The 2017 Pension Political Power 25: Elizabeth Warren

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22. Elizabeth Warren
U.S. Senator

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren is one of her party’s fiercest opponents of the Republican agenda on retirement, which ranges from privatizing Social Security to cutbacks in pension benefits. And with key pension issues coming down the pipeline, she’s the leader workers expect to fight in their corner, as she did last year when she came out against Goldman Sachs Group and Northern Trust Corp. for charging fees on the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund when it was facing insolvency. As a populist counterpoint to Donald Trump, she’s among the few capable of mobilizing crowds that could force the GOP to reconsider its policies. Warren, 67, who recently announced that she will run for reelection in 2018, sits on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and has been talking about the retirement crisis almost since she joined the Senate, in 2011. Her signature accomplishment, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, shows her understanding of the complex financial issues facing middle-class voters. One of the Democrats’ most prodigious fundraisers, Warren is widely considered a potential presidential candidate for 2020. — Michelle Celarier

The 2017 Pension Political Power 25