Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren began the race to oust Massachusetts U.S. Senator Scott Brown Sunday, meeting with voters and key party figures in an effort to build support for her primary campaign.
Ms. Warren, who announced her intention earlier this week to challenge Mr. Brown in the 2012 U.S. Senate election, said she will focus her campaign on fighting for the middle class and enhanced consumer protection programs in the the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
Ms. Warren is likely to channel a populist message, most evident in her campaign announcement video where she empathized with a middle class that’s been “chipped at, hacked at and squeezed” and recounting her own time struggling as part of the “ragged edge of the middle class.” Speaking this week during campaign stops in central and southern Massachusetts, Ms. Warren repeatedly invoked her early career as a special-education teacher in public schools and her working-class upbringing, countering criticism of her time at Harvard Law School.
Still, Ms. Warren is likely to face a tough race as recent polls show support for Mr. Brown on an upward trend and the Massachusetts is likely to receive support from a number of high-profile Republicans. Mr. Brown’s campaign account bulges with nearly $10 million and a recent Boston Globe poll showed Brown as the most popular major politician in the blue state. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has already focused its campaign against Ms. Warren, issuing press releases in which it refers to her as a “Harvard professor.”
Speaking with voters earlier this week, Ms. Warren sought to downplay criticism of her time at Harvard.
“I grew up hanging on to the edge of the middle class by my fingernails,” Ms. Warren told supporters. “All I can say is I’ve been there. I’ve lived this. My family lived one pink slip, one bad diagnosis away from falling off the economic cliff. Yeah, I’ve got a fancy job at Harvard and I’ve gotta tell you, I’m proud of that job. I worked hard to get there. I wasn’t born at Harvard. I was born to a family that had to work for everything it’s got.”
For Ms. Warren and October 4 debate hosted by the University of Massachusetts-Lowell with her Democratic rivals will likely serve as an early test. While Ms. Warren has never run for office before, the Massachusetts Democrat is likely to garner national support from key interest groups and party leaders, including President Obama who originally choose Ms. Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The liberal Progressive Change Campaign Committee said it has received $200,000 in contributions in support of Ms. Warren.
