Democrat Elizabeth Warren won over incumbent Republican Scott Brown in Tuesday’s Senate elections in Massachusetts. Warren had 53 percent over Brown’s 47 percent with about 75 percent of the votes counted.

The race for the Senate seat was hard-fought and close, with different organizations reporting nearly even figures, fluctuations in favor of one candidate or the other up until the end.

This particular Senate race was also closely watched on a national level. It was also one of the most expensive Senate races in history as the candidates spent close to $70 million during their campaigns as well as taking turns making vexatious jabs at each other, according to the Boston Globe.

Warren, a Harvard law professor, will be the first female to hold the position of U.S. senator from Massachusetts.

In her acceptance speech at a Boston hotel Tuesday night, Warren had a difficult time silencing the crowd as she took to the stage alone and smiling.

“This victory belongs to you,” she said in the televised accepted speech. “This was a campaign that broke records.”

Warren credited small businesses, working families, senior citizens, service members and their families, working women and volunteers as being influential for securing her seat in the senate, reiterating her popular platform of supporting the middle class.

“All of you have had my back, and I promise you to have your back,” she said. “I won’t just be your Senator: I will be your champion.”

Warren ran a campaign representing herself as a fighter for the middle class, which included her supporting affordable education for students, strengthening workers’ rights, equal rights for different genders and sexualities, as well as between men and women in the workforce.

Brown gave his concession speech before Warren announced her victory at his Boston headquarters, addressing the crowd with an accepted manner of loss.

“We stood strong in the fight and we stand strong now, even in disappointment,” Brown said during his televised concession speech.
Upon offering his congratulations to Warren, the crowd booed, causing Brown to calm jeers, saying Warren won the race “fair and square.”
Flanked on either side by supporters and his wife and two daughters, Brown thanked those who had helped his campaign and made a special address to young and skeptical individuals.
“We live in the greatest country in the world,” he said. “When the odds are stacked against you, and I can speak from experience … defeat is only temporary.”
In her closing remarks, Warren gave tribute to the late Ted Kennedy, former Massachusetts Senator of nearly 50 years, and pledged to uphold his legacy, saying, “We miss his passion, his commitment, his energy and his fight for working families … he lived up to that promise. I promise to do the same.”

At an election night celebration in the Cape Cod Lounge in the Student Union on Tuesday night, Jesse Rhodes, an assistant professor in University of Massachusetts political science department, said that he was not surprised with Warren’s win because of Massachusetts’ history of being a “blue state,” calling Brown’s win in 2010 an “aberration.”

“He was elected after Kennedy’s death and in the midst of a Democratic Party backlash,” Rhodes said of Brown. “Warren also just plainly did her homework and did well.”

Most students at the event tended to favor Warren.

Jacob Dodson, a freshman theater major who voted for Warren, said that “as a college student, I believe in Warren’s position on loans.”

Nathan Ball, a freshman engineering student, said he voted for Brown because of Brown’s emphasis on partisanship.

“In Congress, there is so much fighting. They need to learn to actually pass something together,” Ball said.

Anna Jolliffe, Danielle Koddess, Mary Reines, Patrick Sadlon and Chris Trubac and contributed to this article.

Chelsie Field can be reached at [email protected]