Will Elizabeth Warren jump into U.S. Senate race? - On Politics: Covering the US Congress, Governors, and the 2010 Election

By Catalina Camia, USA TODAY

Updated 39m ago

Now that President Obama has passed over Elizabeth Warren to head a new consumer protection agency she helped create, will the Harvard law professor run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts?

That's the question since Obama over the weekend appointed former Ohio attorney general Richard Cordray as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency that Warren helped shepherd since its creation through the major Wall Street overhaul law known as Dodd-Frank.

"I would love it if she were interested in joining the race. I would talk to her and encourage her in a heartbeat," John Walsh, Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman, told The Boston Globe last week.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reportedly has talked to Warren about running for the Senate.

There's already a host of Democrats running to challenge GOP Sen. Scott Brown next year. Brown has been a Democratic target since he scored an upset victory in 2009 to serve out the remainder of the late Edward Kennedy's term. Brown has nearly $10 million in his campaign account, far eclipsing the money raised by his Democratic rivals.

Warren has been a lightning rod for Republicans in Congress, stemming in part from her work on a panel that oversees the implementation of the $700 billion bank bailout enacted in 2008. It was her idea to create a consumer protection agency that would help people understand the impact of mortgages, credit cards and other financial tools.

Her exchange with Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., during a congressional hearing in which he called her a "liar" has gone viral on YouTube.

Obama will formally introduce Cordray as his pick to lead the consumer agency today.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee says Democrats have a "lackluster field" challenging Brown and has mocked Warren's potential candidacy as being driven by "party bosses in Washington -- and not Bay State voters."

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Scott Brown Elizabeth Warren Patrick McHenry

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