tracker tracked, analyzed, and illuminated state- and national-level trends in COVID racial inequities through clear and compelling data visualization in real time,” says Monica Wang, an SPH associate professor of community health sciences and Center for Antiracist Research associate director of narrative. “Data from this tracker importantly highlighted the urgency to prioritize resources, testing, and intervention and vaccination efforts for many different communities of color.”

Wang, one of the coordinators of this week’s event, says she hopes the program’s viewers and participants will gain “an understanding of the devastating extent of the racial disparities, an awareness of how and why they emerged, and a commitment to exploring new paths forward to build an equitable society.” Today’s panel discussion will be moderated by Kimberly Atkins (COM’98, LAW’98), Boston Globe senior opinion writer and member of the paper’s editorial board, and will feature Stephanie Ettinger de Cuba, executive director of Children’s HealthWatch; Megan Sandel (SPH’02,’03), a School of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics; Kaye-Alese Green, a MED diversity and inclusion fellow and a visiting fellow at BU’s Institute for Health System Innovation & Policy; Stephen A. Wilson, MED’s chair of family medicine; Jayakanth Srinivasan, a Questrom School of Business research associate professor; Julia Raifman, an SPH assistant professor of health law, policy, and management; and Aviva Geiger Schwarz, data editor of the COVID Racial Data Tracker at the Center for Antiracist Research.

THRIVE Resolution

September 10, 2020 Contact: Kenny Palmer | press@indivisible.org

Washington, DC — Indivisible, along with a coalition of grassroots groups, labor unions, Black, Brown and Indigenous leaders from across the nation, and members of Congress, is excited to announce the introduction of a bold plan for economic renewal known as the THRIVE Agenda. THRIVE -- Transform, Heal, and Renew by Investing in Vibrant Economy -- will be introduced tomorrow in Congress by Senators Chuck Schumer, Ed Markey, Cory Booker, and Elizabeth Warren and Representatives Deb Haaland, Debbie Dingell, Donald McEachin, Sheila Jackson Lee, Raul Grijalva, Rosa DeLauro, Brendan Boyle, Barbara Lee, Ilhan Omar, and Ro Khanna.

"The THRIVE Agenda is the bold new vision we need to create millions of good jobs, repair and revive our economy, and address the overlapping crises of mass unemployment, racial injustice, public health, and climate change,” said Mary Small, Legislative Director for Indivisible. “It is critical that any recovery package offered by Congress rise to meet the level of crisis, rather than inexcusably shrink to the scope of political convenience."

Indivisible will be mobilizing its national network of thousands of groups and millions of individual activists to call their lawmakers to demand their support for the THRIVE Resolution.

Built on eight pillars -- from creating millions of union jobs while averting climate catastrophe to investing in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities -- THRIVE’s top priorities are the families and communities who share the dream of a good life: free from worry about meeting basic needs, with reliable and fulfilling work, and a dignified and healthy standard of living.

85 members of Congress have already endorsed the THRIVE Resolution as original cosponsors, and a new poll finds strong majority support for THRIVE nationwide.

Anti-Retail legislation

Elizabeth Warren and Rosa DeLauro agitates with United for Respect

on November 30, 2019, democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren tweeted that she and Rosa DeLauro were pushing anti-retail legislation, in response to United for Respect's Jamie Pasqualetto's complaints about scheduling.

"Retail, fast food, & other hourly workers deserve some basic fairness when it comes to scheduling shifts. That’s why my #SchedulesThatWork Act with @rosadelauro would end some of the very worst abuses that hurt workers & families. #FairWorkWeek"

"Progressive" Cabinet "nominee"

In September 2008, Chicago based socialist journal In These Times asked its editors and writers to suggest their top progressive choices for a potential Obama Cabinet.

We asked that contributors weigh ideological and political considerations, with an eye toward recommending people who have both progressive credentials and at least an arguable chance at being appointed in an Obama White House.

This group of people would represent at once the most progressive, aggressive and practical Cabinet in contemporary history. Of course, it is by no means a definitive list. It is merely one proposal aimed at starting a longer discussion about the very concept of a progressive Cabinet—and why it will be important to a new administration, especially if that administration is serious about change.

David Sirota suggested Elizabeth Warren for Secretary of the Treasury:

If treasury secretaries have legacies, the two with the most memorable in the last 16 years are Clinton Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin and recent Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. At different points in their careers, both men championed extremist free-trade policies, had a hand in the deregulatory policies that led to corporate meltdowns; contributed to boom-bust cycles; and spent time heading investment banking behemoth Goldman Sachs. Perhaps the latest financial meltdown will break Goldman Sachs’ death grip — and maybe, just maybe, Elizabeth Warren will be the first woman to head this key department.

A renowned Harvard Law professor, Warren may seem an unconventional choice for a position typically held by a business titan. But a presidency whose economic prospects will pivot on cleaning up conservatives’ laissez-faire wreckage could use a tough-minded regulator at the helm of the government apparatus responsible for collecting taxes and policing Wall Street. Warren fits that description perfectly as one of the nation’s leading experts on the laws and regulations that the treasury department is supposed to enforce, but too often doesn’t.

Having made national headlines as a bestselling author and a leader in the fight against the lobbyist-written Bankruptcy Bill of 2005, Warren would set a new tone for a treasury department that has often been a bought-and-paid-for appendage of Corporate America.

Capitalism: A Love Story

In 2009, Elizabeth Warren appeared in Michael Moore's film Capitalism: A Love Story.

Democratic Socialists of America

Bob Van Meter connection

Senator Elizabeth Warren with Bob Van Meter.

"End the Forever War"

END THE FOREVER WAR PLEDGE

The United States has been in a state of continuous, global, open-ended military conflict since 2001. Over 2.5 million troops have fought in this “Forever War” in over a dozen countries – including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, Niger, Somalia, and Thailand. I pledge to the people of the United States of America, and to our military community in particular, that I will (1) fight to reclaim Congress’s constitutional authority to conduct oversight of U.S. foreign policy and independently debate whether to authorize each new use of military force, and (2) act to bring the Forever War to a responsible and expedient conclusion.

2020 signatories of the Common Defense pledge.

Presidential Candidates

Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, John Hickenlooper, Beto O'Rourke, Mike Gravel, Andrew Yang.

Emergency organizing call

Ady Barkan🔥🌹 @AdyBarkan

Congress is about to spend a trillion dollars! Will it be used to enrich the 1%, or help the American people?

Please join

• @ewarren

,

• @PramilaJayapal

,

• @NNUBonnie

,

• @NelStamp

,

• @WorkingFamilies

,

• @BeAHeroTeam and me tonight for an emergency organizing call.

Elizabeth Warren, Pramila Jayapal, Bonnie Castillo, Nelini Stamp.

Medical bankruptcy paper

In 2005, Senator Elizabeth Warren – then a professor – published an academic paper along with David Himmelstein, Deborah Thorne and Steffie Woolhandler, in the journal Health Affairs that made a very bold claim: Over 40 percent of all U.S. bankruptcies came as the result of medical problems suffered by the bankrupt.

Four years later, in 2009, they published an update to that figure – and it looked much, much worse. Medical bills were actually responsible for more than 62 percent of all American bankruptcy filings.

Needless to say, it was a very eye-catching statistic. Arguably, that was the point: Dr. Woolhandler and Dr. Himmelstein are physicians, public health researchers at Hunter College and advocates of a single-payer healthcare system. Ms. Thorne is a sociologist who studies bankruptcy. At the time, Warren was a Harvard law professor with a longtime issue in social justice and a professed desire to throw data at questions in the social sciences instead of speculation.

Socialist urged Warren to run

Elizabeth Warren, Jake Schlitt

In The Yankee Radical, June 2014 page 3, Boston Democratic Socialists of America member Jake Schlitt claims he urged Elizabeth Warren to run for US Senate, at an Occupy Boston gathering.

Ed Collins connection

"Progressive voices in the United States Senate"

From Democratic Left, Fall 2012 page 14.

The Left must now build upon the accomplishments of Occupy. Democratic socialists must work to build a multi-racial coalition of working people, the unemployed, indebted students and the foreclosed that is capable of forcing politicians to govern democratically.

The first task of a movement to defend democracy is to work for maximum voter turnout in the 2012 election.

Building such a mass social movement for democracy is DSA’s major task; the 2012 elections are only a tactical step on that strategic path. Thus, while working to defeat the far Right, DSA and other progressive forces should work to increase the size of the Congressional Progressive, Black and Latino caucuses and to elect pro-labor candidates to state legislatures.

The election this year of Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), along with the re-election of Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), would increase the number of progressive voices in the United States Senate.

DSA approval

According to long time Democratic Socialists of America member Jack Clark, the 2018 midterm campaigns are going to present DSA-ers with a “yes or no option” in many cases. Democrats that are up for reelection are not going to come out overnight and say they are socialists. However, if their ideals and approaches approximate the vision of DSA, Clark said it’d be silly not to at least give them a shot. Senators like Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) represent a “pretty good group of Democrats” in Clark’s eyes.

Hosted by Silvers and McBride

Jamie Raskin, Elizabeth Warren

State Senator Jamie Raskin announced a visit by Elizabeth Warren to Maryland, April 21, 2012,, to be held at the home of his friend Damon Silvers, and Elissa McBride.

District 20 is the progressive Democratic heartland of Maryland so it makes sense that the sensational progressive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, is coming to visit us here tomorrow! Please join me and true-blue Democrats from all over our community and state in giving Elizabeth Warren a rousing Maryland welcome tomorrow, Saturday, April 21, between 2:00 and 3:30 pm at the home of my friend Damon Silvers, a key force in the labor and consumer movement, in Takoma Park. We have the opportunity to give a big financial boost to Elizabeth's campaign, which is essential to holding the U.S. Senate and taking back Congress in November. Join us!

As you know, Elizabeth Warren is America's passionate champion of the struggling middle class and has proven herself time and again willing to fight against corporate fraud and the capture of government by predatory special interests. The populist thinker who came up with the idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, she has done more to advance the cause of consumers and workers over the last decade than anyone else in America. Imagine what she can do in the U.S. Senate seat held by Teddy Kennedy when she beats Scott Brown!

Goodwin connection

Elizabeth Warren has a connection to Vaughn Allen Goodwin.

AFL-CIO "Teach-In"

Massachusetts Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren was scheduled to appear in an AFL-CIO sponsored “National Teach-In”, October 12, 2011. with two leading members of Democratic Socialists of America.

The AFL-CIO urged activists to join “Elizabeth Warren, Frances Fox Piven, Barbara Ehrenreich (invited) and student activists for a national teach-in on the jobs crisis and student activists’ fight for worker’s rights, equal access to education, fair taxation, and economic and social justice.”

According to the AFL-CIO press release;

America wants to work, and a new movement of students and young people is growing to demand that our leaders get to work creating good jobs. As part of that movement, we are organizing a National Teach-In at the University of California Washington Center on Oct. 12 that will be webcast live across the country. Frances Fox Piven, other featured speakers and student activists will discuss the roots of the jobs crisis and how unions, students and community groups are fighting back to defend the core values of our country. You can join by organizing a teach-in on your campus that tunes into the live webcast and then continues to discuss local and state issues and campaigns. The National Teach-In is part of a nationwide campaign that week to impress upon our political leaders and corporate power-brokers: Now is the time for big, bold action to put America back to work, retain good jobs and rebuild the U.S. economy.

The teach-in will examine the disaster caused by corporate control of our economic and political system. Americans are working harder than ever today while earning less – as corporate profits soar. The big banks are stripping away the wealth of consumers, homeowners, students and young workers. Meanwhile, our infrastructure erodes and corporations offshore millions of jobs overseas – while hoarding more than $1.3 trillion in cash that could be used to create jobs. Schools, day care centers, senior citizen facilities, health clinics, parks and firehouses are starved for funds so corporations and the wealthy can get billions of dollars in tax break…

Unions, student organizations and community groups are fighting back against these abuses of corporate power and the efforts of the right wing to reduce wages, maintain tax breaks for the wealthy and eliminate social safety net programs. In Wisconsin, students and workers joined together to protect the rights of public-sector workers to bargain collectively. In August 2011, more than 700 corporate accountability events – rallies, town hall meetings and demonstrations at congressional offices – were held in 48 states to tell political leaders to stop protecting tax breaks for the wealthy and focus on putting America back to work….

