Add members of the International Association of Fire Fighters to the growing list of Democrats clamoring for liberal firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren to run for president and give the party an alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2016.
Mrs. Warren on Monday wowed the IAFF annual conference in Washington with her trademark pitch, garnering a standing ovation as she railed against a government that she says doles out subsidies for big corporations while doing less and less for working families.
“I’m proud to be standing shoulder to shoulder with you, fighting for hard-working families across this country,” she declared. “I will be a strong voice for you, for your equipment, for your training, for your people. I will be a strong voice for working people across this country.”
Mrs. Warren, a consumer advocate who helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has honed a populist message that catapulted her from Harvard professor to the U.S. Senate in 2012. The union bosses were enamored by the same anti-Wall Street rhetoric that has made Mrs. Warren progressives’ dream candidate for 2016.
The speech contained echoes of a national political campaign, although Mrs. Warren has insisted repeatedly that she is not running.
She also gave the address a day before the conference’s presidential forum Tuesday that will include at least 10 potential presidential contenders, including Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida, as well as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who will appear via satellite video.
Mrs. Clinton, who lost the IAFF endorsement to then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, is not scheduled to address the conference. IAFF officials said Mrs. Clinton declined an invitation to attend and cited a scheduling conflict.
Like most of those prodding Mrs. Warren to run, the firefighters were not convinced she will stay on the sidelines.
“She should be here tomorrow and should give Hillary Clinton a run for her money,” said Joseph W. Krajnik, 69, president of the firefighters local union in Jersey City, New Jersey.
“Everything she was saying would resonate not only with the firefighters but with the trade labor movement as a whole [and], more importantly, with the people of the United States,” said Mr. Krajnik. “I haven’t heard Hillary Clinton make a speech like that in a long time.”
He said Mrs. Warren upstaged the half-dozen other politicians, including Vice President Joseph R. Biden, who addressed the conference Monday.
Others expressed dissatisfaction with Mrs. Clinton, who is the overwhelming front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and so far faces little more than token opposition from prospective challengers such as former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, both of whom will address the conference Tuesday.
“I’m not a big Hillary Clinton fan as of yet. I’ve never been one,” said Charles “Rick” Hoffman, president of the local Baltimore firefighters union.
“We are facing a terrible crisis in this country, the crisis that comes from starving our basic services,” Mrs. Warren told the crowd, citing deteriorating roads, bridges, schools and emergency services. She blamed it on politicians and lobbyists who “rigged the game” in favor of big business and against working families.
“Everyone says the government is broke. But how can it be broke? There’s plenty of money for billions of dollars in subsidies for big oil companies. There’s plenty of money for special breaks for the owners of racehorses. There’s plenty of money for extra deals for the folks who own NASCAR racetracks,” she said. “So why is there no money to make our country work?”
“I’ll tell you why,” she continued. “It’s because the game is rigged. It’s because oil companies have great lobbyists. It’s because NASCAR owners and racehorse owners have friends in Washington. And everyone else just gets less and less and less. And it’s getting worse day by day.”
She called on the union leaders, who previously supported her Senate run, to stand with her in the fight.
“It is critical that we all speak up, that all of us work to get rid of the rigged game in Washington and to make this country once again for working people,” said Ms. Warren. “We got to do this. Our country is in real trouble. Our working families are in real trouble. It is only if we fight that that we once again build the kind of America where it works for working families.”
Her plea also won over some Republicans in the room.
Chris Stavros, a Republican firefighter from Glendale, California, who said he often votes Democratic, called the speech “fantastic.”
“The things she is saying are true,” he said. “If she says what she said up there, the way she speaks, the Republicans ought to be scared of her, and I think all the male candidates would be scared of her.”
Mr. Stavros said that Mrs. Clinton was an “OK” candidate but thinks she would be more vulnerable to Republican attacks over issues, such as her use of personal email to do official business while she served as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state.
“They are going to demonize her, and I think there is less to demonize with Elizabeth Warren,” he said.
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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