Senate Democrats will be holding theirleadership elections Thursday morning. A source saw Warren coming out of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) office Wednesday.
A spokesman for Reid declined to comment on why Warren was there, and Warren's office did not immediately return a request for comment.
Having Warren in a leadership position would give the Senate's most high-profile progressive member a voice in setting the caucus' policy agenda. She recently wrote a Washington Post op-ed, reflecting on the party's midterm losses, that called on Congress and the administration to push forward with progressive proposals instead of cutting deals with Republicans simply for the sake of doing so. From her op-ed:
Before leaders in Congress and the president get caught up in proving they can pass some new laws, everyone should take a skeptical look at whom those new laws will serve. At this very minute, lobbyists and lawyers are lining up by the thousands to push for new laws -- laws that will help their rich and powerful clients get richer and more powerful. Hoping to catch a wave of dealmaking, these lobbyists and lawyers -- and their well-heeled clients -- are looking for the chance to rig the game just a little more. [...]Yes, we need action. But action must be focused in the right place: on ending tax laws riddled with loopholes that favor giant corporations, on breaking up the financial institutions that continue to threaten our economy, and on giving people struggling with high-interest student loans the same chance to refinance their debt that every Wall Street corporation enjoys. There’s no shortage of work that Congress can do, but the agenda shouldn’t be drawn up by a bunch of corporate lobbyists and lawyers.
Although Democratic candidates suffered severe losses in the midterm elections, progressive policy issues that were on the ballot -- such as the minimum wage --performed well. Reid's office has already said it will be pushing progressive policies in the new year, when Democrats are in the minority.
Many Democratic activists are already looking forward toward the 2016 elections, when the party facesa much friendlier landscape than it did in 2014. In two years, just 10 Democrats will be facing re-election, compared with 24 Republicans -- many of whom are in blue states that voted for President Barack Obama.
Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: Amanda Terkel, Ryan Grim
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