Warren beats Brown in Massachusetts Senate race

Democrat Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown on Tuesday in one of this year's most expensive and closely watched congressional races.

The victory of the 63-year-old Harvard University professor and former Obama Administration official boosts the chances that the Democrats will be able to retain their slim majority in the Senate.

Brown took his current office in a 2010 special election to fill the seat vacated by the death of Democratic liberal stalwart Edward Kennedy. The former Republican State senator, known for his good looks and pickup truck, portrayed himself as a moderate to voters in the liberal state, pointing to a record as one of the most bipartisan members of the Senate.

Warren countered that strategy by telling voters that his re-election could help the Republicans gain a majority in the Senate.