Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley blasted social injustice and Wall Street excesses as he launched a White House bid on Saturday, casting himself as a younger, more liberal alternative to Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“Powerful, wealthy special interests here at home have used our government to create, in our own country, an economy that is leaving a majority of our people behind,” said O’Malley, opening his 2016 presidential campaign with a rally at a waterfront park in downtown Baltimore.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group trying to push Democratic candidates to the left, praised his speech, saying he was so far “the only candidate to be outspoken about accountability for Wall Street bankers who committed crimes and crashed our economy.”

Many toward the left end of the Democratic Party spectrum are happy to see O’Malley join the presidential fray.

“Martin O’Malley’s entrance into the race will be one more factor that incentivizes a race to the top on economic populism issues,” the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which claims nearly one million members, said in a statement. “He has already taken strong stands in favor of debt-free college, expanding Social Security benefits, and Wall Street reform – and so far is the only candidate to be outspoken about accountability for Wall Street bankers who committed crimes and crashed our economy. The more Democrats compete to be the biggest hero on popular issues like these, the better it will be for Democrats and for America.”

Nine additional Democratic senators on Wednesday came out in support of a resolution calling for debt-free public college, bringing to 20 the total number of Senate Dems who support the measure, introduced only a month ago by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). …

The Guardian wrote on Wednesday that increased support for the Democrats’ plan “adds pressure on potential 2016 Democratic presidential candidates to either endorse the resolution or come up with a plan of their own, with supporters of the debt-free college measure particularly interested in seeing where Hillary Clinton will come out on the issue.”

As Adam Green of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC), one of the liberal groups driving support for the measure, told The Hill: “[T]he beauty of debt-free college is that it is a game-changing policy in millions of people’s lives and it is a tremendous winner for Democrats with voters. Our goal is to have it be a central campaign issue in 2016. When voters go to the polling booth, we want them to be thinking about debt-free college as one of the main things.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for making higher education “as debt-free as possible” on Monday, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a bill to make public colleges tuition-free on Tuesday.

“We have to deal with the indebtedness — to try to move toward making college as debt-free as possible,” Clinton said on the Iowa campaign trail. The statement brings her a step closer to endorsing so-called debt-free college, an idea brought to the forefront of the Democrats’ 2016 race by national progressive groups in recent months

As the Progressive Change Campaign Committee stated the goal in a recent paper, co-written with the progressive think tank Demos: “All students should have the ability to attend public colleges and universities and graduate without debt.” The group noted that means aid to cover both tuition and cost-of-living expenses — and also urged efforts to lower the underlying costs of higher education.

The PCCC started pushing to make debt-free college a mainstream Democratic position in January, according to a Bloomberg report. This week the group applauded Clinton’s statement.

“It’s great news that Hillary Clinton is talking about a national goal of debt-free college, and we look forward to hearing more specifics from her soon,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the progressive group.

Huge news. Monday in Iowa, Hillary Clinton talked about moving toward debt-free college for the first time. Take a look at the video.

Bloomberg News reports:

“The phrase ‘debt-free college’ was hardly present in the national political lexicon until the Progressive Change Campaign Committee launched a campaign in January to push Democrats to support the idea.”

The more public support presidential candidates see for big ideas, the more they will make them central to their campaigns.

Watch the video. Then, join 320,000 of us on the petition urging Clinton and other candidates to make debt-free college central in 2016.

Inside Higher Ed reports:

“After a concerted push over the past several months from liberals and progressive groups, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign appears to be on the cusp of embracing a debt-free college plan.”

PCCC has partnered with Democracy for America, Daily Kos, Demos, the AFL-CIO, NEA, the Working Families Party, Credo Action, MoveOn, and Americans for Democratic Action.