We are on the cusp of a new social movement to resist and roll back the corporate domination of political and economic systems by the banks, big corporations and Wall Street profiteers. Please join the National Teach-In: Students Rising for Jobs and Economic Justice to be part of this movement.

Brian Corr connection

Brian Corr June 4, 2016:

Sen. Elizabeth Warren was amazing today! — with Mary Elizabeth Cranton, Tracey Pratt, David Lakeman, Elizabeth Warren, Pamela Thilo, Nicolas Thilo-McGovern and Kathleen Kelly at At The Massachusetts Democratic Convention.

Brian Corr June 4, 2016:

With Elizabeth Warren and Kathleen Kelly at At The Massachusetts Democratic Convention.

Shayna Stevens connection

Shayna Stevens, July 24, 2017.

I JUST MET ELIZABETH WARREN!!!! — at Busboys & Poets Mount Vernon.

Lenchner connection

Kavanaugh protest

Linda Sarsour, Senator Elizabeth Warren Winnie Wong.

SR 59 endorser

By February 20 2019 endorsers of Ed Markey's SR 59 (Green New Deal) included Elizabeth Warren.

Caban supporters and endorsers

The La Boom Nightclub in Woodside, Queens, was packed wall to wall with hundreds of supporters. People were chanting “Sí se Puede” and “Black and brown lives matter.” That was the scene at approximately 11:15 pm June 25 2019 when Tiffany Caban declared herself the winner in the Democratic primary for district attorney.

Tiffany Caban was a virtually unknown public defender until February 2019. Cabán built a grassroots campaign that brought in community organizations, such as Make The Road, and political groups, including the Working Families Party, Citizen Action, and the Democratic Socialists of America.

Cabán was endorsed by Larry Krasner, the District Attorney from Philadelphia who led the way in the movement for transformative justice. Her national endorsers included Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Local endorsers included: NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer; NYS Senators Jessica Ramos, James Sanders, Julia Salazar, and Michael Gianaris; NYS Assemblymember Ron Kim; and NYC council members Jimmy Van Bramer and Antonio Reynoso.

Actress Susan Sarandon tweeted this morning; “@CabánForQueens victory over the ‘machine’ in Queens makes me proud to be from Jackson Heights and shows once again that a people’s movement can bring real change, real justice.”

IfNotNow connection

2020 Democratic hopeful and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined calls to end the “occupation” of the State of Israel Monday at anti-Israel organization IfNotNow‘s event in New Hampshire. When asked by members of the organization to pledge her support “to pressuring Israel to stop their 52 year military Occupation over the Palestinian people,” Warren emphatically replied “Yes.”

IfNotNow🔥 @IfNotNowOrg

BREAKING: Our members in New Hampshire just asked @ewarren if she would commit to pressuring the Israel to stop their 52 year military Occupation over the Palestinian people.

She said YES.

4:57 PM - Jul 8, 2019 3,179 people are talking about this Twitter Ads info and privacy Warren notably supported the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or the Iran Nuclear Deal. In more recent news, a Warren staffer shared, in a since deleted tweet, that he “would totally be friends with Hamas.”

Supporting bus strike

When bus drivers on Martha's Vineyard struck at the height of the tourist season in 2019, solidarity from longtime residents, including some DSA activists, helped them win. Key issues for the drivers were wages, which after 14 years of service are capped at $23.50 per hour, and health care, which covers only individual workers, not their families.

Founding DSA member and union-side labor attorney Jules Bernstein, along with DSA member Virginia Diamond and other progressive residents, helped lead the solidarity effort among residents. An op-ed by Bernstein in the July 10 Martha’s Vineyard Times, under the headline “Union-busting lands on Martha’s Vineyard shores” laid out a strong case for supporting the striking drivers. Management, he pointed out, seemed determined to break the strike and the union to reassert total control over working conditions. Massachusetts senators Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren, along with Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, supported the union.

Heather Booth connection

Working with Booth in 2009

According to Dave Johnson, a fellow with Campaign for America's Future, writing in October 2009;

I was on a blogger call today with Elizabeth Warren to discuss this bill. This call was hosted by Heather Booth, Americans for Financial Reform, a coalition of 200 organizations fighting for this other reforms of our banking and financial system. Warren is Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel – COP – but was not on the call in that capacity. She was on the call to explain why we need the CFPA. Warren originally proposed the idea of a CFPA,

Early AFR endorsement

In July 2010, , a coalition of groups fighting to reform the nation's financial system formally endorsed Harvard Law professor and bailout watchdog Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Americans for Financial Reform, an alliance of more than 250 organizations that has spent the past year advocating for financial reform legislation, said that Warren is the "most experienced, effective and independent person" to serve as the critical first chief of the new agency.

AFR includes top labor groups and progressive advocacy organizations with deep ties to the Obama administration, including AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union.

"[Elizabeth] Warren has shown a steadfast and tireless commitment to protecting consumers throughout her distinguished career and is without question the best candidate to run the new CFPB," Heather Booth, AFR's director, said in a statement.

"We join many others in encouraging the White House to quickly move to nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau," Booth added.

Warren/Booth webinar

April 6th 2010, Americans for Financial Reform, and Americans for Fairness in Lending hosted a special webinar discussion with Professor Elizabeth Warren and AFR Director Heather Booth for the general public. It focused on "where things stand in the movement for financial reform, and how everyday citizens can get involved in the fight to rein in the big banks and get the economy back on track".

• Find out about reform efforts in Congress-including the Senate bill currently being debated, and the House bill which passed in December.
• Learn why we need a Consumer Financial Protection Agency to protect us from abusive financial products.
• Ask Professor Warren and Heather Booth your question about financial reform.
• Hear about ways to join the fight around the country and online.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau possibility

In 2010, Americans for Financial Reform circulated an online petition asking President Barack Obama to appoint Elizabeth Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau , and a rap song urging same—―Got A New Sheriff‖ by the Main Street Brigade, also appeared.

"Elizabeth Warren is one of the great experts in the country on the economics of middle class families and supporting them and protecting them" said Heather Booth, head of Americans for Financial Reform. "There's no one who has a background with the depth on the issues and the willingness to stand up to those biggest banks."

Young Professionals Event

On March 21, 2012, Young Professionals Event fundraiser was held at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Boston, for Elizabeth Warren

Hosted by: Alisha Bhagat, Heather Booth, Paul Booth, Robert Borosage, Chris Bowers, Denise Bowyer, Laura Clawson, Carla Ohringer Engle, Robert Friedman, Rich Goldberg, Adam Green, Sarah Harrison, Sabrina Hersi Issa, Mike Lux, Kate Ottenberg, Jonathan Parnes, Ami Patel, Cecilia Poon, Joel Silberman, Stephanie Taylor, James Williams, Jenny Wu, Zaid A. Zaid

Contribution: $1,000 chair; $250 Sponsor (VIP reception included); $50 guest.

Midwest Academy awards

Elizabeth Warren, Midwest Academy awards dinner

Bob Creamer, Heather Booth, Roberta Lynch, Elizabeth Warren

When Democratic Socialists of America controlled Midwest Academy held its annual award ceremony December 12, 2012, at the Eatonville Restaurant, Washington DC, Elizabeth Warren was guest speaker.

Pictured below, Elizabeth Warren mingles with Heather Booth, and Democratic Party strategist and long time DSA associate Bob Creamer, and in the background, well known Chicago Democratic Socialists of America member Roberta Lynch.

Long time Democratic Socialists of America member Julian Bond was given a “Lifetime Achievement Award”, while another one time DSAer Mike Lux, was given a Progressive Leadership Award, as was Damon Silvers.

Soros Chips in

On October 19,2011, a Reception/fundraiser was held at the home of Karen Mehiel , for Elizabeth Warren,

Hosted by: Emily's List, Anne Hess & Craig Kaplan, Jane Hartley, Sarah Kovner, Fern Hurst, Victor Kovner, Sally Minard, Michael Connolly, Charles Myers, Elisabeth Benjamin, Jonas L. Blank, Madeline Blinder, Leonore Blitz, Gale Brewer, Debra Cooper, Patricia Duff, Floss Frucher, Gail Furman, David B. Harris , Geraldine Laybourne, Jean Avnet Morse & Stephen J. Morse, Elizabeth Nash & Thomas Nash, George Soros, Domna Stanton, Michael Vachon, Karen Mehiel. Contribution: $5,000 Host; $2,500 Sponsor; $1000 Individual.

Demos connection

Daughter chairs Demos

Elizabeth Warren's daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi, is chair of the Demos Board of Trustees.

Drum Major Institute/Demos event

In December 2003, Drum Major Institute for Public Policy welcomes Dr. Elizabeth Warren, author of Two Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Mothers and Fathers are Going Broke

The event was sponsored by Co-sponsored by Drum Major Institute for Public Policy and Demos.

Demos 10th anniversary honor

On Tuesday, May 11th, 2010, Demos, a national, non-partisan public policy organization, honored TARP Oversight Committee Chair Elizabeth Warren, PBS Host Tavis Smiley and AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Elizabeth Shuler at its 10th anniversary celebration in New York City.

Stephen Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, was also an honoree.

Demos support

Miles Rapoport, President of the "nonpartisan research and advocacy organization Demos", issued the following statement July 20, 2010 on the upcoming nomination of the inaugural director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB):

“Our country is at a critical turning point. By enacting the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Congress has declared the end of the era of deregulation and delinquent government oversight that enabled the financial sector to reap oversized profit at the expense of American households and investors, ultimately caving our weakened economy in on itself. The centerpiece of this landmark legislation is the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a first-of-its-kind federal agency whose sole mission is to shield the credit and savings of everyday Americans from unfair and deceptive lending practices. However, the fledgling Bureau will only be as strong as its director is effective. We can think of no more qualified public leader than Elizabeth Warren.

“Professor Warren understands that, on issues of consumer financial protection, nothing less than the future of the American middle class is at stake. Her book 'The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke' revealed how the weight of ever-more-costly debt is preventing millions of hard-working families from achieving the American Dream. As Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring the Treasury's conduct of the bank bailout, Warren has demonstrated a keen ability to cut through the political bramble to uncover whether the TARP program is operating in the best interests of the American taxpayer. In making the case for the establishment of the CFPB--a notion originated by Professor Warren herself--she has become known as a passionate advocate for regular Americans.

"Moreover, Professor Warren is not opposed to business; she is opposed to the unsustainable business models that have endangered our nation. The Great Recession should be ample evidence that reckless, anti-consumer lending is bad for business. American businesses will benefit from a Warren appointment, knowing that there will be a regulatory force in Washington putting the engine of our economy--the American consumer--first. Employers will thrive--and hire--when families can buy new products instead of losing a third of their paychecks servicing unproductive, high-interest debt. Professor Warren understands how the markets have failed on both Wall Street and Main Street; this makes her uniquely prepared to teach American business a fundamental lesson: sound regulation helps markets function better.

“The President should nominate, and the Senate should confirm, Elizabeth Warren as Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The appointment of, and a vote for, Professor Warren will be a vote for America’s middle class.”

"Demos has long been a vocal supporter of Elizabeth Warren"

Demos president Miles Rapoport issued a press release in July 2011 praising her “leadership” in designing the CFPB.

Demos has long been a vocal supporter of Elizabeth Warren and commends her for working tirelessly to set up the CFPB all while defending it from unrelenting and unfounded attacks...

