Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren and challenger Republican John Deaton had never met before they debated on Tuesday night. In a similar play for the Massachusetts electorate, both candidates spent the debate trying to tie the other to their party's positions, which some have said are polarizing.

“Its the Republican playbook, and it's the same playbook over and over and over,” Warren said. 

“There's only one extremist on this stage tonight, and it's Elizabeth Warren,” Deaton said. “I'm the moderate centrist common sense candidate.” 

Topics like immigration, housing and who dislikes former president Donald Trump more were hotly debated. 

“She called me a ‘MAGA’ extremist Republican recruited by the Trump machine when she knew that I was even more critical of President Trump than she has been,” Deaton said. 

“There is talk about the immigration problem, but when it actually comes time to fix it, like we did back in 2013, the extremist Republicans, Donald Trump said just a few months ago, 'I want to keep it as an election issue, so don't actually fix the problem,'” Warren said on the proposed border plan that didn’t go through earlier this year.

The candidates differ on boarder security: Warren wants to focus on helping migrants get work permits and off on their own, while Deaton is looking for tighter restrictions that he says will help the housing crisis in Massachusetts — something Warren says migrant families shouldn't be blamed for.

“He starts by blaming the immigrants,” Warren said before being cut off. “I blamed you, not the immigrants,” Deaton chimed in. 

These two will face-off again for their second and final debate in Springfield on Thursday. Early voting in Massachusetts begins this weekend.