The Democratic Party is ‘doomed to fail’ if it does this, Warren says in high-profile speech

Politics

The key to winning elections is economic populism, not an overreliance on wealthy donors, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren is looking to make her mark on the upcoming midterm elections and beyond.

She used a high-profile appearance Monday to lay out a vision for how Democrats can regain power. The Massachusetts senator laced into wealthy Democratic donors and factions of the party that she says are too beholden to corporate interests, while advocating for a vision of unapologetic economic populism.

“A Democratic Party that worries more about offending big donors than delivering for working people is a party doomed to fail in 2026, 2028, and beyond,” she said. 

Warren’s speech and a subsequent Q&A session at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., come a week after she donated $400,000 to 23 state Democratic parties in areas with competitive midterm races. The former presidential candidate touted these donations during her speech, saying that America faces a “dangerous moment” ahead of the crucial elections. 

The senator decried a range of actions by the Trump administration, from its attack on Venezuela to its handling of the killing of Renee Good in Minnesota. None of this would be happening, she said, if Democrats were not “wiped out” in 2024. She took issue with some saying that Democrats lost because they were too progressive. 

“For a lot of powerful people, wealthy people from Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Washington, ‘too progressive’ is code used to undermine any economic agenda that favors working people,” she said. 

Some ultrawealthy people do embrace sensible regulations and push for things that would improve the lives of working people, but many more are working to prop up Democrats that prioritize special tax breaks and deregulations that make them richer, she said. The ultrawealthy hold outsized power in Democratic politics, Warren added, citing their ability to fund super PACs and their own lobbying efforts. 

Warren argued for growing the Democratic base into a “big tent” that includes rural voters and those without college degrees. The successes the party saw in places like New Jersey and Virginia last year were heartening, but Warren warned that in the long run Democrats need to do more than simply attack President Donald Trump’s economic policies. 

To win back the trust of voters, Democrats need to demonstrate that they understand what’s broken about America’s economic system and that they are willing to take bold swings in order to fix it, she said. The time for “nibbling around the edges” is over, Warren said. 

“Americans are stretched to the breaking point financially, and they will vote for candidates who name what is wrong and who credibly demonstrate that they will take on a rigged system in order to fix it,” she said. 

The senator spoke about the “abundance agenda,” agreeing with the authors of that bestselling book that the government needs to be more efficient in delivering for people. But some are weaponizing that framework to make a push for Democrats who favor big business. Warren specifically criticized Reid Hoffman, the billionaire LinkedIn co-founder and major Democratic donor.

Warren ran through a litany of policy goals that she believes Democrats around the country should embrace. Some examples included building affordable housing, cracking down on corporate landlords, increasing the size of social security payments, passing laws that target price gouging, strengthening unions, taxing the wealthy, and raising the minimum wage. 

Every Democrat should be proposing concrete plans to lower costs that are easily communicated to voters, Warren said. She cited the winning campaigns of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New Jersey Governor-elect Mikie Sherrill as evidence that this can work. 

“Running on small, vague ideas that may also raise costs for families instead of on full-throated economic populist ideas is a terrible plan for winning elections,” Warren said.