2018 Demos Gala Host Committee

Honorary chairs of the 2018 Demos Gala Host Committee included Naomi Aberly, Sharon Alpert, Bob Bland, Charles Blow, Alan S. Davis, Alicia Garza, Mary Kay Henry, Anne Hess, Craig Kaplan, Gara LaMarche, Nancy Meyer and Marc Weiss, Craig Newmark, Hillary Pennington, Robert Reich, Frances Rodgers and Charles Rodgers, Anthony D. Romero, Linda Sarsour, Martin Schneider, Ted Snowdon and Duffy Violante, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Darren Walker, John Walsh, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Lola West, Marianne Williamson.

Senate run

On September 14, 2011 Warren declared that she intended to run for the Democratic Party's nomination to oppose Scott Brown for the United States Senate in Massachusetts. She defeated Brown in the November 6, 2012 election.

Coalition for Social Justice 17th Banquet and Awards Ceremony

The Coalition for Social Justice 17th Annual banquet, was held Thursday, May 17, 2012, at the Venus de Milo, 75 Grand Army Highway (Rte. 6), Swansea, MA 02777.

Keynote speaker was Elizabeth Warren, Candidate for U.S. Senate

Council for a Livable World endorsement

Council for a Livable World announced its endorsement Elizabeth Warren for Senate from Massachusetts, October 20, 2011.

Council president Gary Collins called Warren: “intelligent, articulate and unwavering in her commitment to strong principles.”

Collins added “In a few short weeks Warren has proved to be a nimble candidate who is attracting support in Massachusetts and around the country.”

Ira Lechner, Council’s chairman, pointed out that Warren faces candidates who have a strong background on national security issues, Alan Khazei, City Year founder and 2010 Senate candidate endorsed then by Council for a Livable World, and State Representative Thomas Conroy.

Lechner said that Massachusetts is once again presenting a list of excellent candidates. He noted while both Khazei and Conroy are quality candidates, they trail far behind Warren in primary election polls and Brown in the general election polls.

He added “we are excited to get involved early in a campaign that has impressed voters in Massachusetts and supporters around the country.”

According to the Council for a Livable World;

Elizabeth Warren supports the Kissinger-Shultz-Nunn-Perry vision of moving toward a world free of nuclear weapons. She strongly backs President Obama’s goal of securing and retrieving vulnerable nuclear-weapons usable materials worldwide within four years. She opposed the Iraq War and would accelerate the withdrawal of American troops out of Afghanistan. If elected to the Senate, Warren would vote to approve the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

The organization says that it raised more than $200,000 to support Elizabeth Warren's successful campaign against ex-Republican Senator Scott Brown.

Council for a Livable World, 50th Anniversary

On June 6, 2012, Council for a Livable World, along with its sister organizations Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Council for a Livable World’s PeacePAC, celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their founding by Leo Szilard in 1962.

An evening celebration was held at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. Congressman Barney Frank acted as the Master of Ceremonies and, in the process, received a lifetime achievement award from former Rep. Tom Downey, a member of the Council’s Board of Directors. The Robert F. Drinan Peace and Human Award was presented to former Representative and PeacePAC Chairman David Bonior and the late Edith Wilkie, a longtime advocate and leader for peace and justice.

Videos were shown in which Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren celebrated the organization’s 50 years although they were not able to attend in person.

CLW 2018

Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for Senate was endorsed in 2018 by Council for a Livable World.

Elizabeth Warren burst onto the political scene in 2012 with a high-profile campaign to defeat incumbent Sen. Scott Brown (R). She has been a Harvard law professor, the author of 10 books, and served as consumer advisor to President Obama.

Progressives around the country flocked to her cause as a consumer champion and a fighter for middle class Americans against shady practices on Wall Street. Since entering the Senate, she has continued working for the causes that animated her life.

She also recently joined the Strategic Forces Subcommittee on the Senate Armed Services Committee, where she serves as a counterpoint to ultra-hawkish Senator Tom Cotton (R) of Arkansas. There, she has been active in working to protect arms control treaties and oppose plans to hand President Trump a new nuclear weapon against the Pentagon’s will. Her leadership on the subcommittee should come as no surprise, and it has been exceptional.

Warren believes, “It is essential that America remain engaged in the world to protect our national security and to support a stable international system based on human rights and democracy.”

21st Century Democrats support

21st Century Democrats is a Political Action Committee that has stood for Progressive causes for over 20 years. Founded in 1986 by Institute for Policy Studies affiliate, Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, Democratic Socialists of America affiliates, former Texas Agriculture Secretary Jim Hightower, and former Illinois Congressman Lane Evans. Its three main goals are to help elect progressive candidates, train young people about grassroots organizing, and lastly, to continue to support our elected officials after Election Day "through our comprehensive progressive network".

Carol Moseley Braun, a former US Senator from Illinois, and long time Communist Party USA affiliate, serves on the organization's Advisory Board. Long time Board chair was Democratic Socialists of America member Jim Scheibel, a former Mayor of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The mission of 21st Century Democrats is to build a "farm team" of progressive populists who will be the future leaders of the Democratic Party.

In each election cycle, we endorse a diverse array of candidates who exemplify our values and show unusual promise to advance our progressive goals. We invest in some of the most competitive races as well as in some of the most challenging – those in which the candidates are outstanding but the traditional Democratic supporters are most reticent. We back candidates in primaries as well as general election races, and we focus the bulk of our resources on electing challengers and protecting vulnerable incumbents.

Warren was one of 12 key progressives endorsed by 21st Century Democrats in the 2012 election cycle.

21st Century Democrats endorsed Senate candidates Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand, Amy Klobuchar, Jon Tester, Sherrod Brown and Martin Heinrich in 2018.

Progressive Democrats of America

Progressive Democrats of America heavily supported Elizabeth Warren in 2012.

Progressive Democrats of America endorsement

Warren with PDA head Tim Carpenter - once a leader of Orange County Democratic Socialists of America

In 2012, Elizabeth Warren, was one of 14 leftist Congressional and Senate candidates endorsed by Progressive Democrats of America, an organization dominated by members or affiliates of Democratic Socialists of America and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Elizabeth Warren...was one of the nine victorious congressional candidates backed by PDA, which favors an 'inside-outside' strategy for change.

NNU and PDA

Wrote Michael Lighty, Director of Public Policy National Nurses United and Progressive Democrats of America Advisory Board Member;

The RNs of NNU have found a natural alliance with PDA, who are never slow in the fight against austerity to win prosperity for all. RNs and PDA activists joined in campaigns across the country for insurgent progressives like Elizabeth Warren, now Senator-elect from Massachusetts, Medicare for All supporter Ami Bera, soon to be Congressman from California, and Alan Grayson returning to the people’s House from Florida."

PDA "hit its stride", phonebanking

In 2012, PDA hit its stride electorally as well helping its National Board Members Congress members John Conyers (D-MI.), Donna Edwards (D-MD.), Keith Ellison (D-MN.), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ.), James McGovern (D-MA.) and Barbara Lee (D-CA.) sweep to victory.

Other PDA-endorsed winners included Congress members Mark Pocan (D-WI.), Alan Grayson (D-FL.), and Senator Elizabeth Warren, (D-MA.). PDA generated 1000s of Get Out the Vote calls for the above candidates, as well as for newly-elected Ami Bera (D-CA.)

Hosting PDA

According to a New Year 2013 press release from Progressive Democrats of America;

Progressive Democrats of America accomplished a lot in 2012--thanks to your help and support. Together, we helped defeat Tea Party extremists and helped elect strong progressives to Congress. We educated members of Congress every month in our home districts, and in the halls of Congress in Washington, DC. Now, PDA is starting 2013 in a big way!

In just a few days, on January 3rd, our team will be on Capitol Hill as special guests of our newly elected and re-elected progressive candidates including our board members our friends Representatives Alan Grayson, Dr. Ami Bera, and Mark Pocan; as well as newly-elected Senators Tammy Baldwin and Elizabeth Warren. If you're going to be in the DC-area, join us for these exciting swearing in ceremonies, and help us pass out leaflets for our exciting January 19th events!

Carpenter connection

Socialist activist Tim Carpenter cut his teeth on campaigns that recognized the connection between transforming politics and transforming the country: as a kid working "behind the Orange Curtain" (in then hyper-conservative Orange County) for George McGovern in 1972 and for the remarkable radical intervention that was Tom Hayden's 1976 US Senate bid. Carpenter was a trusted aide to the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1988 "Rainbow Coalition" run for the presidency, an inner-circle strategist for Jerry Brown's 1992 presidential run (addressing that year's Democratic National Convention and urging delegates to "Save Our Party" from ideological compromises and corporate influence), a key figure in Dennis Kucinich's antiwar presidential campaign of 2004.

He also worked on plenty of campaigns that lost—as well as winning campaigns such as those of Congresswoman Donna Edwards, D-Maryland, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and, to his immense delight, Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts.

Supported by Jay Livingstone

According to Eleanor LeCain, writing in the The Yankee Radical, a "true progressive is running for state representative" in Boston/Cambridge — Jay Livingstone — in a special election being held on Tuesday, May 28th, 2013.

Livingstone is an experienced community leader with a proven record of hard work in advancing progressive ideals—let’s help him win by making some phone calls now, and helping on Election Day, May 28th.

A Massachusetts native, Livingstone teaches at Northeastern University and operates his own law practice, standing up against employer discrimination. He has been a key organizer in the campaigns of Rep. Ed Markey, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and Gov. Deval Patrick. As a "State Rep Jay will work hard for quality, affordable public education; increased funding for at-risk youth, the disabled and the elderly; improved public transportation; and sensible development that works for small businesses and preserves the quality of neighborhood life".

He has been endorsed by Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts and Boston Democratic Socialists of America — among many others.

PDA 2018 endorsement

In 2018 Progressive Democrats of America endorsed Elizabeth Warren, for US Senate.

PDA stands beside Elizabeth Warren

Donna Smith, Elizabeth Warren, Larry Smith

Donna Smith—Progressive Democrats of America (PDA)’s National Advisory Board Chair—welcomed Senator Elizabeth Warren earlier this week. PDA is proud to stand beside Sen. Warren as she champions Medicare for All, fundamental political and economic reforms, and strong opposition to Trump’s abuse of migrants. We especially applaud her consistent efforts to hold Wall Street accountable. Last week, Sen. Warren was once again an original cosponsor of Bernie Sanders’s Medicare For All Act.

Comrades

Sanders/Warren relationship

Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren first met nearly two decades ago when Warren was invited to speak at a dinner party for liberal lawmakers at the Washington home of Representative Rosa DeLauro, a Connecticut Democrat.

Warren, who had not yet published “The Two-Income Trap,” the 2003 book that would vault her to national attention, recalled passing out photocopies of her research on the housing market to Sanders, who was then a little-noticed member of the House.

“Bernie started in with the questions,” Warren said. “We got into a deep conversation about it. What it meant. Why it was happening. What we could do to help.”

Over the years, Warren returned several times to DeLauro’s dinner salons, offering her views on the economic forces chipping away at the middle class. Sanders was there every time, she said. Then they talked in his office and by phone.

“It was organic,” Warren said of the relationship. “It kind of grew up.”

The two bonded over Warren’s research that showed how easy it was for middle-class families to go bankrupt if they experience a crisis like a medical emergency or job loss.

“That was the heart of it,” Warren said. “That is what Bernie and I talked about. How it was that the American middle class became so vulnerable.”

On WDEV, where he hosted “The Bernie Sanders Show,” Sanders invited Warren to discuss her findings from her home in Cambridge. The two were earnest and in constant agreement.

“Was it wonderful radio?” said Squier, the station owner. “I can’t say that.”

But the relationship became an important one to both of their careers. In 2008, Sanders, then a senator, invited Warren to speak at a series of town hall meetings in Vermont.

At one meeting, in the Montpelier High School cafeteria, he described constituents forced to split wood to heat their homes because of the high cost of heating oil, while Warren displayed bar graphs on a screen that showed how mortgage payments and health insurance costs had devoured paychecks between 1970 and 2000.

Two years later, Sanders urged President Obama to pick Warren to help set up the new Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, and when he did, applauded the president for turning to “a tough and brilliant advocate” to ensure Americans would not be “ripped off by large banks and financial institutions.”

