Elizabeth Warren Leading In One Of Nation’s Most-Followed Senate Races

Elizabeth Warren was once seen as an underdog to popular Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, who rode into his seat amid a wave of Tea Party enthusiasm.

As the campaign has dragged on, however, Elizabeth Warren’s fiscal expertise and message of middle class protection has resonated with voters, allowing the Democrat to surge in the polls.

With the balance of the Senate hanging in the balance, the Warren-Brown race could be the factor that tips control of the Senate to Democrats or Republicans. As a result, donors have been pouring money into the race, with more than $50 million raised collectively between both candidates.

Both candidates have underscored that importance as well.

“People all around the country understand that this race may be for control of the United States Senate,” Elizabeth Warren told ABC News in an interview in Taunton, Mass. “It’s really about standing up for working families and that is what this race is about at the national level and it’s part of what this race is about on the Senate level.”

Warren has painted herself as a defender of the middle class against Wall Street, having worked to establish the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

She also has another factor in her favor — the left-leaning voters of Massachusetts, whose election of Scott Brown seems like an exception to the voting norm there.

Scott Brown downplays the difficulty for a Republican to win election, portraying himself as a moderate.

“For me it doesn’t really matter who is in charge,” he told ABC News in an interview in Worchester, Massachusetts. “I’m just sick of the gridlock. It makes me disgusted.”

Brown appears to have his work cut out for him now. Polls have shown Warren with a small but consistent lead, and as The Hill notes she has become the face of the Democrats’ campaign to keep hold of the Senate.