US Senate Massachusetts
Republican Scott Brown shocked the state and national political establishments in January 2010 by winning a special election to succeed the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Now two Democrats – including Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren – are trying to regain the seat for their party while Brown works to win a full six-year term.
Snapshots of the US Senate candidates
Republican
Scott Brown
Brown was the lowest-ranking member of the state's minority party in the Mass. Senate when he rocked the state and national political establishments by winning the special election to replace the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Now he is seeking his first full, six-year term, and hoping he can recapture the magic his barncoat and pickup truck inspired not even two years ago.
- 2010 Bostonian of the Year The life of the party: Scott Brown
Democrat
Elizabeth Warren
Warren was an Obama administration official courted by the Washington establishment to challenge Senator Scott Brown. Nonetheless, the Harvard Law School professor has run a grassroots campaign, conducting a listening tour, speaking at house parties, and raising money through her website. The challenge for the Cambridge Democrat is dispelling the elitist image the Republicans are trying to append to her while connecting with distressed middle-class voters.
- 2009 Bostonian of the Year The watchdog: Elizabeth Warren
Marisa DeFranco
DeFranco is an immigration attorney practicing in Salem. “I am running to ensure that every American has the opportunity and the very access to that American Dream,” she says on her campaign website. Elizabeth Warren’s entry into the race has detracted from her early status as the lone woman in the race. The challenge for the Middleton Democrat is raising the money and name recognition needed to compete for the nomination outside her North Shore base.
Deval Patrick endorses Elizabeth Warren for US Senate
Governor Deval Patrick announced his endorsement of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren this afternoon, trying to boost his fellow Democrat as she faces relentless questioning and criticism over her claims to Native American heritage. (Boston Globe)
- 5/8 Brown called on Warren to release law school records
- 5/5 Warren struggles with flap over Native American ancestry
- 4/27 Brown camp wants Warren apology on minority claim
- 4/30 Law directories identified Warren as minority
On the campaign trail: US Senate race in Mass.
(David Ryan/Globe Staff and Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe)
Senator Scott Brown and his main Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Warren, have been busy on the campaign trail working to win over voters. Click through to view scenes from the campaign trail.
Latest on the US Senate race in Mass.
Low-profile Dem could qualify for Mass. primary
Her U.S. Senate campaign has little cash and no paid staff, and she is virtually unknown to most would-be Massachusetts voters. (Associated Press, 5/28/12)
Menino criticizes Brown’s focus
On a day when Senator Scott Brown sought to fan further questions about Elizabeth Warren’s Native American heritage, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has not been shy about praising Brown, made clear he is fed up with the issue. “I think she has come clean but nobody has let her off the hook,” Menino said. “It’s not relevant at all in the campaign. Let’s talk about the real issues: education, housing, crime. Those are the real issues we should be talking about. This is one of the issues that you [use to] try to divert as a candidate because you can’t deal with the real issues.” (Globe Staff, 5/26/12)
Who's an American Indian? Warren case stirs query
What, exactly, makes someone American Indian? Even Indians themselves don't agree as they debate the case of Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren, whose disputed claim of Native American identity is shining a rare spotlight on the malleable nature of Indian heritage and the long history of murky claims to such ancestry. (AP National Writer, 5/25/12)
Sen. Brown: Harvard must fix Native American claim
U.S. Sen. Scott Brown called on Harvard University to "correct the record" Friday after reporting for six years that it had a Native American woman in its top law school staff -- an apparent reference to Brown's chief Democratic rival Elizabeth Warren. (Associated Press, 5/25/12)
Federal documents indicate Harvard repeatedly reported Elizabeth Warren as Native American
Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren has said that she was unaware that Harvard Law School had been promoting her purported Native American heritage until she read about it in a newspaper several weeks ago. But for at least six straight years during Warren’s tenure, Harvard reported in federally mandated diversity statistics that it had a Native American woman at the law school. According to Harvard officials and federal guidelines, those statistics are almost always based on the way employees describe themselves. (Globe Staff, 5/25/12)