When Warren ran for the Senate against Scott Brown in 2012, Sanders campaigned for her in the towns in the Berkshires that are so much like his home state of Vermont.

“I knew Elizabeth Warren before she was Elizabeth Warren,” Sanders told about 200 politicians and union activists at a breakfast event in Pittsfield that year. “I knew her when she was writing books and working as an educator.”

The two faced their greatest rift earlier this year, however, when Warren refused Sanders’ repeated entreaties to endorse his run for the presidency.

Given their shared values and history, her stance angered many on the left, but Sanders’ aides insist he bears no grudge.

They point out that Warren was the only Democratic woman in the Senate not to endorse Hillary Clinton early in the primary and that she waited until June to back Clinton, after the former secretary of state had effectively secured the nomination.

“The fact that she chose not to endorse until the voting was over is a big deal,” said Tad Devine, a Sanders adviser. “That’s something that anyone would appreciate.”

Last month, in a fence-mending gesture, Warren accepted Sanders’ invitation to join him at a Clinton campaign rally in Colorado. There, she paid tribute to his failed campaign.

“To every person who ‘felt the Bern’ during the primary, America and the Democratic Party know the power and energy of the progressive movement,” Warren told the crowd.

Now, as Democrats face a grim and uncertain future under a Trump White House and a Republican-led Congress, Warren and Sanders have been among the most vocal party figures trying to chart a path forward.

Paul Kirk, who was Massachusetts’ interim senator from 2009 to 2010, after Edward M. Kennedy died, said Warren’s voice will be vital as a leading critic of Wall Street. And Sanders’ influence may grow, Kirk said, because his campaign, like Trump’s, showed how much voters want to dismantle the political establishment.

“Senator Sanders arguably has more credibility than before because, for the Democrats, he was the authentic change agent,” said Kirk, a former Democratic National Committee chairman who endorsed Sanders in the primary. “His voice, on the Democratic side of the aisle, will have even more resonance.”

On that point, even detractors agree.

“They’re going to be a voice within the party that has to be listened to,” said former senator Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, who pointed out that Warren and Sanders have pushed for single-payer health care, tax increases on the wealthy, and debt-free college. “They’re carrying the mantle of socialism, and it’s on the rise in the Democratic Party.’’

IPS donors

Lynn Raskin, a Washington D.C. realtor, and her husband, Marcus Raskin, a cofounder of the Institute for Policy Studies, contributed to progressive candidates in several tight congressional races during the 2012 election cycle. They donated to Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), and Elizabeth Warren, the Democrat running for Senate in Massachusetts. They've also given money to Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).

Quotes IPS

Filibuster reform

The Communications Workers of America is to make filibuster reform a top cause and they're trying to bring the rest of the union movement along. The union reiterated that goal in post-election comments.

"The 2012 election makes the reform even more paramount," it said. "Seven Democratic senators-elect - Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), Martin Heinrich (N.M.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), Tim Kaine (Va.), Chris Murphy (Conn.) and Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) - have all already pledged to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to support rules reform. And Maine's Independent candidate, former Gov. Angus King won on a platform included filibuster reform as a major campaign issue.

"The American people want their elected officials to debate and address the major issues of our time and to move past obstruction for obstruction's sake," added CWA Legislative Director Shane Larson.

Immigration rally

Some 800 immigrants and their supporters rallied at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall on April 6 2013, to demand comprehensive immigration reform and a path to citizenship.

The lively and boisterous rally was organized primarily by SEIU and allied community organizations including Jobs with Justice , MassUniting and MIRA (Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition).

SEIU Local 615 President Rocio Saenz, herself an immigrant from Mexico and a veteran of SEIU’s Justice for Janitors campaigns, led the rally. She spoke eloquently of the integral connection of immigrant rights with union rights and human rights. She also introduced supportive speakers Sen. Elizabeth Warren and new Mass. Congressman Joseph Kennedy III.

The Faneuil Hall rally and march aimed to pressure Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million foreign-born immigrants living in the country illegally.

Both Democrats called for the passage of immigration reform once Congress resumes session following its Easter break.

“My Spanish may not be great but it’s coming from the heart,” Warren said with a chuckle that was met with laughs and cheers from the crowds, armed with flags and signs, who packed Faneuil Hall.

“It’s far past time . . . to have common sense, comprehensive immigration reform,” Warren said. “We need a path to citizenship, we need to support our dreamers, we need to fix the visa system and, most of all, we need to help families to stay together.”

Moments later, Kennedy led the crowd in chants of “Si se puede” — Cesar Chavez’s motto adopted as a rallying cry by the immigration movement — before launching into a speech, in which he also jumped between English and Spanish, about the country’s need to address its broken immigration system.

Right now we have the moment, we have the opportunity to change it,” he said. “We cannot let up for a minute.”

Make Progress National Summit 2013

Generation Progress' Make Progress National Summit 2013 included speakers such as Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Special Assistant to the President David Simas, Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN), Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Facebook Co-Founder Chris Hughes, former Chief Technology Officer of the United States Aneesh Chopra, Amy Dacey of EMILY’s List, and Alex Wagner of MSNBC.

Make Progress National Summit 2014

Generation Progress' Make Progress National Summit 2014 included speakers such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, Filmmaker Andrew Rossi, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sec. of Labor Thomas Perez Vice President of the United States Joe Biden, Sen. Chris Murphy, Executive Director of Generation Progress Anne Johnson, President of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden, Policy Director at Generation Progress Sarah Audelo, Rep. Patrick Murphy, Former NFL player Donte Stallworth, Representative of House District 74 (TX) Mary Gonzalez, Mayor of Ithaca, NY Svante Myrick, Economic Policy Analyst Sarah Ayres, Educational Advocate Natalia Abrams, Executive Director of National Guestworker Alliance Saket Soni, Executive Director of the Energy Action Coalition Maura Cowley, Young Elected Officials Policy & Programs Director Dawn Huckelbridge, Filmmaker Tara Kutz, Student activist Ronnie Mosley, Roosevelt Institute Fellow Dorian Warren, Iraq War Veteran Tony Woods, Newtown High School graduate Sarah Clements.

Equal Opportunity for All Act

Job-hunters are increasingly being asked to agree to allow potential employers to view their personal credit information, a development that Sen. Elizabeth Warren says is unfairly keeping people out of the job market who've had financial setbacks or have reports that contain inaccurate information.

December 17, 2013 Warren introduced The Equal Opportunity for All Act in Congress, which would outlaw such credit checks in many cases except in areas such as national security. Warren told reporters in a conference call sponsored by the Demos Foundation, a liberal think-tank, that the legislation was long overdue.

"This is about basic fairness," said the first-term legislator, adding that many people have had their credit records tarnished during the recent economic downturn. "There is little to no evidence of any correlation between job performance and a credit score."

The bill is co-sponsored by by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D.-Vt., Edward Markey, D-Mass., Sherrod Brown, D.-Ohio, Jeanne Shaheen, D.-N.H., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

This legislation, drawing on Demos' research, would prohibit the widespread use of personal credit history in employment.

Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015

S 299, the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act of 2015, principal sponsors are Sens. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

By May 20, it had accumulated 33 co-sponsors, including 26 Democrats - Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Dick Durbin, Thomas Carper, Amy Klobuchar, Barbara Boxer, Jack Reed, Debbie Stabenow, Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Benjamin Cardin, Chris Coons, Dianne Feinstein, Jeanne Shaheen, Sherrod Brown, Mazie Hirono, Brian Schatz, Tammy Baldwin, Ed Markey, Heidi Heitkamp, Jon Tester, Claire McCaskill, Ron Wyden, Tim Kaine, Al Franken, Elizabeth Warren, Michael Bennet, Martin Heinrich .

Muslim connections

Senator Warren is supportive of some radical Muslim progams and organizations.

MPAC intern

In 2022 Wafa Jawad was a Muslim Public Affairs Council Congressional Leadership Development Program intern in Elizabeth Warren 's office.

Working with Nadeem Mazen

Nadeem Mazen, November 6, 2015;

Today, Elizabeth Warren and I celebrated Y2Y, Sam, Sarah, and everyone who helped make the nation's first student-run youth shelter happen in #CambMA. Talk about taking initiative and getting things done. What other local issues can we move this fast on?

Radical staffer

Hamza Abdelgany, and Elizabeth Warren

Muslim Student Association activist Hamza Abdelgany is a Staff Assistant to Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Interfaith gathering

Nadeem Mazen December 11, 2016 ·

Inspiring gathering of 2,600+ strong tonight at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC), at which spiritual leaders from across the Greater Boston area spoke about the importance of listening, learning, and loving one another during this time of national transition. I'm thankful to The Greater Boston Interfaith Organization for organizing the event and being an example of dignity and diligence for all of us.

I'm proud to be signing their Interreligious Statement, which will be widely shared soon. #OutofMany1 — with Tito Jackson, Marty Walsh and Elizabeth Warren at Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center.

Later Sen. Warren said she made an ill-advised appearance at a Boston mosque linked to several major terrorism cases at the request of an office aide who attends the radical mosque.

The Massachusetts Democrat said she agreed to speak Sunday at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center at the urging of staffer Hamza Abdelgany, who is a member of the mosque, which has graduated no fewer than 13 terrorists and recently was caught on video defending many of the terrorists, even after they were convicted in federal court.

Warren spoke before the congregation for several minutes chiefly to complain about “anti-Muslim hate” allegedly inspired by the election of GOP President-elect Donald Trump.

Brian Corr December 11, 2016:

At Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC).

Relief of Iran sanctions letter

According to the NIAC website, in March 2020 a team of prominent members of Congress urged their colleagues to sign a letter to the White House calling for immediate relief of sanctions to help ordinary Iranians combat the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is a critically important effort coming amid the Iranian people's hour of need. We need to make sure that Iranians have all the support they need to get medicine and respirators, food and basic goods and services to weather the pandemic. By supporting AOC's letter, we can send a powerful message to the Trump administration: now is not the time to kick the Iranian people when they are down. The U.S. must ease sanctions and send aid to help combat the spread of Coronavirus.

Take action today: urge your Representative to sign AOC's letter calling for urgent humanitarian relief for Iran.

Original signers of the letter include: Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Jared Huffman (D-CA), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) and Barbara Lee (D-CA), and Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Ed Markey (D-MA).

Voted against Iran sanctions

In February 2015, with 18 votes for and four against, the US Senate Banking Committee approved the plan to intensify sanctions against Iran. The plan was presented to the Senate Banking Committee by Robert Menendez and Mark Kirk. However, the execution of those sanctions was postponed until 24 March 2015. Senators Sherrod Brown, Jack Reed, Jeff Merkley, and Elizabeth Warren of the Democratic Party voted against the draft of that plan.

Anti "Muslim ban" rally

February 2, 2017, a large protest was held in Copley Square against the ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries.

Protest organizers and guests spoke from the steps of Trinity Church. These speakers included Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, CAIR - Massachusetts executive director John Robbins, and Cambridge City Councilman and MIT alumnus Nadeem Mazen.

Return to Iran Deal

From Mana Mostatabi National Iranian American Council.

Washington, D.C. March 20 2019 — Yesterday, reports emerged that 2020 presidential contenders Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders joined Elizabeth Warren in backing the United States’ return to the Iran nuclear deal, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In response, NIAC Action Executive Director Jamal Abdi issued the following statement:

“We commend Senators Sanders, Harris, and Warren for committing to reversing Trump’s failed Iran policy, and for recognizing the urgent need to return to the JCPOA and the successes resulting from the diplomatic playbook first written under the Obama administration.

“Returning the U.S. to compliance with the JCPOA is a logical first step for the next U.S. president—and candidates like Harris, Sanders, and Warren know this. Their commitment to a policy centered on engagement with Iran advances the Obama administration’s multilateral diplomacy that successfully yielded real security gains. This starkly contrasts with Trump’s impetuous decision to withdraw from the accord and impose sanctions that do nothing more than devastate the Iranian people, increase the risk of a nuclear-armed Iran, and bolster the chance of a disastrous war.”

