Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warned Democrats on Monday against moderating their economic agenda to cater to the demands of wealthy donors ahead of the 2026 and 2028 election cycles.

Instead, Warren said during a speech at the National Press Club, Democrats should embrace “full-throated, economic populist ideas” and reject the idea that the Democratic party lost in 2024 because its platform was “too progressive.”

The high-powered folks of Wall Street, Silicon Valley and Washington, according to Warren, “want the Democratic Party to respond to the 2024 losses by watering down our economic agenda and sucking up to the rich and powerful, claiming that a less progressive Democratic Party will win more elections.”

“They are wrong,” Warren continued.

The 2020 presidential candidate said Americans want to support candidates who recognize their financial hardships and demonstrate a willingness to “take on a rigged system in order to fix it.”

“Revising our economic agenda to tiptoe around that conclusion might appeal to the wealthy, but it will not help Democrats build a bigger tent, and it definitely will not help Democrats win elections,” Warren said.

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

Warren acknowledged the role money plays in modern-day politics, saying, “I don’t believe in unilateral disarmament against the Republicans,” and noting Democrats still need to raise money.

She said, however, that “the money just isn’t worth it” if it means Democrats have to water down their agenda to appeal to wealthy donors, saying working people can sense that sort of “transaction,” whether it’s explicit or subtle.

“I understand the temptation — in this moment of national crisis — to sand down our edges to avoid offending anyone, especially the rich and powerful who might finance our candidates. But we can’t win unless we rebuild trust,” she said.

Warren said Democrats should learn from successful candidates like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) and New Jersey Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill (D), who “focused on cost of living with an easy-to-understand platform.”

She said Democrats should be pushing an “aggressive economic vision,” including boosting pay, building affordable homes and “cracking down on corporate landlords,” providing universal child care, increasing Social Security checks, strengthening unions, passing price gouging laws and right-to-repair laws, taxing the wealthy and giant corporations, increasing the minimum wage and building universal health care.

“We win when we run on the big changes it will take to build an economy for everyone,” Warren said. “We win when we call out corruption and bad actors. We win when we stand against the avalanche of corporate money trying to bury our democracy. We win when we stop members of Congress from buying and selling individual stocks and cryptocurrencies while they are writing laws that affect those very assets.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5685101-warren-wealthy-donors-warning/

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