Here is a summary of PCCC members’ activism together:

In January, debt-free college rose to the top of the Progressive Change Instituteai??i??s ai???Big Ideas Project.ai???
On the day of the State of the Union, PCI released polling data of 2016 likely general election voters that showed federal investment in debt-free college is 71% to 19% popular. It is the #1 issue that Democrats who didn’t vote in 2014 said would have motivated them to vote.
In February and March, PCCC lobbied Congress. And sent field organizers to Iowa and New Hampshire.
In April, 5,000 political leaders signed the Ready For BoldnessAi??statement to urge all Democratic presidential candidates to run on …

Though the Senate Democratic primary was a year away, the national groups supporting Edwards knew that Van Hollen would be viewed as the prohibitive front-runner if they didn’t define the stakes of the contest immediately. Three of these groups — the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Democracy for America and Blue America — sent out a blizzard of fund-raising solicitations, petitions and emails to members and to the media, one of which hailed Edwards as “a true Elizabeth Warren Democrat,” referring to the U.S. senator from Massachusetts whose confrontational stances on economic issues have galvanized the left. Van Hollen received an altogether different reception. Within hours after he made his candidacy official on March 4, three other voices from the liberal wing of the party — MoveOn, Credo Action and Daily Kos, the website run by the activist Markos Moulitsas — openly questioned his progressive bona fides and implied that he was one of a breed of “corporate ‘New Democrats.’ ” Moulitsas’s website declared that Van Hollen’s flexibility on Social Security amounted to “a major red flag,” making him “a candidate that may bargain away retirement security.” Edwards, meanwhile, entered the race pointedly pledging never to tamper with Social Security, “no ifs, ands, buts or willing-to-considers.” …

After she earned a law degree and spent two decades working for various liberal advocacy groups, she ran in 2006 for the Maryland congressional seat occupied by an African-American centrist, Albert Wynn. That she nearly defeated Wynn with very little financial support drew the admiration of national progressive groups, which invested heavily in a 2008 rematch. When a robo call released by the Wynn campaign condemned Edwards for fiscal irresponsibility, citing the fact that tax liens had been placed on her Maryland house, she deftly reframed this bit of personal history as the struggle of a single mother in an economy rigged to benefit “corporate Democrats” like Wynn. Edwards clobbered him by 22 points, prompting MoveOn to send out an exultant fund-raising email with the subject heading, “Donna Edwards Beats Al Wynn: Who’s Next?” Adam Green, a founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told me that this 2008 race, largely undiscussed by the national media at the time, was in fact seminal. “Donna Edwards,” he said, “was the original victorious primary winner of the modern-day progressive era.”

Liberal groups are insisting that Hillary Clinton take a clear stand against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact that is a crucial part of President Obama’s second-term agenda.

They say Clinton, whose positions on trade have zigged and zagged during a long political career, should move beyond populist generalities and let voters know where she stands. …

Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, insisted that Clinton could not stay on the fence on TPP without suffering negative consequences among grassroots Democrats. And he placed her choice in a broader context.

“On most issues, like student debt and wages, the question for Hillary Clinton will not be about which direction she goes — but whether she goes big or goes small,” he said, “Endorsing fast track or the underlying TPP would certainly be going in the wrong direction but many could say the same thing about staying on the sideline when a fight is happening.”

He shouldn’t have a messy primary to win, as both the party establishment and progressive activists celebrated his entry into the race. The Senate Democrats’ campaign arm immediately endorsed him, and both the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and their favorite Democratic senator, Elizabeth Warren, sent out rapid requests for money to their email lists. Finally, while Johnson now has the advantage of incumbency, Feingold begins the race leading in the polls: A Marquette University survey last month found that the Democrat had a whopping 16-point lead over Johnson among registered voters.

It’s hard to believe that the national Democratic Party’s populist turn has occurred without Feingold. In embracing his candidacy, the PCCC said he would be “another bold ally” by Elizabeth Warren’s side. Yet in some ways, Feingold was Warren before Warren. When he last served in the Senate, Feingold was the only Democrat to vote against the final version of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform bill, saying it was too weak. Warren was then still working under President Obama to get it implemented. Now as a senator from Massachusetts, it is she who has emerged as the champion of the progressive base and the sharpest thorn in the president’s side.

