Elizabeth Warren, the scourge of Wall Street and Trump antagonist, is poised to take a more prominent role in opposing Republican priorities in the face of a Republican Party trifecta in Washington — but her chances for success will depend on her ability to mend fences within her own party.
The Massachusetts lawmaker is poised to become the top Democrat on the Republican-led Senate Banking Committee, giving her more power than ever on a panel where she has had her image burnished as a progressive icon by bankers from swearing and hurting colleagues on both sides of the bench. aisle. That history of internal conflict is fueling hopes among the committee’s conservatives that they can win bipartisan support against Warren on looming issues like cryptocurrency regulation and newly elected President Donald Trump’s economic nominees.
“I’ve worked well with Elizabeth Warren over the years; there have been areas where we have clearly disagreed,” moderate Senator Mark Warner of Virginia said in an interview. “And I’m sure some of those disagreements won’t go away.”
Warren, who was elected to the Senate in 2012, has had a major influence on Democrats’ economic agenda even without taking a full leadership role on the committee. Her influence peaked in the Biden era, when many of her former aides and allies held key administration positions and her views were reflected on issues such as consumer protection and student debt. But that influence hasn’t always been strong enough to stop Democrats from rolling back banking regulations during Donald Trump’s first term or supporting crypto-friendly legislation this year.
“I told all the people on the Democratic side who thanked me for being bipartisan when I got some tough votes, ‘I look forward to showing all of you that you can be that,’” Senator Thom Tillis (RN.C.) said in an interview. “So I’m going back to some of them.”
What Warren can accomplish in Senate banking will be the highest-stakes test yet of her appeal in Washington. The role will allow her to hire more staff, select committee witnesses and potentially have more bargaining power with lawmakers as she looks to push back on business-friendly nominees and legislation. She will have to find a way to fight those fights while working with Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Trump loyalist who will ascend to chairman of the Senate bench after serving as a ranking member.
Warren outlines policies that she claims could be ripe for compromise with Republicans. That includes boosting the supply of affordable housing and recovering compensation from executives at failed banks.
“There are two central issues that Democrats agree on: affordability and accountability,” Warren said in an interview, adding that she hoped to work with Scott on those areas.
The vocal advocacy for stricter banking regulations after the 2008 collapse of Wall Street made Warren a household name — and a favorite punching bag of Republicans. Progressive supporters hope she can do more of the same in her high-profile role.
“What we’re going to see from Republicans is a tsunami of deregulation … and they’re going to fight it across the board,” said Dennis Kelleher, a former Democratic Senate aide who now heads the financial watchdog group Better. Markets.
As the top Democrat on the panel, with Republicans controlling the majority, Warren will not be in charge of the committee’s hearings or legislation. But former aides say they still expect her to have significant influence.
“When I worked for her, we had no power,” said Groundwork Collaborative Executive Director Lindsay Owens, a former Warren economic policy adviser. “And she still wielded enormous influence over economic conversations and economic policy in Washington because of the way she used her megaphone.”
Warren rose to prominence in Washington as head of a congressionally appointed committee that oversaw the Treasury Department’s bank bailout after the 2008 financial crisis and by creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she reportedly created invented when she was still an academic.
“She has deep, substantive expertise in the policy areas under the Banking Committee’s jurisdiction in a way that could be unparalleled in the committee’s history,” said Dan Geldon, Warren’s former chief of staff.
K Street lobbyists fought fiercely to convince Warner to take the Senate bench job to keep it out of Warren’s hands. Now they are bracing themselves for the fact that she will cause real damage to the companies they represent just by sending messages.
“Warren is smart and very comfortable on camera and in print, and doesn’t need a subpoena to be effective,” said Travis Norton, a financial services lobbyist who previously served as Scott’s banking adviser.
Crypto lobbyists are wondering whether the industry’s expensive super PAC push to oust current Senate Banking Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) could have been a miscalculation.
“[Democrats] don’t have the votes, so it’s a rhetorical stance – but a rhetorical stance is what’s been killing us for years,” said one crypto lobbyist, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “We would have been better off with a Republican Senate and Sherrod in that seat and plenty of shaking.”
When asked if she would be open to advancing crypto legislation next year, Warren replied: “It depends on what it looks like.” Warren is one of her party’s fiercest critics of the crypto industry, which she has warned is a threat to the financial system and rife with crime.
“I have not seen anyone in the Banking Committee making the argument that crypto should be excluded from the rules to prevent drug traffickers and terrorists from using any part of our financial system,” she said.
Jasper Goodman contributed to this report.