Abdi continued:

“Both Sanders and Harris elevate diplomacy as the way to address America’s many outstanding concerns with Iran. The reality is that without a return to the deal, the U.S. has no leverage to shape Iran’s calculations, including on human rights and regional issues. The Trump administration has clearly illustrated how America’s failure to abide by its JCPOA commitments has greatly hindered its ability to extract concessions from Iran. Worse yet, Trump has elevated war hawks to key positions in the administration, many of whom hope to drive the U.S. into war with Iran.

“As a JCPOA return emerges as the consensus position for 2020 candidates, we urge all those vying to replace Trump to publicly commit their support for a U.S. JCPOA return. Only by returning to the JCPOA can the U.S. ensure that Iran does not walk away from its far-reaching nuclear commitments and that the window for diplomacy with Iran remains open.”

NIAC praise

July 16 2019 Washington DC – Moments ago, Reps. Barbara Lee, Jan Schakowsky, and David Price introduced a resolution calling for the United States to return to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), or Iran deal, from which President Trump withdrew in May 2018.

In response, NIAC President Jamal Abdi issued the following statement:

“Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the Iran nuclear deal has put the U.S. on the brink of war with Iran and threatened to undo the hard won constraints against Iran’s nuclear program. Thankfully, many Members of Congress recognize that there is no military solution to the present crisis, and that the best way to de-escalate is for the U.S. to return to compliance with the nuclear deal. Representatives Lee, Schakowsky and Price should be commended for their years of leadership in advancing peace and diplomacy, including by introducing this important resolution.

“NIAC strongly supports a U.S. return to its JCPOA commitments and first issued a white paper in support of such a move last November. We proudly supported the DNC’s adoption of a resolution committing to return the U.S. to its JCPOA commitments. And we advocated for and welcome the strong majority of Democratic Presidential contenders who have also committed to returning to our diplomatic obligations — including Warren, Sanders, Harris, Buttigieg, Biden, Gabbard, and O’Rourke.

Netroots Nation 2015

Speakers at Netroots Nation 2015, in Phoenix Arizona, one of the largest gatherings of progressives and the Democratic activist base, included Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, Elizabeth Warren, Rosa DeLauro, Donna Edwards, Keith Ellison, Ruben Gallego, Raul Grijalva, Hank Johnson, Robin Kelly, Mark Takano.

ARA endorsement

Alliance for Retired Americans endorsed Elizabeth Warren in 2012.

2013 ARA conference

Keith Ellison, Jan Schakowsky, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and David Cicilline addressed Alliance for Retired Americans 2013 conference.

2015 ARA National Legislative Conference

400 activists came to Washington, DC for the Alliance for Retired Americans’s 2015 National Legislative Conference in July . The activists reached more than 150 offices on Thursday’s Lobby Day, when they met with their Members of Congress and Senators and voiced their concerns about retiree issues. Alliance members lobbied their elected officials with very specific goals in mind, including: expand earned Social Security benefits; protect Social Security Disability Insurance; preserve Medicare and allow no cuts to it; and oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Agreement.

Richard Trumka, President of the AFL-CIO, began the conference with a fiery speech on Tuesday. Several elected officials addressed the attendees: House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA), Senators Bernie Sanders (VT), Debbie Stabenow (MI), and Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Representatives Keith Ellison (MN) and Ruben Gallego (AZ). On Wednesday evening, the President’s Award was presented to Judy Cato, Executive Vice-President Emerita, for her activism and years on the Alliance Executive Board.

"Women's policy"

"Achieving pay equality for women isn't enough," Senator Elizabeth Warren, said November 18, 2015 when she unveiled the Women's Economic Agenda developed by the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank. "We have to make sure that all workers - men and women - are earning enough to live on."

Elise Gould, EPI's senior economist, explained that "the same factors that have kept women's pay from growing over the last dozen years are the same forces that have suppressed wages for male workers."

Wages for all workers have been suppressed, Gould said, because of national policies consciously adopted to guarantee that most of the wealth being created through increased productivity goes to those who are already the richest, most powerful people in America.

In presenting the Women's Economic Agenda, Senator Warren pointed out that more than half of low wage workers are women and that some 14 million children are being brought up in poverty.

"This is an economic issue," Warren said, "but it is also an issue of American values. No one who works full time should be living in poverty."

Warren discussed her Schedules That Work bill. If passed (which is unlikely in today's Republican-controlled congress) it would prevent employers from calling workers in at the last minute. It would also stop managements from calling workers in, deciding they aren't needed and sending them home without pay.

"Women especially need some control over their work schedules," Warren said, "because a large number have sole responsibility for children. How can you plan for childcare if you don't know what your schedule will be day to day?"

U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro, D.- Conn., said that along with scheduling allowing for family responsibilities, women also need paid family and medical leave.

"Congressional representatives such as myself," DeLauro said, "can take off as many days as we want to. Yet, one quarter of all workers have been fired or threatened with being fired for taking just one day off to take care of their kids."

EPI's economic agenda for women addresses the issues Sen. Warren and Rep. DeLauro discussed. It calls for equal pay that's also a living wage. It stresses the importance of fair scheduling and paid family and medical leave.

"The surest way for workers to obtain these rights," said EPI President Lawrence Mishel, is to strengthen the right of workers to join unions and engage in collective bargaining."

He added: "Women in unions are more likely to be paid higher wages and have access to needed benefits and protections. When unions are strong, those benefits and protections spread to nonunion workers as well."

The agenda also calls for raising the minimum wage for all workers and eliminating the subminimum wage currently being forced on workers who earn tips.

The agenda states that "More than half of elderly women are economically vulnerable," so it's vital that the nation protect and strengthen Social Security and pensions.

Moreover, it states that "The United States must invest in early childhood education and more affordable child care."

The agenda ends by calling for national monetary policies that "prioritize wage growth and very low unemployment."

"I always get applause when I say I'm for equal pay for equal work," Senator Warren said. "But real economic equality and real economic equity will take real changes in America's economic policies.

Anti TPP

Alison Rose Levy wrote in Facebook, 11/12/2016;

Hooray for the Flush the TPP Friends of the Earth U.S. and TradeJustice New York Metro Progressives-- with a little help from our friends, Margaret Flowers Kevin Zeese Adam Weissman William Waren Andrea Miller Arthur Stamoulis Stan Sorscher Lauren Steiner Elizabeth Warren Mary Ellen Persuit Jeanne Marie Dauray Mara Cohen Arthur Stamoulis Ilana Solomon Ben Beachy Evan Greer Tom Kruse Susie Chasnoff Celeste Drake Nancy Russell Strong Harriet Heywood Wendie W. Goetz and of course---- Lori Wallach and everyone at Global Trade Watch!!!

"Ideas conference"

Democratic Party luminaries and 2020 presidential mentionables gathered May 2017 for an “ideas conference” organized by the Center for American Progress, the Democratic establishment’s premier think tank.

Its stated purpose was to focus not on “what could have been,” said CAP Vice President Winnie Stachelberg introducing the day, but on “new, fresh, bold, provocative ideas that can move us forward.”

Convened in a basement of Georgetown’s Four Season’s Hotel, the posh watering hole for Washington lobbyists, lawyers and visiting wealth, the conference quickly revealed how hard it is for Democrats to debate the future when Trump is taking all of the air out of the room.

Virtually every speaker dutifully invoked the theme of the day: resistance is not enough; Democrats must propose what they are for. Each then proceeded to rail at one Trump folly or another, calling on those assembled to join in defending what was achieved over the last eight years.

Two presentations managed to offer bold ideas. Senator Elizabeth Warren took her swipes at Trump, but used her presentation to present a bigger argument for Democrats. Arguing that concentrated money and concentrated power were “corrupting our democracy,” Warren noted that “Trump did not invent these problems,” and called for sweeping reforms.

On concentrated money, she argued not simply for overturning Citizens United and moving to publicly financed elections, but for taking on the revolving door between Wall Street and giant companies and government, the “bought and paid for policy experts,” and the armies of lobbyists that distort our politics. On concentrated power, she argued for “picking up the anti-trust stick” to break up monopolies and the big banks, and revive competitive markets.

The most interesting contrast was between Warren and Senator Cory Booker, both given star turns. Warren was full of fire and brimstone, while using her speech to put forth a clear analysis and reform agenda that pushed the limits of the Democratic debate.

Booker closed the conference with a passionate address, invoking the progressive movements that have transformed America, concluding that Democrats can’t merely be the “party of resistance,” but must “reaffirm” America’s “impossible dream.” Fittingly, it was a speech brutal on Trump, replete with good values, sound goals and uplifting oratory, and utterly devoid of ideas.

Single Payer Bill

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) unveiled Wednesday September 13, 2017 a new version of his plan to give everybody government-run health insurance, potentially opening a new chapter in the ongoing debate over how to make health care in the U.S. more affordable and available.

The plan calls for an overhaul of American health insurance with a souped-up, more generous version of Medicare replacing nearly all private health insurance ― and government exerting far more control over the cost of medical care. It would arguably be the most ambitious social welfare initiative in U.S. history, but Sanders told HuffPost in an interview Tuesday that he believes America is ready for it.

“The American people are catching on to where the Republicans are coming from, they see the limitations of the Affordable Care Act and they’re looking at the alternatives,” Sanders said. “And this is a rational alternative.”

That roster of co-sponsors includes a who’s-who list of potential Democratic presidential candidates for 2020, including Cory Booker of New Jersey, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Kamala Harris of California and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Also backing the bill are Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Al Franken of Minnesota, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico, Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin.

Womens March

State Attorney General Maura Healey, Sen. Ed Markey, philanthropist Barbara Lee, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Mayor Martin Walsh and State Treasurer Deb Goldberg march down Commonwealth Avenue for the Women's March for America in Boston, 2017.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization connections

Elizabeth Warren has ties to some Freedom Road Socialist Organization/Liberation Road influenced organizations - including LeftRoots, City Life/Vida Urbana and Chinese Progressive Association (Boston).

#MakeCareCount=

National Domestic Workers Alliance February 25, 2021.

Jamaal Bowman, Nikema Williams, Elizabeth Warren.

"The Tulsa Massacre at 100"

In March 2020 Rockwood Leadership Institute alumnus Rashad Robinson joined Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee and Senator Elizabeth Warren for "The Tulsa Massacre at 100: A Conversation on Finding Resolution".

NVM backing

In 2020 Elizabeth Warren was backed by New Virginia Majority.

Black Womxn For endorsement

Black Womxn For is an organizing collective of leaders, activists, artists, writers, and political strategists from across the country in the fight for black liberation. This statement reflects the views and intentions of the undersigned.

The last presidential election laid bare what many black women, gender non-conforming, and non-binary, and queer folk know deeply; that this nation embraces white supremacy and its evils, even at the expense of itself. It’s no wonder that even among the most committed activists there is a strong skepticism, aversion and even avoidance of participating in political systems.

Despite pervasive attacks from the state on our communities, our identities, and our lives, we -- black trans and cis women, gender-nonconforming and nonbinary folk -- remain at the forefront of each and every social movement to hold this country accountable for its promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is our bold vision, direct action, and strategic organizing that laid the foundation for what we argue is one of the most progressive democratic presidential primaries in recent history.

Still, the two-party system, elites within the democratic establishment, and even the primary process itself continue to fall short of what is required to fully engage and honor the power of its most loyal and impactful voters. Just like fannie lou hamer and other black women political forbearers, we understand that we must create and take our own space in the political process in a way that aligns with our values and builds power for our people.

And though no one presidential contender can rectify the gross atrocities to which we’ve become accustomed, there is one leader who has shown, through action, deed, and word, that a future of economic prosperity, racial justice, gender justice, and social and political equity is possible. She is a leader with a track record of taking on the predatory policies and practices that harm our communities and implementing structural changes that give power back to working people. She is a partner with a deep understanding of how racism and gender discrimination don't just compound income inequality but are actually central to maintaining the status quo. She is a woman who is willing to learn, open to new ideas, and ready to be held accountable by us and our communities.

