A new poll released on Tuesday shows Massachusetts U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren surging.
The new survey, conducted by Public Policy Polling, gives Ms. Warren a slight edge over Massaachusetss U.S. Senator Brow, 46 to 44 percent among likely voters. The two-point gap between the candidates falls well within the survey’s 3.5 percent margin of error.
The launch of Elizabeth Warren’s candidacy has been an undeniable success,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.
The survey involved 791 Massachusetts voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent, suggesting Ms.Warren and Mr. Brown are in a dead heat. The poll comes just one week after Ms. Warren announced her candidacy for the U.S. Senate.
The poll is the first sign that Ms. Warren and Mr. Scott are likely to face off in a major battle for the 2012 election. The Massachusetts Democrat is likely to receive support for a number of key groups. Mr. Scott, meanwhile, continues to enjoy high approval ratings and support from national Republicans.
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.
The Massachusetts Democrat 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.
Meanwhile, Ms. Warren is likely to face her first test during an early October debate. All seven Democratic candidates hoping to unseat Mr. Brown have agreed to their first full debate on October 4 at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell.
