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Elizabeth Warren Launches Senate Campaign With Tour

BOSTON (CBS) - Elizabeth Warren skipped the speeches, and focused on winning voters over one handshake at a time, out on the campaign trail for day one of her first political campaign.

"I just want to make sure I didn't miss anybody. I'm going to learn how this works," she said while walking around the J&M Dinner in Framingham. She looked each person in the eye, and asked for their vote.

Warren is often described as a Harvard Law Professor and a former Obama official. We asked her if that's an accurate description.

WBZ-TV's Karen Anderson reports

"It's true, I teach at Harvard, but I wasn't born at Harvard. I grew up in a family that was kind of bumpy financially. My father had a heart attack when I was in junior high. We lost our car." She says, "I grew up on the ragged edge of the middle class, I know what it's like to live one pink slip one bad diagnosis away from being turned upside down financially. And I don't like where this country is going with the middle class right now. Washington doesn't get it."

Warren says, "It's rigged for big corporations, it's rigged for those who can hire an army of lobbyists. The middle class needs someone who can speak up for them. That's what I'm going do to."

WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Karen Twomey reports

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Warren says her experience setting up the first consumer financial protection agency has helped her to prepare for the US Senate. "I pushed hard for a consumer agency and that's what we got. It was a David versus Goliath story…I've gone toe to toe against some very powerful interests, and I just feel like this is the moment for America's middle class. We've got to make some changes. We are running out of time"

Warren wouldn't say whether she would vote for the President's Jobs Bill. "He's working on a short term set of issues, he's trying to get Americans back to work," she said in support of it. But she said it's not enough. "We can't have a company like GE paying nothing in taxes while everyone else is trying to pull the load."

When asked about Scott Brown's nine million dollar war chest and the role of money in this campaign, Warren responded, "The way I see it is I can be outspent but I can't be out worked."

 

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