Elizabeth Warren's long path from Oklahoma to Harvard

WASHINGTON - When Elizabeth Warren first ran for the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts in 2012, her opponent mocked her as a Harvard elitist, addressing her in debates as "Professor," dripping out the syllables so it sounded more like an epithet than an honorific.

Warren won anyway, swamping the Republican incumbent, Scott Brown, who had campaigned in a pickup truck.

Now, as she runs for president, Warren faces the same arduous political challenge - rushing to portray herself as a prairie populist from homespun roots in Oklahoma before opponents can paint her as an out-of-touch Ivy League academic.

On the campaign trail, Warren, 70, rarely mentions her two decades at Harvard Law School, where she was once one of the highest-paid professors. She instead highlights her upbringing in a state known for wide expanses and oil pump jacks, saying she dreamed of becoming a schoolteacher when she lined up her "dollies" and absorbed the lessons "my momma told me."

"Any Okies?" she asked supporters at a recent rally in Seattle. "Oh, we got some right here. Woohoo!"

In speeches, she poignantly recounts