The 2012 United States Senate election in Massachusetts was held in Massachusetts on November 6, 2012, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown. This election was held concurrently with the U.S. presidential election and elections to the U.S. Senate in other states, elections to the House of Representatives, and various state and local elections.
Brown ran for re-election to a first full term. He was first elected in a 2010 special election triggered by the death of incumbent Democratic senator Ted Kennedy. Brown was unopposed in the 2012 Republican primary. For the Democrats, an initial wide field of prospective candidates narrowed after the entry of Harvard Law School professor Elizabeth Warren, the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren clinched near-unanimous party support, with all but one of the other Democratic candidates withdrawing following her entrance. After winning her party's nomination, she faced Brown in the general election.
The election was one of the most-followed races in 2012 and cost approximately $82 million, which made it the most expensive election in Massachusetts history and the second-most expensive in the entire 2012 election cycle, next to the presidential race; this was despite the two candidates' having agreed not to allow outside money to influence the race. Opinion polling indicated a close race for much of the campaign, though Warren opened up a small but consistent lead in the final few weeks. She went on to defeat Brown by over 236,000 votes, 54% to 46%. Despite his loss, Brown received 8.6% more of the state vote than Republican former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney did in the concurrent presidential election and won five counties that voted Democratic in the concurrent presidential race: Barnstable, Essex, Norfolk, Plymouth, and Worcester.
This is the last Massachusetts U.S. Senate race that was decided by a single-digit margin or where the incumbent was defeated. Brown was the only incumbent U.S. senator to lose a general election in 2012. He later moved to New Hampshire, where he ran for the U.S. Senate and lost in 2014. Warren was sworn in on January 3, 2013.
Background Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy was re-elected in 2006, and died on August 25, 2009, from a malignant brain tumor. On September 24, 2009, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appointed longtime friend of Kennedy and former Democratic National Committee chairman Paul G. Kirk to succeed Kennedy until a special election could be held. Kirk's appointment was especially controversial, as the governor's ability to appoint an interim senator was removed during the Romney administration by the Democratic-controlled legislature, as a precaution if senator and presidential nominee John Kerry was elected president in 2004. Laws surrounding Senate appointment were quickly changed following Kennedy's death. The Massachusetts Republican Party sued in an attempt to halt Kirk's appointment, but it was rejected by Suffolk Superior Court Judge Thomas Connolly.
In the special election held on January 19, 2010, Republican state senator Scott Brown defeated Democratic state attorney general Martha Coakley in an upset victory. Brown thus became the first Republican to be elected from Massachusetts to the United States Senate since Edward Brooke in 1972, and he began serving the remainder of Kennedy's term on February 4, 2010.
Republican primary The National Republican Trust PAC, a group integral to Brown's 2010 election, vowed to draft a conservative opponent, citing dissatisfaction with his vote in support of the New START nuclear arms treaty. However, Brown went unopposed in the Republican primary.
Candidates Nominee Scott Brown, incumbent U.S. senator
Polling Poll source ScottBrown challenger Other Undecided 255 70% 21% — 9%
Results
Democratic primary The Massachusetts Democratic Convention was held on June 2, 2012, where Warren received 95.77% of delegate votes. As the only candidate with 15% of delegate votes necessary to qualify for the primary ballot, Warren eliminated her challenger Marisa DeFranco, becoming the de facto nominee. The Democratic primary was held on September 6, 2012, with Warren running unopposed.
Candidates Nominee Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School professor and architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Eliminated at convention Marisa DeFranco, immigration lawyer
Withdrawn Tom Conroy, state representative (withdrew December 12, 2011) Alan Khazei, founder of City Year (withdrew October 26, 2011) James Coyne King, corporate lawyer (withdrew March 21, 2012) Bob Massie, entrepreneur and nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts in 1994 (withdrew October 7, 2011) Herb Robinson, engineer (withdrew December 15, 2011) Setti Warren, mayor of Newton (withdrew September 29, 2011; endorsed E. Warren, no relation)
Declined Mike Capuano, U.S. representative Kim Driscoll, mayor of Salem Barney Frank, U.S. representative Joseph P. Kennedy II, former U.S. representative Victoria Reggie Kennedy, Ted Kennedy's widow Stephen Lynch, U.S. representative Rachel Maddow, television host and political commentator Marty Meehan, former U.S. representative Thomas Menino, mayor of Boston Deval Patrick, governor of Massachusetts John F. Tierney, U.S. representative Warren Tolman, former state senator and former state representative
Polling Poll source TomConroy MarisaDeFranco JimKing AlanKhazei BobMassie HerbRobinson ElizabethWarren SettiWarren Other UndecidedPublic Policy PollingPublic Policy Polling September 16–18, 2011 461 ±4.6% 7% 2% — 9% 2% 1% 55% 1% — 22%UMass LowellUMass Lowell September 22–28, 2011 1,005 ±3.8% 5% 4% — 3% 3% 1% 36% 3% 1% 32%YouGov for UMass AmherstYouGov for UMass Amherst November 9–22, 2011 122 ±4.6% 7% 6% — — — 2% 73% — 13% —Suffolk University/7NEWSSuffolk University/7NEWS February 11–15, 2012 218 ±?% — 5% 1% — — — 72% — — 20%Suffolk University/7NEWSSuffolk University/7NEWS May 20–22, 2012 284 ±?% — 6% — — — — 71% — — 12%
Results
General election
Campaign On September 14, 2011, Warren declared her intention to run for the Democratic nomination for the 2012 election in Massachusetts for the United States Senate. The seat had been won by Republican Scott Brown in a 2010 special election after the death of Ted Kennedy.
