Democratic Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren offered a biting critique of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney at a Boston-area fundraiser Monday night, arguing the former Massachusetts governor stood “for helping the rich and powerful get more rich and powerful.”

“Mitt Romney tells us, in his own words, he believes corporations are people. No, Mitt, corporations are not people,” said Warren, while introducing President Obama at the event. “People have hearts. They have kids. They get jobs. They get sick. They love and they cry and they dance. They live and they die. Learn the difference.”

{mosads}Warren, locked in a tough battle for Massachusetts’s U.S. Senate seat against incumbent Sen. Scott Brown (R), was a former top adviser to Obama, and was critical in advocating for and shaping the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The former Harvard law professor said she had seen the president fight for working people during her time in the White House.

“He planted his feet, he squared his shoulders and he said: We will stop the cheating, we will stop the tricks and traps, and we will level the playing field for working families,” Warren said.

In concluding her introduction, she announced that although the election would be a “hard fight,” she was “ready to stand with the president,” bringing the assembled crowd to its feet.

Obama returned the favor at the top of his remarks, telling the audience they were lucky “to have a chance to vote for her in the next election.”

“Nobody fought harder for Wall Street reform — the reform that is now law and protecting consumers all across the country — than Elizabeth, reform that will end taxpayer bailouts, make sure folks aren’t being taken advantage of by mortgage lenders and credit card companies,” Obama said. “She has been a fierce advocate since before I knew her for the middle class. She has been advocating on core issues that matter to families her entire career. She is going to be an outstanding senator from Massachusetts, and everybody here has got to turn out for her.”

The president then launched into his standard campaign stump speech, blasting Romney’s economic approach as looking to benefit the wealthiest of Americans.

“I believe their policies have been tested, and their policies have failed. And that’s because in this country, prosperity hasn’t come from the top down — it’s come from a strong and growing middle class. It’s come from people striving to get into that middle class,” Obama said.

After the larger fundraiser at Boston’s Symphony Hall, the president attended a more intimate gathering of 100 donors at a private home in Weston, Mass. Tickets to that event were $17,900 apiece.