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As Ted Cruz rallied the GOPs conservative wing with his Monday announcement that hes running for president, all-but-declared Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton quietly tried to calm her partys restive progressive wing, segments of which are actively seeking an alternative in 2016.

The former secretary of state spoke at the Washington headquarters of the liberal Center for American Progress think tank at an urban policy-focused event co-hosted by the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees union. She stuck largely to policy, praising, for example, a pre-Kindergarten program championed by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, a darling of many progressives wary of Clinton.

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Clinton in particular zeroed in on the growing gap between the rich and the poor. One of the biggest issues we face is income inequality, combined with wage stagnation, the former senator said.

Cruzs announcement at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, sucked up much of the days political oxygen. Still, Clintons appearance 200 miles away was a chance for her to calm some of the jitters among progressives, many of whom fear Clinton is too close to Wall Street and wont follow through on their priorities.

On Sunday, for instance, The Boston Globe editorial board urged Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, another favorite of progressives, to run in 2016. Warren insists she wont run, but many liberal groups are still agitating for her to do so.

Clinton is currently polling far ahead of any potential challengers for the Democratic nomination, but she does have potential competition aside from Warren.

Former Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley has recently been traveling through the influential early-voting states and ratcheting up his own rhetoric against major financial institutions. OMalleys political action committee sent out a fundraising email focused on Wall Street reform just as Clinton was speaking on Monday morning.

Clinton, who avoided any mention of her 2016 ambitions on Monday, at one point said it was important to break out of the very unproductive discussion that weve had for too long where people are just in their ideological bunkers having arguments.

She was joined on the panel by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, often mentioned as a possible vice presidential choice, and the think tanks president, Neera Tanden, who served as policy director on Clintons unsuccessful 2008 White House campaign.

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Clinton tries to soothe progressives