Warren won the Democratic nomination on June 2, 2012, at the state Democratic convention with a record 95.77% of the votes of delegates. She was endorsed by the governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick. Warren and her opponent Scott Brown agreed to engage in four televised debates, including one with a consortium of media outlets in Springfield and one on WBZ-TV in Boston. Brown ran as a moderate, stressing his ability to cross party lines and highlighting his votes for the Dodd-Frank financial reform law and to repeal "don't ask, don't tell". Warren campaigned on a platform championing the middle class, and supporting Wall Street regulation. Warren criticized Brown for continually voting with Republican leadership, and argued that he was not the bipartisan moderate he claimed to be. A staple of Brown's attack tactics against Warren was his consistent reference to her as "Professor Warren", in attempt to portray her as an elitist academic. Brown faced blowback after the second debate, during which he claimed conservative Antonin Scalia was a "model" Supreme Court Justice, prompting boos from the debate audience.
Warren spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention immediately before Bill Clinton on the penultimate night of the convention. Warren contrasted President Obama's economic plan with Mitt Romney's in the 2012 election and rebuked the Republican Party's economic policy, stating: "Their vision is clear: 'I've got mine, and the rest of you are on your own.'" Warren positioned herself as a champion of a beleaguered middle class that, as she said, "has been chipped, squeezed and hammered." According to Warren, "People feel like the system is rigged against them. And here's the painful part: They're right. The system is rigged." Warren said that Wall Street CEOs "wrecked our economy and destroyed millions of jobs" and that they "still strut around congress, no shame, demanding favors, and acting like we should thank them." Brown attended the 2012 Republican National Convention, but was not a speaker there. According to Brown, he had rejected an offer to play a larger role, and limited his attendance to a single day because of scheduling demands.
Following Todd Akin's controversial "legitimate rape" comments, Brown was the first sitting senator to demand he drop out of the Missouri U.S. Senate race. He also called on his party to "recognize in its platform that you can be pro-choice and still be a good Republican." Brown's campaign had been endorsed by many Massachusetts Democrats, many of whom were prominently featured in his campaign ads.
In September 2011, a video of Warren explaining her approach to economic policy gained popularity on the internet. In the video, Warren rebuts the charge that asking the rich to pay more taxes is "class warfare", pointing out that no one grew rich in America without depending on infrastructure paid for by the rest of society, stating:
On July 13, 2012, President Obama sparked a controversy when he echoed her thoughts in a campaign speech saying, "Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen."
Warren encountered significant opposition from business interests. In August 2012, Rob Engstrom, political director for the United States Chamber of Commerce, claimed that "no other candidate in 2012 represents a greater threat to free enterprise than Professor Warren."Noah Bierman, US Chamber calls Elizabeth Warren threat to free enterprise The Boston Globe August 15, 2012 She nonetheless raised $39 million for her campaign, the most of any Senate candidate in 2012.Katharine K. Seelye, A New Senator, Known Nationally and Sometimes Feared The New York Times November 10, 2012
Native American ancestry controversy In April 2012, the Boston Herald sparked an election controversy when it drew attention to Warren's Association of American Law Schools (AALS) directory entries from 1986 to 1995, which listed her as a minority professor. According to the AALS, the directory was compiled by information supplied by law school deans, based on questionnaires filled out by individual teachers. Warren stated that she had self-identified as having Native American ancestry in order to meet others with a similar background. Harvard Law School had listed her as a minority professor in response to criticisms about a lack of faculty diversity, but Warren said that she was unaware of this until she read about it in a newspaper during the 2012 election.