The Working Families Party received three different donations from Demos before it announced its decision to endorse Elizabeth Warren last week

Senator Elizabeth Warren's daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi is chairwoman of Demos

In 2018 Demos gave $45,000 to WFP, but had never previously given to the progressive party in the past

WFP received backlash after it chose to endorse Warren over Bernie Sanders, who they supported in the 2016 presidential elections

Elizabeth Warren clenched an endorsement from the Working Families Party last week, but new revelations emerged Monday that show the think tank her daughter heads donated $45,000 to the progressive political party ahead of the endorsement.

Amelia Warren Tyagi is the chairwomen of Demos, and the donation to the Working Families Party in 2018 coincided with her mother's then-impending decision to run for president.

ADVERTISEMENT

Even though the two progressive groups were founded just two years apart, in 2000 and 1998, last year marked the first time Demos donated to the minor political party.

According to a 2018 tax filing from Demos, originally reported by political activist Sam Finkelstein, the group gave three separate donations of $15,000 to the political party that often endorses progressive candidates and on occasion runs its own candidates.

One contribution went to the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, one went to Working Families Organization Inc. and the third $15,000 donation was given to Working Families Party Inc.

Elizabeth Warren's daughter Amelia Warren Tyagi (left) is chairwoman of Demos think tank, which donated $45,000 to the Working Families Party before it issued an endorsement to Warren's 2020 presidential campaign

This was the first year that Demos donated to WFP – but the progressive think tank has made it clear in the past that it supports Warren. When she decided to run for Senate, Demos wrote in a blog post that she is 'a figure of rare integrity' and proclaimed, 'this republic are better served by Warren making the Senate run'

The donations were given in three separate gifts of $15,000 to the New Jersey Working Families Alliance, Working Families Organization and the Working Families Party

Even though Demos hasn't made any contributions to WFP in the past, members of the organization have made it clear over the years that they back Senator Warren.

Demos created a blog post in August 2011 that celebrated Warren launching her Senate campaign. The post lauded her as 'a figure of rare integrity' and proclaimed, 'this republic are better served by Warren making the Senate run.'

Then-Demos senior counsel Lisa Danetz contributed $500 to Warren's 2012 Senate campaign that year.

When Warren won with 53.7 per cent of the vote, she became the first woman to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate.

Warren also promoted her book The Two-Income Trap during a talk at a December 2003 event co-sponsored by Demos.

Warren Tyagi is not listed on Demos website as the chairwoman, but she still holds the post.

In Senator Bernie Sanders' 2016 primary campaign, he earned WFP's backing, but failed to regain their endorsement for his 2020 presidential run where his progressive policies are often compared to Warren's version.

He and Warren also trade off as the No. 2 Democratic primary candidate behind front-runner and former Vice President Joe Biden.

A flurry of media coverage ensued after WFP put its weight behind Warren – none of it mentioning the ties Demos and Warren's daughter have to the party.

Sanders was counting on the support of the Working Families Party, especially as Warren slowly is becoming the favored progressive candidate.

The progressive WFP received tons of backlash after it decided to put its support with Warren instead of self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders – who had their endorsement in his 2016 presidential campaign

Click here to resize this module

In 2016, Sanders described WFP in an email to his New York supporters as 'the closest thing there is to a political party that believes in my vision of democratic socialism.'

In the same email, after failing to secure the Democratic nomination, Sanders' campaign urged supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton on the Working Families Party line on their ballots.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sanders is a self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist, but Warren says, although a progressive, she is a 'capitalist to my bones.'

WFP was likely anticipating the blowback from supporting Warren, and said in its press release announcing the move that the decision process 'wasn't easy' and claimed that people are 'lucky to have two strong progressive candidates leading in the race.'

'She's got a record on housing, fighting the big banks, creating the CFPB, having accountability, having people actually attack her for her leadership in that, and I think that means something to people,' director of strategy and partnership at WFP Nelini Stamp said. 'We care about getting in early and organizing for what our members and institutions decided as a whole … and they decided to endorse Elizabeth Warren.'