We write to endorse, enthusiastically and wholeheartedly, Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) for president of the United States.

Black Womxn For steering committee

• Carmen Berkley
• Jessica Byrd
• Nicole Carty
• Charlene Carruthers
• Anoa Changa
• Tracey Corder
• Rukia Lumumba
• Kayla Reed
• Leslie Mac - digital organizer, Black Womxn for
• Angela Peoples - director, Black Womxn for

Democracy in Color podcast

The New Florida Majority endorsement

The New Florida Majority November 24 2019.

BREAKING NEWS: Our members just voted to endorse Elizabeth Warren in the #2020election!

We’re joining #TeamWarren to ensure her plans for big structural change become a reality that improves the lives of Black, Latinx, womxn of color, young and working people in #Florida #FLforWarren

International Women's Day Celebration

Chinese Progressive Association (Boston) International Women's Day Celebration March 8, 2017 - 5:30pm

SEIU 32BJ Local 615 26 West Street Boston, MA 02111.

Celebrate International Women’s Day and the Chinese Progressive Association Workers Center’s 30 years of organizing.

Honorary Committee

• Honorary Event Chair Mayor Martin J. Walsh
• US Senator Elizabeth Warren
• Attorney General Maura Healey
• State Treasurer Deb Goldberg
• State Auditor Suzanne Bump
• State Senator Joseph Boncore
• State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz
• State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry
• State Representative Aaron Michlewitz
• State Representative Liz Malia
• City Council President Michelle Wu
• City Councilor Ayanna Pressley
• City Councilor Anissa Essaibi-George
• City Councilor Andrea Campbell

CPA 40th Anniversary Gala dinner

Chinese Progressive Association Friday, May 19, 2017 6:00 – 9:00 pm, at Hei La Moon Restaurant. 88 Beach Street in Boston Chinatown

BUY TICKETS OR MAKE A DONATION for CPA’s 40TH ANNIVERSARY GALA

• Honorary Event Chair Mayor Martin J. Walsh
• US Senator Elizabeth Warren
• US Congressman Michael Capuano
• Attorney General Maura Healey
• State Treasurer Deb Goldberg
• State Auditor Suzanne Bump
• State Senator Joseph Boncore
• State Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz
• State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry
• State Representative Aaron Michlewitz
• State Representative Liz Malia
• City Council President Michelle Wu
• City Councilor Ayanna Pressley
• City Councilor Anissa Essaibi-George

City Life/Vida Urbana

City Life/Vida Urbana September 15, 2016:

Last weekend, City Life/Vida Urbana members rallied on the Boston Common with 32BJ SEIU for justice for workers! We got an awesome shot in with U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. Don't forget - TOMORROW MORNING at 10am is our next major rally! Stand with the tenants in bankrupt slumlord Uwa Lawrence's former properties!

Wellstone award

September 18, 2013 Contact: Sara Beth Mueller.

Senator Elizabeth Warren Honored with Paul Wellstone Award for Political Leadership, New Florida Majority’s Executive Director, Gihan Perera, to Receive Wellstone Award for Movement Building

Washington, D.C. — Senator Elizabeth Warren will receive the Paul Wellstone Award for Political Leadership. The first of its kind, Senator Warren will accept this award from Wellstone Action tonight, at an event honoring Wellstone Action’s 10th Birthday at the headquarters of Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Senator Warren is being honored for her work, as Paul Wellstone liked to say, on behalf of the “little fellers.” From her work to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to her insistence on holding Wall Street banks and other financial institutions accountable, to her commitment to protecting middle-class families, Senator Warren embodies and champions a people-first politics that would have made Paul Wellstone proud.

At the event, Wellstone Action will also honor Gihan Perera, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Florida New Majority, with the Wellstone Award for Movement Building. In partnership with Wellstone Action, and with SEIU, Perera and Florida New Majority are transforming Florida’s infrastructure, creating a statewide, grassroots movement that leverages the power of elections to build long-term power and ignite the electorate in the Sunshine State.

Leewana Thomas connection

Elizabeth Warren, Gloria Phillips Kingia, Leewana Thomas.

Leyba connection

Mike Leyba with Elizabeth Warren.

Palma connection

Jose A. Palma with Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Tami Sawyer connection

Democratic 2020 presidential contender Elizabeth Warren kicked off a three-state tour with a stop Sunday March 17 in Memphis, highlighting her policy plans for a universal child care system funded with a tax on "ultra-millionaires," and a recently-rolled out housing plan.

Warren waved to supporters as Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer looked on during a campaign stop at Douglass High.

"This is a 50-state campaign strategy. I’m running to be president of all the people," said Warren, the Massachusetts senator, of her tour through the three Southern states. "And it’s important to go around the country and have a chance to talk with people face to face."

Radical staffer

Max Berger working for Sen. Elizabeth Warren as her director for progressive partnerships, placing a leader of the millennial Jewish left-wing insurgency inside an ascending Democratic presidential campaign.

Dzin connection

Vicki Dzin is a prominent Elizabeth Warren support activist.

September 18 2019.

The WFP and Warren

Circa October 2019, Organizing Upgrade’s Rishi Awatramani sat down with Maurice Moe Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party (WFP), to talk about their recent endorsement of Elizabeth Warren, what the WFP will being doing between now and election day, and the path toward structural change.

Rishi: We’re several weeks out from the Working Families Party (WFP) endorsement of Elizabeth Warren. There was a good deal of discussion around the endorsement process, but I’d like to talk about the politics of the endorsement and the road to 2020 and beyond. What work will the Working Families Party be doing to get Elizabeth Warren elected? What are the practical implications of the endorsement for the WFP?

Maurice: Our organizing work adds something complementary to the Warren campaign’s operation. Most presidential campaigns are focused on “early states,” so we’re putting our grassroots members and volunteers to work in states we think will be important once the race gains momentum. Nobody thinks this race is gonna be over after Super Tuesday. So, states like Wisconsin and New York will be key.

Our early organizing is also going to build a base that’s connected to the local realities in those places. We have committed volunteers around the country that do local organizing work and use peer-to-peer text and other technology that allows them to have meaningful conversations with voters. So, those are just two things, between now and whenever ultimately we have a nominee.

We see our job in the presidential election as lifting up the central role that multiracial working class folks and their particular issues will play in the election. So, we’re leaning into an intersectional set of issues and we are committed to advancing a broad left agenda for structural change. Absent our involvement in 2020, it might not be not highlighted in the same way.

So, we’re looking forward to collaborating with the Warren campaign. It’s going to be a partnership. And, as a result, we’re going to be struggling with them around some of these key questions.

Rishi: Will you talk a bit about your personal organizing and social movement background? How does it inform your assessment of this political moment and the tasks facing organizers and the left today?

Maurice: One lesson I’ve learned again and again is that you can’t cut corners when it comes to organizing. Any shortcuts prove insufficient for the task of building durable power. The ability to mobilize is critical, but you can’t replace your organizing capacity with mobilizing.

I’ve also learned that, if we are going to build a base that will be durable, of people who are progressively maturing in their politics and in their acumen and decision-making, then internal democracy is vital. There is no way that a movement could last and grow without internal democracy that is constantly improving.

Deepening internal democracy also means meaningful leadership development so that as people participate in movement, they are growing in their skills and their ability to organize. It also means political education, so that people actually have a sharp ideological framework so they understand the value of the work they’re doing and have a North Star about where we’re going.

Whenever we skimp on any of those pieces, there are costs. Simply achieving scale can sometimes look like we’re building a long-term movement. But if we haven’t done those other pieces, then oftentimes we have an explosive movement moment that eventually busts and doesn’t lead to sustained change. In that boom-bust cycle, we often lack the capacity to benefit from the opening our movement has created, and we create an opportunity for capital to step in. So, our movements sometimes pose questions that they aren’t set up to answer. We can’t answer those questions unless we build the capacity needed to sustain it.

One of the reasons why I decided to get involved with the Working Families Party is to figure out how a successful mass movement can govern.

If we’re able to reclaim the governance capacities of the state and align those actors from our movements that are already in positions to govern, then movements could pose the question [of left governance], answer that question by demonstrating the capacity and readiness of movements to govern, and be able to block capital’s attempt at answering those questions for us.

The best example I can give from my own experience is that, in the Movement for Black Lives, when questions around state violence against Black people reached a fever pitch between 2014 and 2016, the solution that was provided by organized capital and the neoliberal forces in government was body cameras. That wasn’t satisfying and wasn’t a meaningful solution to the movements that posed the question of ending state violence. But the movements that posed those questions didn’t have access to the capacities to actually fill that gap.

Rishi: What are the ‘questions’ that we should be posing for capital and the state in this period?

Maurice: My assessment is that Trump’s ascendancy in the 2016 election created an opening for left movements because the Democratic Party establishment and the neoliberal forces that had led it were in disarray. They were out of strategic direction and looking for answers. That creates an opening for folks who have strategy and momentum. But I think that that opening will close the minute those neoliberal Democrats get momentum back. In the event that Democrats regain both houses of Congress and the Presidency, but left labor, grassroots organizations, and social movements have not aligned behind a top line vision, then we’ll miss this opportunity. This window will close and Democrats and neoliberals will regain power without us making a strategic intervention.

I think this is an interesting moment where a lot of everyday people are in the conversation about the contradictions of capital that are so present and clear. There is a popular conversation around the fact that capitalism doesn’t work and there are particular families at the top that we can point to. We can point to Betsy DeVos and her family. We can point to the Sackler family and the opioid crisis. We can point to the elite mediocrity that is exposed through the scandal with Ivy League schools.

All of this creates a populist moment where everyday people recognize that fundamentally the system is rigged. So, there is an interesting convergence of everyday people, leftists, and even some folks who are traditional free-market people, all questioning neoliberal capitalism. This opening will not last forever, but it is an opening for us to organize. Not simply to throw up polemics or to theorize. We actually have to organize in order to drive a wedge and to advance our politics. It’s a moment of opportunity for us to actually reclaim governance and transform how we utilize the state in order to advance our agenda.

There is a real crisis of capitalism that’s happening, and it’s being talked about in the public square. This is “go time” for us to provide meaningful answers for everyday people. One of the reasons why the economic nationalism of Donald Trump has been so popular – on top of its driving force, which is white supremacy – is that they are attempting to, in a very warped way, call into question the excesses of neoliberal capitalism and identify who the enemies are. Of course, their enemy is the racialized other. We have an opportunity to tell the actual story of what’s happening and who is to blame.

Rishi: Let’s talk about Sanders and Warren in terms of the alternatives that are available in the moment. What do you and WFP think the main differences are between Sanders and Warren. Why in the end does WFP view Warren the better candidate, given the opportunities to call into question the transformation of capitalism?

Maurice: One of the reasons we felt enthusiastic about engaging in this process was that there are clearly two structural change candidates in the race. We think having both of them in the race and flanking each other in the way they’ve done on the debate stage makes it even more likely that our structural change ideas make it through into governance.

We don’t see the differences between the two candidates as the fundamental question that’s in front of us. We’re focused on the role of movements in pushing past the election towards governance in 2021 and actually delivering on a structural change agenda.

We knew there was a lot of momentum in our base for both Sanders and Warren and that we would endorse one of them in the end. We knew that folks who supported Warren overwhelmingly supported Sanders and folks who supported Sanders overwhelmingly supported Warren. So, what our base was saying was: we’re excited about both of these structural change candidates and we’re excited about the agenda.

There are clearly differences between them, but those differences pale in relationship to differences with Biden, for example. Biden is currently the front-runner in many polls. We can only get to a 2021 scenario that involves a president pushing for structural change by defeating the so-called Third Way’s corporate agenda, and following that, defeating Trump. We wanted to engage in a process that allows our coalition, base, and grassroots leaders to come out of the struggle in a way that leaves our party strengthened and united around a shared agenda that we can advance through a candidate.

