MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS on Tuesday handed US Sen. Elizabeth Warren a third six-year term, choosing the Cambridge Democrat over her GOP challenger, John Deaton.
The Associated Press, which pulls in results from cities and towns across the state, called the race in Warren’s favor shortly after the polls closed at 8 p.m. By Wednesday morning, with 88 percent of precincts reporting, Warren had 60 percent of the vote to Deaton’s 40 percent.
During the campaign, Warren, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 2020 and won third place in her home state primary, returned to a strategy that has served her well in previous Senate runs. She attempted to nationalize the race by arguing a vote for Deaton was a vote for Republican control of the US Senate.
Inside a former industrial power station in Boston’s South End on Tuesday night, Warren, 75, took the main stage to the Dolly Parton song “9 to 5.” “I am deeply grateful for that trust and confidence, and I will wake up every day ready to get into the fight on your behalf,” she told the crowd.
For his part, Deaton, a 57-year-old cryptocurrency lawyer who moved to central Massachusetts from Rhode Island to run against Warren, called the former Harvard Law School professor a “far left” politician who had stayed too long in Washington.
Deaton spent much of the campaign seeking distance between himself and top Republicans like Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell. He highlighted his support for abortion rights and portrayed himself as a moderate Republican in the mold of Charlie Baker, the former governor who won his second term in 2018.
Deaton’s election night party was held inside a bar a block away from Boston Common.
“Massachusetts is a clinical study in what’s wrong when one party rules,” he said, referring to Democrats dominating statewide offices and legislative seats on Beacon Hill.
“I wish the race was more competitive than it was, but, you know, sometimes change is hard,” he added.
Cryptocurrency executives backed Deaton’s bid, while Warren received donations from academia and the tech sector, according to campaign finance records.
The two candidates have clashed over crypto, with Warren arguing for stricter regulations in order to stem money laundering, and Deaton accusing her of being a “lobbyist” for the banking industry, which has been cautious of crypto.
Even as she faced Deaton, Warren left the state to serve as a campaign surrogate for Democrats elsewhere in the country, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Warren traveled to battlegrounds like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and donated more than $1.5 million to Democratic coffers.
This post has been updated.