by Cameron Hill ’15

After a Senate race watched nationwide, the Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Republican Senator Scott Brown on November 6.  Warren was a professor at Harvard Law School and a pioneer of the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Warren won this hard fought race with an overall fifty-four percent majority.

She carried Hampshire County, including the cities of Easthampton, Northampton, Amherst, and South Hadley, with a sixty-six percent majority. Warren won a majority of women, minority, and younger voters while Brown took the majority of independents and male voters.

The Brown v. Warren race was the costliest Senate race this election cycle. Over 53 million dollars were spent between the two candidates although neither accepted donations from super PACs. Companies such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs contributed millions to Brown’s campaign. Both candidates ran countless television ads across the state, often negatively targeting each other. Warren’s victory was seen as crucial to maintaining a Democratic controlled Senate.