Warren has a unique ability to articulate and demystify how our economy and democracy got rigged over decades, who did the rigging, and how we can unrig it in a way that is broadly appealing and can move large majorities. Ultimately, we need to win majorities to make sure we win a General Election.

In fact, the WFP was one of the first institutions to try to recruit Warren to run for President many years ago in 2015 before Bernie ran. The WFP wanted to recruit her because of her consistent record against capital, winning concessions like the CFPB, for example, in an environment where the leadership of the Democratic Party was not enthusiastic and blocked her every step of the way. She actually delivered on that. And when there were efforts to make sure she didn’t see it through into implementation, she was able to buck all of the attempts to prevent her from implementing and she did. That was before Bernie ran, and a lot of her intellectual work paved the foundation for Occupy.

So, many folks in the Party have had a long, ongoing relationship with Warren as a pretty consistent intellectual and then elected official focusing like a laser on these questions of challenging capital and how that relates to everyday people’s lives. Those are some of the reasons folks have been enthusiastic about her: her track record, her consistency, and her ability to operationalize it.

Rishi: Earlier, you said there’s an opportunity for us to push a particular kind of politics in this period, specifically that there’s an opening to transform capitalism. What’s the specific political intervention you think the left should be trying to make? Is it to build socialism, constrain capitalism, enlarge the state’s role in guaranteeing social welfare, increase popular control, or something else entirely?

Maurice: If we are to seriously achieve socialism, there needs to be some transitional step between where we are in neoliberal capitalism and socialism.

First of all, both of the structural change candidates are talking about a social democracy. Is that possible? Can we achieve a social democracy in the US that could set us up for socialism?

If so, what is most essential on that road is workers’ democracy, which will be based on our ability to reverse diminishing ability to organize workers into unions and that might be very different from the unions that we understand today. The state could play a crucial role in supporting and accelerating that.

Second, there’s the basic rules of our democracy, which over 40 years have been highly compromised and tilted so far toward the fever dreams of the anarcho-capitalists like the Koch brothers, there needs to be aggressive repair to fix the harm that’s been done and to make possible a functioning popular democracy and economy.

Those are just steps, but important ones, towards achieving the type of true radical democracy and the radical economy many of us have been dreaming about. I think of the next 5-10 years as being about that aggressive work to undo a 40-year, one-sided class war perpetrated by right-wing revolutionaries that had almost endless resources and capacities to advance their very niche ideological agenda. If we’re successful, we can use that as a springboard for a radical democratizing of the economy and the relationship between the state and the individual, toward a kind of socialism. There are many kinds of socialism, but that would be one kind of socialism if we’re able to achieve that.

Rishi: What advice do you have for other groups that have yet to make an endorsement?

Maurice: There are a lot of lessons, and not just from our endorsement. The National Union of Healthcare Workers made a dual endorsement. In contrast to WFP, they had internal rules that made provision for a rank-and-file vote that showed overwhelming support for Warren, and then a final decision by the executive board to issue a dual endorsement.

I fully respect their internal democracy and their rules. As long as their base and the constituent parts of their union understand and accept the rules and accept the outcome, that’s all we could ask of any organization, any union, any party. I think it’s up to all of us to respect those organizations and their processes. Respect could mean critique, but ultimately respect the fact that their base ultimately needs to decide if that’s a form of internal democracy that works for them.

Our assessment was that it was critical for people to get involved. Because it’s clear that white supremacists and far-right capital have their candidate. And it’s also clear that the neoliberal forces, many of which are aligned in the Democratic Party (and also in the Republican Party), have their preferred candidates.

It’s critical that folks on the left aren’t simply observing how this race shakes out, but are participating. Our participation determines whether or not a candidate we choose wins.

So, if we’re nervous about a Biden candidacy, for example, we have a responsibility to get involved, and to get involved early. It’s a form of political cowardice not to get involved because you’ll be critiqued or create tension with organizations that endorse other candidates. The reason to get involved is to prevent neo-fascism.

If you have a base that you are accountable to, then create a process where you struggle around these fundamental questions: Should we endorse? Should we have a dual or sole endorsement? When should we endorse? How should we endorse? What should the process look like?

These are the questions we’ve engaged with our base since last year. We’ve discussed the relative value of an endorsement, the relative value of an endorsement sooner rather than later, the relative value of endorsing multiple candidates versus one candidate.

The later you come in, the less impact your organization has on an election that is historically critical to our movements. It’s a very clear choice: Are we moving towards a social democracy in this country? Are we doubling down or going backwards towards the neoliberal left alignment of the Obama years? Or are we doubling down to fight neofascism? It’s so stark.

Our presence in the field is not singularly determinative. We shouldn’t overstate our impact. But it’s a critical factor in a very dynamic field. And so, to remain off the field because of your concerns around scrutiny is to me an untenable position.

Rishi: Some see in the Warren endorsement an erratic endorsement history, tending towards support for Democrats that are more acceptable to the party’s mainstream, including Crowley, and now Warren. How do you respond?

Maurice: I understand how people could take those data points and make that narrative out of it, but again, each one of those endorsements had a whole set of factors and a whole set of conditions that aren’t generalizable to our entire recent history.

Having become National Director after much of that history, a lot of the work I’ve done has been specifically about democratizing the Working Families Party and making the party a hybrid mass-coalition party. I wanted to create an environment where it wouldn’t appear to those on the outside of the party that a set of actors who look very institutional could subvert the will of a set of actors who many people view as the party’s grassroots. We’ve done a lot of work so that members who are building organizations have an equal stake within the party as individual members who we connect with primarily online.

When we endorsed Bernie last cycle, individual members accounted for just a fraction of the vote. We dramatically shifted that, so 50 percent of our vote are folks who are a mix of paid members, and those that recently joined from our email list by clicking a button online that they aligned with the values of the party. And we value those people. Those are fully legitimate members whose input we value.

We’re trying to create a hybrid party that matches the nature of left movements currently, where there’s people who do a lot of their activism and organizing online, people committed to building organization, people coming in through social movements, and individuals unorganized by any other means who also need a political home.

This vote reflects that new alignment. So, when people talk about “the Working Families Party,” I think they might be assuming there is a set of people who have always been the party through all of those decisions who are making these various endorsements. The party is evolving and the party that makes this decision is thousands and thousands of people both in the grassroots members that build organizations, and thousands and thousands of people in the online vote side, coming together to build one party.

Rishi: Is there something inherently about Working Families given its ties to traditional labor organizations that will necessarily pull it back to more cautious political positions? If so, how can WFP balance working with organized labor while trying to be visionary in its politics?

Maurice: This is a great question that I’m faced with every single day. Everything I just talked about — that structure — is in the service of dealing with just that. From organizing mass movements like the Movement for Black Lives, and doing local base-building work for years – knocking on thousands of doors working on local issue campaigns – and from my perch here at WFP, there is wisdom in people’s organizations that are building long-term power and wrestle with the contradictions of attempting to build left grassroots organizations.

There is also wisdom in individuals in movements, especially people who are newly politicized because they are not boxed in by the limitations of existing organizations or, frankly, they are so early in their development that they are not cynical about the possibilities of radical change.

Both of those wisdoms are essential in moving the left towards actually building socialism.

So, what we’re attempting to do with the WFP is to create a hybrid coalition-mass party. It’s true that organizations are small-c conservative because if you’re an organization, some of your resources are spent just conserving your livelihood as an organization. And that presents all types of contradictions when you’re trying to challenge status quo power.

At the same time, the long-term infrastructure to actually build a movement that runs well, that includes hundreds of thousands of people, that actually provides meaningful leadership development and political education — the wisdom of those same organizations is crucial for that.

Mass movements are designed in order to make sure that we choose the tactics that will truly be disruptive. Because there’s always a reason to not be disruptive, especially when you’re solely institutional.

Because we recognize there’s value in both, we want to retain both in our party. Every party is a tent. We think that the Democratic Party tent is really big because it includes people who identify as socialists, as well as folks representing organized capital. We want to build a tent that includes a number of forces including people that I don’t agree with 100 percent. There should be a lot of space for ideological struggle within the party. And that means folks win some and lose some. Sometimes folks might win some on the side that I personally identify with, and sometimes folks may lose some on the side that I personally identify with.

But if the party is robust and the internal democracy is genuine, you get up the next day and you organize for your position. So, the forces that are disappointed with any endorsement – and we endorsed thousands of people – I would invite them to organize their forces within the party because this is a space where your organizing actually will matter, in a much more meaningful way than in the Democratic Party. With all our contradictions (and we have many), organized capital is not one of the driving tendencies within our party, unlike the Democrats. And so, there is a contradiction movement groups will have to confront if folks who are disappointed with the decision and then decide to cancel us or not engage with us, and then turn around and decide to engage with the Democratic Party’s process, there’s a contradiction there. Especially when we’re opening the doors and providing all the opportunities for input for folks to struggle with us. And if we are an authentic party and we make more than 1,000 endorsements, it’s likely that everybody will not be satisfied.

Rishi: How should groups that fall on different sides of the Warren-Sanders divide work together moving forward? Can they? How will WFP relate to the Sanders campaign moving forward?

Maurice: It’s really important that independent forces on the left that are organizing under Warren or under Sanders seek to make sure that the left is unified. It’s critically important that we defeat the forces of triangulation and Third Way Democrats and neoliberal capital as they’re being manifested in the Biden campaign and elsewhere. If we’re to be successful, then there needs to be some left unity.

We should follow the non-aggression pact that Warren and Sanders have with one another. There are millions of people who have not been organized by either one of these campaigns, and our focus like a laser should be on those people and not each other. Essence magazine published a poll of Black women and the largest number, when they were asked who is your top candidate, were like, “We don’t know, we’re still figuring it out.” Those are the people who we should be engaging with. The role of the left has to be to organize working people. It’s our job to organize that 26 percent of Black women are still trying to figure it out, the millions of people that still haven’t been organized by Warren or Sanders.

The bottom line is that every four years people go crazy around presidential campaigns. But the day after the election, none of these campaigns will exist. Only our movements will.

We need one another in any scenario. If a neoliberal candidate wins, we need a strong left. If Warren or Sanders win, we need a strong left. If the forces of neofascism win we need a strong left. We need a left that is stronger and more unified than it is now.

I’ve been committed to our movements for decades. The thing that’s always held my commitment has not been candidates or candidate campaigns. I look at elections as opportunities for movement-building. I think it would be a shame if we’re a weakened left in November 2020, if folks on the left who have close if not the same politics do damage to their ability to collaborate because of the endorsements or this Presidential process. Because the world needs us to be a strong left in November 2020.

Netroots/Aimee Allison connection

Aimee Allison August 3, 2018 ·

With DeJuana Thompson, Kamala Harris, Tram Nguyen and Sayu Bhojwani.

This Friday at NetRoots I will gather together some of our nation's top political strategists who are fighting to win in swing states across the country - Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, Virginia. It's the first conversation of its kind - highlighting the excellence, vision, and skill of these women of color leading the New American Majority playbook. Tram Nguyen LaTosha Brown Sayu Bhojwani Crystal Zermeno @ DeJuana Thompson.

Remarks by Deb Haaland, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren.

Tram Nguyen August 3 2018.

— with DeJuana Thompson, Crystal Zermeno, Jennifer Fernandez Ancona, Aimee Allison, Sayu Bhojwani, LaTosha Brown.

Meeting with MOVE Texas

Elizabeth Warren with MOVE Texas.

CFPB corruption

According to the New York Post Warren's Comsumer Finance Protection Bureau is a Democrat shop with an anti-business agenda that goes well beyond protecting consumers and includes closing the “wealth gap” and administering “economic justice,” as Cordray has been fond of saying. It hires almost exclusively Democrats and “rejects Republican job applicants,” according to former CFPB enforcement attorney Ronald Rubin. Federal election data show 100 percent of political donations made by CFPB employees during the 2016 election were given to Democratic candidates.