Feingold is able to unite the party’s recently feuding establishment and progressive wings as a candidate who is both electable and has a sterling liberal record. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorsed Feingold almost immediately, with DSCC chairman Jon Tester calling Feingold “a tenacious champion for the people of Wisconsin throughout his career.”

The Wisconsinite also quickly earned plaudits from Democracy for America, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass).

“I’m happy, excited, thrilled, & all-around ecstatic that @russfeingold is running to return to the Senate,” she wrote on Twitter.

Former Senator Russ Feingold announced Thursday he would seek the Democratic nomination again setting up the possibility of a rematch with incumbent Republican Ron Johnson. Johnson ousted Feingold by a 52-47 margin five years ago.

The potential match-up next November could have a larger impact in Washington. The 2016 race could be key in determining which party controls the next Senate. …

“This will be a top-tier priority race for our organization, and Senator Feingold is beloved by all the 25,000 members that we have in Wisconsin and the one million members that we have nationwide,” said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

The Clinton campaign may not be able to make the issue go away, but it can be avoided until after a vote on Tuesday on legislation that would grant Mr. Obama the ability to “fast-track” talks on a final trade deal, which liberals vehemently oppose. Mrs. Clinton has no public events scheduled this week, only private fund-raisers and a summit meeting in Brooklyn with donors on Thursday. A spokesman for her campaign declined to comment.

“She hasn’t taken any steps in the wrong direction, but she hasn’t gone as far as many Democrats who have spoken out against ‘fast track,’ ” Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said. “She’s punted a little so far.”

When she does finally weigh in, Mrs. Clinton’s position could give the liberal wing of her party pause. Left-leaning Democrats have been encouraged by her recent campaign speeches about inequality and immigration, but many still harbor concerns that Mrs. Clinton’s policies will not do enough to advance their causes.

A progressive group blasted President Obama Tuesday for being tougher on liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren than he is on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell over free trade.

“President Obama has never attacked Republican Leader Mitch McConnell the way he’s attacking Elizabeth Warren,” the Progressive Change Campaign Committee told supporters in an email. “Will you stand up to big corporations and defend Warren?”

Ms. Warren, Massachusetts Democrat and a darling of the left, is engaged in an increasing hostile battle with the president over his proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The Senate will hold a test vote Tuesday on granting Mr. Obama trade-promotion authority to help him complete trade negotiations with the 11 other Pacific rim nations that would join the agreement.

After a concerted push over the past several months from liberals and progressive groups, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign appears to be on the cusp of embracing a debt-free college plan.

The Democratic front-runner’s campaign manager promoted the idea last week during an interview on CNBC.

“What voters are looking for is someone to be a champion for everyday people,” the campaign manager, Robby Mook, said. “For young people, that’s debt-free college.”

His comments follow a resolution last month by Congressional Democrats that promoted debt-free public higher education and that won the backing of prominent Democrats like Senators Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer.

Much of the inspiration for the debt-free college plan has come from a Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Demos policy paper that sketches out the concept of making public higher education debt-free across the country.

The idea has already caught on with Clinton’s potential and declared rivals in the Democratic nominating contest. Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont Independent, who is running for president, has proposed an $18 billion federal program to make the first two years of public higher education free. And former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, a likely contender, has also backed the idea.

Debt-free college, if it does indeed capture a high-profile spot on the Democratic 2016 campaign trail, would be among the most ambitious higher education proposals offered by a presidential candidate in a few decades of election cycles.

Although even Sanders’ biggest fans don’t necessarily expect to see the 73-year-old maverick waltzing into the Oval Office anytime soon, his decision to challenge Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination coincides with rising optimism that their focus on income inequality and campaign finance reform is catching the national mood. …

“I don’t call ourselves ‘left’ and part of the reason is the centre of the country agrees with us,” said Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.

He said the surprising decision of Clinton to champion many of the same themes as Warren and Sanders showed such views were now mainstream among Democrats, and the only question was how forcefully Clinton would follow through with policy.

“The shift in direction of the Democratic Party is now coming to a close with the victory of the Warren wing,” Green said. “It is now about a scale – do we go big or settle for smaller changes?”