Warren will become the state’s first female senator. Warren wins Mass. Senate race

BOSTON — Liberal icon Elizabeth Warren defeated Republican Sen. Scott Brown on Tuesday, overcoming early campaign stumbles to put the Massachusetts Senate seat that the late Sen. Ted Kennedy occupied for more than four decades back in Democratic hands.

Warren, who will become the state’s first female senator, was ahead 53 percent to 47 percent with almost half of precincts reporting, clinching the win. Her victory in the marquee Senate race of the election cycle further elevates Warren’s status as a leader of the progressive movement and could add her name to the list of Democrats’ potential presidential prospects.


In a passionate victory speech shortly before 11 p.m., Warren vowed to be a senator in the mold of Kennedy, fighting for a “level playing field” for working-class families.

“To everyone who shared your hopes and dreams with me and put your faith in my ability to fight for you, I want you to know this,” Warren said. “I will never forget, I will always carry your stories with me in my heart.”

“I won’t just be your senator,” she added. “I will be your champion.”

Warren’s supporters, jammed into a crowded and raucous ballroom in downtown Boston, roared when the networks called the race for the Democrat. As Brown’s concession speech was aired here, Warren’s fans began chanting her name, twice drowning Brown out.

“She has received the high honor of holding the people’s seat,” Brown said, who said he offered Warren his “sincerest congratulations.”

Deadlocked for most of the summer, the race settled in Warren’s favor in the final weeks, according to polls.

The Brown-Warren battle royale was undoubtedly the most high-profile Senate election in the nation. Both candidates were adept at raising cash, making this race the most expensive election in Massachusetts history, according to The Associated Press.

Yet the contest was unique in that both candidates stuck to a pledge aimed at banning super PACs from the campaign. In a Senate cycle marked by millions in spending from influential outside organizations, Brown and Warren agreed to donate cash to charity if a third-party group intervened on their behalf.

Warren, the mastermind behind the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau who is beloved by liberals, stumbled earlier this year when her past claims of her Native American heritage surfaced. Warren struggled to give a clear answer to voters on why she had been listed as a minority professor.

But she turned her campaign around, buoyed by support from independent women and the strong Democratic tilt of this state. Aggressive and confident on the stump, Warren hammered home the message that she would be a fierce protector of the middle class — in contrast to Brown, whose dramatic special election win in 2010 put Kennedy’s former seat in the GOP column for the first time in decades.

Brown boasted a moderate voting record in his brief tenure on Capitol Hill, breaking with Senate Republicans on the 2010 financial reform law and the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” as well as over abortion rights. He was deemed the second-most bipartisan member of the Senate by Congressional Quarterly, a fact Brown never hesitated to tout on the campaign trail.

With his everyman, populist appeal, Brown clearly is a popular figure in Massachusetts. The latest figures from the firm Public Policy Polling showed Brown with an approval rating of 52 percent — high numbers considering his membership in the most unpopular Congress in recent history.

He practically fled from the GOP when controversies flared, like when Missouri Senate candidate Todd Akin suggested that women’s bodies could somehow prevent pregnancies in cases of “legitimate rape.” And he tried to attach himself to Obama, airing a campaign ad that showed the president telling him “good job” during a White House signing ceremony for an insider-trading bill that Brown sponsored.

But the electoral math was daunting. In this overwhelmingly blue state, Brown would have needed about 60 percent of independent voters and 20 percent of registered Democrats to win.

“I kept my promise to you to be that independent voice for Massachusetts,” Brown said at his party, a five-minute walk away from Warren’s soiree here. “And I have never, ever, ever regretted any decision I have made for you.”

“This is a tremendous victory for the people of Massachusetts,” added Massachusetts Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat. “This is an affirmation that issues matter, that conviction matters and that the grassroots matter.”