It’s no surprise then that the agency has:

•Bounced business owners and industry reps from secret meetings it’s held with Democrat operatives, radical civil-rights activists, trial lawyers and other “community advisers,” according to a report by the House Financial Services Committee. •Retained GMMB, the liberal advocacy group that created ads for the Obama and Hillary Clinton presidential campaigns, for more than $40 million, making the Democrat shop the sole recipient of CFPB’s advertising expenditure, Rubin says. •Met behind closed doors to craft financial regulatory policy with notorious bank shakedown groups who have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grant money to gin up housing and lending discrimination complaints, which in turn are fed back to CFPB, according to Investor’s Business Daily and Judicial Watch. •Funneled a large portion of the more than $5 billion in penalties collected from defendants to community organizers aligned with Democrats — “a slush fund by another name,” said a consultant who worked with CFPB on its Civil Penalty Fund and requested anonymity. What’s more, CFPB has secretly assembled giant consumer databases that raise individual privacy as well as corporate liability concerns. One sweeps up personal credit card information and another compiles data on as many as 230 million mortgage applicants focusing on “race” and “ethnicity.” Yet another database of consumer complaints contains more than 900,000 grievances against named financial companies without any vetting to determine their merit, points out Alan Kaplinsky, lead regulatory compliance attorney at Ballard Spahr LLP.

Resolution to Honor Civil Rights Hero Fred Korematsu

February 6, 2017, Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley introduced a resolution honoring Fred Korematsu, who challenged the internment of Japanese Americans.

Wyden and Merkley said the resolution honoring Korematsu’s work and advocacy of the civil rights and liberties of all people is timely, given the president’s executive order establishing a Muslim ban.

"Fred Korematsu’s brave advocacy for the civil rights of 120,000 Japanese Americans remains a timeless example of courage that resonates today and every day,“ Wyden said. “I am committed to fighting for the continued advance of civil rights he spent his life defending, and against those who would betray both the law and our history to impose an unconstitutional religious test on immigrants."

"Heroes like Fred Korematsu demonstrate the importance of fighting fiercely for our core American values, even when it is hard,” said Merkley. “His story reminds us that the time is always right to stand up for what is right. We must keep fighting for the freedom and equality that define our nation, and ensure that the Statue of Liberty continues to stand as a beacon of hope around the world."

The resolution is cosponsored by Senators Mazie Hirono, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Brian Schatz, Sherrod Brown, Sheldon Whitehouse, Maria Cantwell, Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Tim Kaine , Patty Murray, Chris Coons, and Dick Durbin.

A broad coalition of advocacy organizations support the resolution, including the Fred T. Korematsu Institute, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee & Defending Dissent Foundation, Demand Progress, Free Press Action Fund, Restore the Fourth, The Yemen Peace Project, and Fight for the Future.

Democracy for America

Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senate, Massachusetts, was endorsed by Democracy for America in 2018.

Democratic senators denounce West Bank annexation plan

(June 7, 2019 / JNS) Six Democratic senators introduced a non-binding resolution on Thursday denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign promise to annex parts of Judea and Samaria.

Two of them, Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), are running for the Democratic nomination for president next year.

“Unilateral annexation of portions of the West Bank would jeopardize prospects for a two-state solution, harm Israel’s relationship with its Arab neighbors, threaten Israel’s Jewish and democratic identity, and undermine Israel’s security,” stated the resolution.

It mentioned that “the policy of the United States should be to preserve conditions conducive to a negotiated two state solution.”

The other senators who introduced the measure were Jeff Merkley (D-Wash.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

"Be HEARD" Act

April 9 2019, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), top Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, was joined by Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-MA-5), Vice Chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7), to introduce the Bringing an End to Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination (Be HEARD) in the Workplace Act, legislation which takes critical steps to ensure businesses have more resources to prevent harassment and workers have more support when they seek accountability and justice, and sends a clear message to those who think they can get away with assault or harassment on the job: time is up.

Senator Murray announced the introduction at a news conference with survivors and advocates who shared their personal stories about workplace assault and harassment, including Adriana Cazorla, a Washington state domestic worker and advocate with National Domestic Workers Alliance, and Maria del Carmen Ruelas, farm worker with Justice for Migrant Women Advocates who also resides in Washington state. Additionally, leaders from the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) participated and highlighted the urgent need to pass the legislation.

“No matter who you are or where you work—whether you are the only woman on the board, or a janitor, or farm worker, you should be treated fairly, respectfully, and with dignity. This should be true no matter your gender or race, your religion or sexual orientation or age—and regardless of whether you have a disability or are a veteran.” said Senator Murray. “For far too long and for far too many people in our country this hasn’t been true. So today, I’m proud to be standing up to fight for change and make clear that time is up.”

In addition to Senator Murray, the Senate bill is co-sponsored by U.S. Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Bob Casey (D-PA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Ed Markey (D-MA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). The House bill is being introduced by Congresswoman Katherine Clark (D-MA-5), Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D-MA-7), Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin (D-MI-8), and Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-FL-26).

Albano connection

Terrie Albano with Elizabeth Warren June 2019.

Congressional Progressive Caucus event

An article at In These Times by Rebecca Burns titled "Tax the Hell Out of the Rich, When They’re Alive and When They’re Dead" dated February 8, 2019 references Elizabeth Warren and was also posted at the Congressional Progressive Caucus website:,

"An incredible thing has happened in 2019: We’re actually talking seriously about taxing the rich. And the debate is not over whether to do it, but how.

Within the month of January, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders proposed separate measures that would, respectively, increase top marginal tax rates on income, levy a direct tax on wealth and interrupt intergenerational transfers of fortunes.

It’s important to note that these policies are not in any way mutually exclusive: When it comes to billionaires, we can tax them when they’re alive, and we can tax them when they’re dead!

But given that these proposals are already framing the terms of debate for the 2020 presidential contest, we can still ask which approach goes the furthest in abating inequality and removing the stranglehold of billionaires on our politics.

And, it turns out, there are a few different ways to answer that question. Warren’s wealth tax would raise the most money — around $2.75 trillion over the next decade, according to the calculations of experts backing her proposal. But the amount of money added to public coffers isn’t the only factor in evaluating a progressive taxation plan. Somewhat counter-intuitively, taxes on the super-rich should bring in less revenue over time because they are having a broader effect on reducing inequality and therefore the amount of concentrated wealth or income to be taxed.

That’s where two other sets of political considerations come in: How a plan to tax the rich will promote other beneficial effects, like shoring up worker bargaining power, and how it will send a political message and advance a broader working-class agenda.

There are of course also plenty of important details that go into how well a progressive tax plan actually works — how effectively it closes loopholes, how it identifies and counts assets to be taxed, etc. But those are highly technical in nature, and not as easily understood by the general public. So here, I’m going to consider the political messages that, to date, seem best conveyed through each approach.

Warren’s plan: It’s time for the rich to pay their fair share

Warren’s ​“ultra-millionaire” tax is sweeping in its ambition. It’s also the most radical, in the sense that we haven’t done it before.

Unlike higher income and estate taxes — which were in effect for decades — a wealth tax has primarily been the stuff of progressive economists’ fantasies. What’s more, one of the most popular proposals to date — put forward in a paper by the Institute for Policy Studies — has been a 1 percent tax on the wealthiest 0.1 percent, or those with assets of over $20 million. Warren’s proposal would tax fewer people — those with more than $50 million in assets, an estimated 75,000 families — but she would bump up the rate to 2 percent. Households with more than $1 billion in assets would get a 3 percent rate.

Warren’s proposal is extremely popular. A YouGov poll funded by Data For Progress found 61 percent overall support, including 76 percent support among Democrats and even a plurality of support among Republicans, 44 percent to 37 percent. It’s also earning accolades from center-left economists like Paul Krugman.

That doesn’t mean it’s not shaking up the status quo. At the heart of the policy is a legal argument that it’s not unconstitutional to tax wealth, and a moral and political argument that, in fact, we need to.

Where Warren’s proposal would probably be insufficient on its own is that it wouldn’t offer a particularly aggressive corrective to inequality over time. It would raise trillions for social programs, which is crucially important and would certainly have other beneficial political effects. But, as a result of the tax, the fabulously wealthy would be only slightly less fabulously so.

And while Warren has floated some potential programs that her wealth tax could pay for — universal childcare, student loan relief, millions of units of new affordable housing — campaigning on a wealth tax divorced from a specific political program could make it harder to mobilize people by laying out clear stakes.

Ocasio-Cortez: Tax the Rich or Torch the Planet

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez kicked off this blessed discussion last month, when asked during a ​“60 Minutes” interview how she would pay for a Green New Deal:

“You look at our tax rates back in the ​’60s and when you have a progressive tax rate system. Your tax rate, you know, let’s say, from zero to $75,000 may be ten percent or 15 percent, et cetera. But once you get to, like, the tippy tops — on your 10 millionth dollar — sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.”

By even the most optimistic estimates, this would bring in only a quarter of the revenues Warren’s plan would generate.

But at a Wednesday forum hosted by Ocasio-Cortez and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Economic Policy Institute President Thea Lee called hiking marginal rates for top earners the ​“obvious and optimal starting point.”

Among other political benefits, there’s evidence that higher income tax rates would change the behavioral calculus of owners and CEOs by curbing their bargaining for ever-higher earnings. If the last million dollars someone makes is going to go mostly to taxes anyway, there’s less incentive to fight for it by, for example, keeping employee’s pay stagnant.

Along these lines, the Institute for Policy Studies has proposed linking top income tax rates to the minimum wage.

Moreover, while wealth inequality is even greater than income inequality, the latter contributes to the former over time.

The Center for Economic Progress’ Eileen Appelbaum summarized this relationship at Wednesday’s forum. The top earners can’t spend their incomes on themselves, so they use them to buy more assets and continue to get wealthier.

“Unless we do something along the lines of what AOC has suggested, this situation will continue,” said Appelbaum.

Beyond these slightly more technical considerations, AOC’s framing has made the stakes crystal clear: If we want to save the planet, we can’t afford not to tax the rich.

Sanders: Abolish Billionaires

Bernie Sanders’ plan involves restoring top marginal tax rates on inheritances to where they were in the 1970s: 77 percent for estates over $1 billion.

The plan would also decrease the threshold for the inheritance tax from $11.18 million to $3.5 million and impose a 45 percent rate on this lower (but still very rich by any normal standard) tier. Even with this new threshold, just 0.2 percent of Americans would ever pay an estate tax. Thus, in the style of Occupy, the plan is called ​“For the 99.8 Percent Act.”

Again, Sanders’ plan would probably raise less revenue than Warren’s: About $315 billion over a decade. But by taking aim at the ultra-rich as a class, it also singles out the kind of dynastic wealth that allows a few families to wreak havoc on our political system. Just three families with multi-generational wealth — the Waltons, the Kochs, and the Mars — have a combined fortune of $343 billion, more than 3.5 million times the median wealth of U.S. families. And they use that wealth to fund all manner of right-wing policies.

The Right has steadily chipped away at the effectiveness of our existing estate tax for decades, painting it as a ​“death tax” on families who just lost loved ones. Admittedly, this plan would require billionaires to die before it raises significant revenue — an estimated $2.2 trillion.

Does that mean it’s vulnerable to the ​“death tax” rhetoric? Maybe. But in a delightfully petty move, the Sanders plan actually lists out how much money the rest of us would get when specific people like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet depart this Earth — $101 billion, $74 billion and $64 billion, respectively.

Taken alongside Sanders’ broader efforts to target Bezos and the Waltons over worker pay, this plan sends a clear message: Billionaires are bad, and the sooner they and their unearned influence kick the solid-gold bucket, the better for the rest of us. And that message is gaining steam.

To achieve left priorities like a Green New Deal, Medicare for All and universal childcare, we probably need some version of all three of these types of taxes. But it’s important to evaluate not just how much of the price tag new progressive taxes would cover, but how they would transform the balance of power, invigorate our politics and mobilize Americans around achieving bold, transformative policies.

External links

• The Tobin Project website