Warren best choice for president

Last May, I stood at a press conference. Joined by lawmakers, activists, business owners and patients, we announced a plan that would make an affordable, high-quality health care option available to Connecticut’s small businesses. It was an example of how determination and collaboration could bring about real change for hard-working people in our state. Six days later, the effort was dead.

Through his Capitol representative, the CEO of a Connecticut-based insurance company had made it known that any effort to improve health care access through state law would result in the company considering relocation of its Connecticut headquarters. It was a stark example of the imbalance of power in America today. One man in a corner office at a private corporation with an eight-figure compensation package had veto power over public policy impacting all other state residents. We need to dramatically reform the way government works — at all levels — and put power to where it belongs: in the hands of the people. That is why, today, I am endorsing Sen. Elizabeth Warren for president.

Sen. Warren understands that we have arrived at a crossroads in American history. Corruption is now baked into the legislative process in Washington. The wealthiest political donors, wellnetworked lobbyists and the largest corporations have an outsized impact on the role of government and its ability to improve the lives of working families. Sen. Warren also has a plan — dozens of plans, really — to change that.

Her ideas include boosting the middle class with universal child care, historic investments in public education and green manufacturing initiatives. She has proposed an expansion of Social Security and an increase in benefits for seniors. Her economic and trade policies will represent the best interests of American workers, American consumers and American national security.

She will implement a lifetime ban on members of Congress becoming lobbyists, wring big money out of politics with muchneeded campaign finance reform, and attack Washington corruption with the most comprehensive set of reforms since Watergate.

All of these plans are the result of broad collaboration with experts, advocates and community leaders and are backed by reliable data proving their likelihood for success and our ability to pay for them by asking the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share.

We can only bring about real change in this country when there is a movement of people pushing politicians in the right direction and a leader on the inside who can pull the levers of government accordingly. Sen. Warren has shown a unique desire to wield the tools of the presidency through smart, consumerfocused regulation and the appointment of diverse experts, advocates and activists in policy and management throughout her administration. Enacting the Warren agenda would reinvent the federal government and make it more responsive, more representative and more just.

I believe this is the most important presidential election of my lifetime. Our vote in November 2020 will be a referendum on the kind of country we want to live in. Is the status quo of Washington politics good enough? Should our government only work for those with the means to buy access to politicians? Do we value inclusion and opportunity and community?

The Democratic Party is fortunate to have a field of talented, accomplished and honorable candidates in the 2020 election, any of whom would serve this country well. Above all, however, Elizabeth Warren shares our Connecticut values, that everyone deserves an equal opportunity to succeed and everyone deserves an equal voice in how their government works. She has the intelligence, the moral clarity and — to borrow a phrase from Sen. Mitch McConnell — the persistence to transform our country into one that truly lives up to its values.

Kevin Lembo is comptroller of the state of Connecticut.