Sen. Elizabeth Warren brought her presidential campaign to Chicago’s North Side on Saturday night, assailing the power of corporations in America to an overflow crowd in Edgewater and picking up the endorsement of 10-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Evanston.
“Only in Chicago is the big Saturday night entertainment politics,” Warren told the crowd that stood below her on a packed basketball court at the Broadway Armory.
Before the rally began, a line of hundreds of supporters snaked for several blocks outside the Armory for hours in chilly temperatures and occasional drizzle.
Warren stuck largely to her stock campaign script, explaining her family’s struggles and her history as a teacher before turning to her platform, which includes raising the minimum wage, battling big corporations and Wall Street, and taxing fortunes of more than $50 million to cover a variety of social programs.
“When I was a girl, a full-time minimum wage in America would support a family of three,” said Warren, 70. “Today, a full-time minimum wage job in America will not keep a mama and a baby out of poverty. That is wrong.”
Warren assailed a government that she said worked for big pharmaceutical companies and private prison contractors, countering the interests of families needing affordable drugs and seeking social justice.
Large corporations, she said, exist with “power over their employees, power over their customers, power over the communities where they’re located and power over Washington.”
In response, she said, “We need more power in the hands of workers.”
“We have a government that works great for giant oil companies that want to drill everywhere, just not for the rest of us who see climate change bearing down upon us,” Warren said.
“And when you see a government that works great for those with money, it’s not working so good for anyone else. That’s corruption pure and simple, and we need to call it out,” she said.
It was Warren’s first public campaign visit to Chicago since back-to-back appearances in late June, when she spoke to a large crowd at the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University and the next day addressed a mostly African American audience in Bronzeville as part of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition’s annual convention. Earlier this fall Warren, like some of her rivals, came to Chicago to support then-striking Chicago Teachers Union members.
Warren finds herself in an intense competition with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in trying to tap into the more progressive elements of the Democratic Party.
Emphasizing her push to win progressive support, Warren touted the endorsement of Schakowsky, a member of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s leadership team, who introduced the presidential candidate.
“I am 100 percent committed to getting rid of Donald Trump. I’ll be honest, I will at the end of the day if it’s necessary support whatever Democrat is nominated to be president,” Schakowsky said.
“But I am here this evening, and so honored to be here, to not only introduce but for the first time endorse the woman I believe will not only be the best president, but the woman that I believe is the most likely to lead us to victory in 2020 — my candidate, Elizabeth Warren,” Schakowsky said.
Schakowsky is the first woman in Illinois’ congressional delegation to endorse a presidential contender and becomes Warren’s most significant endorsement in the state to date. Previously, U.S. Reps. Bobby Rush and Danny Davis, both of Chicago, backed California Sen. Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Warren said she was “deeply grateful” to have the endorsement of Schakowsky, whom she called “a relentless fighter for working families.”
Looking to gain an edge from the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, Warren in September endorsed Marie Newman of LaGrange in her primary challenge for the Southwest Side and suburban congressional seat held by eight-term Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski of Western Springs, a social conservative.
Sanders and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker also have endorsed Newman, who came within percentage points of upsetting Lipinski last year.
Warren has been criticized for her “Medicare for All” guaranteed health care proposal. Moderate rivals argue her plan would take away private health insurance — a provision that has long been the subject of fierce bargaining by Democratic-supporting labor unions.
Warren’s trip to Chicago also comes as questions have arisen over whether her campaign has reached a plateau in support and polling.
In the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, Warren has seen support slip from September to early November.
The Iowa poll, conducted by the Des Moines Register and CNN, showed her leading the crowded field with 22% in September. But the most recent poll, conducted in early November, showed her falling to 16%, trailing the new Iowa frontrunner, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg with 25%.
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