Elizabeth Warren says Democrats need to ‘read the room’ on the economy

By Molly English, CNN

Washington (CNN) — Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on her party Monday to “read the room” and begin appealing to a wider swath of the working-class public by keeping a stringent focus on the economy.

“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,” Warren said in a speech outlining her vision of Democrats’ electoral future at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.

She added that a 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.”

Her remarks — which also criticized Donald Trump — seemed to catch the attention of the president, who Warren said called her afterward. In a statement, the Massachusetts Democrat said she urged Trump to back bipartisan housing legislation and push for Congress to enact a cap on credit card interest rates as he proposed last week.

A White House official later said the president and Warren had “a productive call about credit card interest rates and housing affordability for the American people.”

The Massachusetts senator and 2020 presidential candidate championed populist policy ideas and increased regulation of big business long before affordability became a political buzzword. Heading into a critical midterm year, Warren is proposing that an “aggressive economic vision” be the central pillar of the Democratic Party’s strategy.

This follows a wider effort by Democrats around the country to focus on the economy after successes in 2025 off-year elections in New Jersey, Virginia and New York City, where candidates overwhelmingly leaned on a message of affordability.

“To win, every Democrat should be proposing concrete plans for lowering costs,” Warren said.

It’s a focus point that continues to be top of mind around the country. A December CNN poll revealed that, if given the chance to tell leaders of the Democratic party one thing that would make life in America better, 22% of Americans said improving the cost of living or the economy.

Warren emphasized that the first step for the party is rebuilding a “long-term, durable trust” to create a “big tent” of voters, so they know Democrats “actually understand what’s broken, and trust that we have the courage to fix it – even when that means taking on the wealthy and well-connected.”

Top Democrats in the Senate are already laying the groundwork for affordability to take center stage on the campaign trail this year. Last week, Warren and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer launched an election-year push zeroing in on housing.

Warren has a history of bringing affordability to the forefront. She proposed the idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as a law professor in 2007. The agency, created in 2011, has been a target of conservatives, and Trump has sought to dismantle it since taking office last year, although he has faced significant challenges in doing so.

Her views – and her longstanding criticisms of Democrats she sees as out of touch – have often ruffled feathers within the party.

Jim Kessler, executive vice president at Third Way, a center-left think tank, slammed Warren on Monday for “dividing the Democratic Party between progressives and shills for Wall Street and corporate interests.”

“Enough of the moral superiority from the left,” Kessler said in a statement.

Kessler emphasized a need for centrist candidates in upcoming elections, listing as examples newly elected governors Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey and future 2028 presidential hopefuls like Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.

“You can dress up the Warren speech all you want, but it is a supersized Bidenism 2.0,” Kessler said.

Warren on Monday also criticized major Democratic billionaire donor Reid Hoffman, who responded publicly on X, saying he agreed with the senator that “today’s economy is not working for most people”, but that Warren wants to fix that problem by growing regulation.

“Her politics shrinks the tent,” Hoffman said. “We need a bigger, smarter coalition that can beat Trump and deliver.”

In a post-speech question-and-answer session, Warren avoided saying directly whether Democrats should compromise on campaigning on social issues like abortion rights and immigration in favor of the economy, but said it is the “economic message that has to be the tip of the spear for Democrats.”

“It is the thing that American people are telling us they want us to talk about,” Warren said. “I’m trying to lay the foundation for how Democrats run in 2026, and I think we do that on a solid foundation that is based on our economics.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg contributed to this report.