In Making A Case For Herself, Elizabeth Warren Is Also Making A Case For A Progressive Future

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is up for reelection in November, so she’s out making the case for herself. But the case isn’t actually just for herself. She’s very aware she’s also making the case for progressive policymaking and goals at a time when moderates are hoping to wrest some power away from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Part of the pitch for Warren (and for progressives) is a 72-page report her Senate office is releasing Thursday outlining her major accomplishments during her 12 years in office. It covers most of Warren’s major victories, from ideological ones like pushing for student debt relief (a cause Harris has also championed) and passing legislation dramatically lowering the cost of hearing aids to more parochial ones, including securing $50 billion for infrastructure projects in Massachusetts.

It also highlights her good government work: increasing ethics standards for various officeholders, her aggressive questioning of bank company CEOs, and even bipartisan efforts like cracking down on junk fees alongside Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).

The report’s immediate point is to remind voters back home she’s as much of a policymaking workhorse as she is an occasional rhetorical bomb thrower. But if it also serves as a reminder to the people staffing a potential Harris administration how Warren’s wing of the party generates politically useful and popular ideas, the Massachusetts senator would not mind.

“This report shows that progressives get important things done,” Warren told HuffPost in a brief phone interview on Wednesday. “It’s an optimistic report, because it both includes those proof points for what we have done but also shows the way for the things we can do next.”

Warren, in her standard