Elizabeth Warren, Sherrod Brown, Chairman Mike Crapo

Senate Banking Committee member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., center, confers with Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, left, and the committee's ranking member Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, right, as she leaves after questioning Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

(AP)

Days after the National Republican Senatorial Committee started airing digital ads seeking to tie moderate Democrats to Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator is embracing and fundraising off their focus on her.



Warren blasted out a fundraising email on Friday saying she appears to be the "new villain of choice for the Republican Party."



"Look, I'm a big girl. My feelings won't be hurt when Mitch McConnell tells me to shut up - or by a bunch of nasty ads that make me look like a zombie or the boogeyman or the Wicked Witch of Massachusetts," she wrote, referencing McConnell, the Senate majority leader, and his effort to use Senate rules to prevent her from reading a letter by Coretta Scott King opposing Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship.



In the email, Warren rattled off her top issues, including debt-free college, accountability for "big banks," climate change, Social Security and Medicare expansions, and "common sense gun reform."



"I truly believe that people in Massachusetts and across the country can see through the Republicans' shameful mudslinging," she wrote. "But we won't be able to let their attacks go completely unanswered for the next two years."

Republican Senate ads cast Sen. Warren as face of Democratic Party



The National Republican Senatorial Committee said in its release earlier this week that Warren "clearly wants to be the star of the Progressive Party and is shameless in her attempts to take center stage."



Warren announced earlier this year that she is running for a second six-year term in 2018. She won the 2012 election against incumbent Sen. Scott Brown.



Potential GOP opponents in 2018 include state Rep. Geoff Diehl, businessman Rick Green, and former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, among others.