Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren addresses a packed crowd in Chem 140 at a Udall campaign event. Prior to her election to the Senate in 2012, Warren was known for being an active consumer protection advocate. (Nigel Amstock/CU Independent)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) stopped by CU on Friday, Oct. 17 to support Sen. Mark Udall’s (D-Colo.) reelection campaign.
Udall held a rally in CHEM 140, and Warren, who delivered the keynote address, received a prolonged standing ovation after her introduction from Udall.
Other speakers at the rally included U.S. Senator Michael Bennett (D-Colo.), CU Regent and Democratic candidate for Colorado Secretary of State Joe Neguse and Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.).
Warren has been making her way through swing states to help campaign for Democrats, particularly in elections for the Senate. Her address to the CU audience centered on student debt reform, a large part of Udall’s education platform. She said that while students and families suffer the financial burdens of loans, the federal government is benefiting.
“The loans that went out from 2007 and 2012 today are on target — after you do the administrative cost, after you do the cost of fines, after you do the bad debt losses — are on target to produce $66 billion in profit for the United States government,” Warren said.
Warren said this profit is already accounted for in the budget. As a solution, Warren said people earning more than one million dollars per year adjusted gross income should have to pay taxes at least at the same rates that middle class families do.
Warren’s presence at the rally clearly motivated attendance, but her presence might have diminished the view of Udall by comparison.
“Elizabeth Warren’s charismatic, rousing speech, compared with Mark Udall’s cookie-cutter appeal, only served to undercut any enthusiasm I had for Udall,” said Raffi Mercuri, a graduate student studying education. “Elizabeth Warren was the most genuine politician I heard speak and I sincerely enjoyed listening to her. The rest of it is predictable at best.”
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Matthew DuBois at Matthew.dubois@colorado.edu.
