U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren handily retained her seat Tuesday, winning re-election to a third term and trouncing political newcomer, lawyer and anti-Trump Republican John Deaton.
The Associated Press called the race for Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate seat, minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Warren supporters gathered at Boston’s SoWa Power Station got word of her victory around 8:15 p.m., when large projector screens tuned to CNN showed the race had been called in her favor. The crowd erupted in a cheer. Volunteers distributed campaign signs for both Warren and Kamala Harris, plus stickers depicting Warren’s dog, Bailey.
Warren took the stage about an hour later, to Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5,” thanking both Deaton and the voters who “took a chance on a candidate who had never run for public office” and first elected her 12 years ago.
“I am grateful down to my toes that you are sending me back to the Senate to fight for you,” Warren said. “I never thought that I would be in politics. I was happy as a teacher and a researcher, but because of you, I moved from being a policy nerd — and let’s give it up for policy nerds — I moved from being only a policy nerd to becoming a policy nerd and a full-time fighter to give everyone in our commonwealth and our country a fighting chance to build a future.”
At one point in Warren’s speech, a group of protesters held up a banner reading “Arms Embargo Now” and were escorted out of the venue.
Warren told supporters “anyone who prays for peace in the Middle East” is among the list of people she’ll fight for in her third term, along with workers who want to join unions, former students burdened by debt, parents struggling with child care costs and “the women who lost the fundamental right to make their own health care decisions.”
A former Harvard professor and consumer protection advocate, Warren followed Democrats’ national campaign strategy of characterizing the U.S. Senate race as crucial to the prospect of federal legislation to restore and protect abortion rights.
Multiple polls in the run up to Election Day showed Warren with a double-digit lead over Deaton.
“I’m disappointed in the results, I’m a competitive guy,” Deaton said, as he tearfully thanked about 100 supporters gathered at Nash Bar and Stage in Boston’s Theater District Tuesday night.
The southern-style restaurant sits less than a mile away from his alma mater, New England Law.
Deaton, a pro-choice Republican who campaigned by rejecting Trump, emphasizing the impact of the migrant crisis and painting Warren as an extremist Democrat devotee, later added that he was proud of his campaign and that “it was fun to tell the truth and look Senator Warren in the face and say, ‘all of you suck in Congress,” a moment that came from one of two debates during the campaign season.
In remarks to reporters, Deaton said he called Warren to concede and volunteered to help her in her third term in office. He said he hopes to change the Democratic party’s dominance across the Commonwealth and did not rule out another campaign.
“I think it’s damaging Massachusetts, and so what role that is, I don’t know. But I’m not going to go away.”
The results aligned with polling that suggested Warren enjoyed the typical spoils of incumbency against a Republican challenger in a solidly blue state where Democrats hold the corner office, a majority in the legislature and all seats to the Congressional delegation.
Warren also had a deeper war chest, collecting about $8 million to Deaton’s $2.1 million between January 2023 and mid-October 2024, according the U.S. Federal Election Commission campaign finance data.
Warren placed third in the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary, but pledged during a GBH News/New England Public Media debate last month that she would neither consider serving in a potential Harris administration nor another run for the Oval Office should she win her third term.
