RYE, N.H. – EXCLUSIVE – Scott Brown is on the transfer.
The previous senator from neighboring Massachusetts and 2014 Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, who later served 4 years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand in President-elect Trump’s first administration, is critically contemplating a 2026 run to return to Congress.
If Brown strikes forward and launches a marketing campaign within the months forward, it will probably arrange a high-profile rematch with Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, in what would doubtless be a aggressive and costly Senate conflict in a key swing state.
The 65-year-old Brown, who competed in 9 triathlons this yr and who on common performs round 40–50 gigs a yr as lead singer and guitarist with the rock band Scott Brown and the Diplomats, is doing extra than simply interested by operating to return to the Senate.
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Former senator and former ambassador Scott Brown, who’s contemplating a 2026 run for the Senate in New Hampshire, competed in 9 triathlons in 2024. (Scott Brown)
He’s been assembly in latest weeks with numerous Republican and conservative teams in New Hampshire.
Brown, in a nationwide unique interview with Fox Information Digital, mentioned he’s doing his “due diligence, meeting with anybody and everybody. So you’ll be seeing me a lot around, whether it’s parades, triathlons, my rock band, meeting and getting out and really learning.”
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And Brown is taking intention at New Hampshire’s all-Democrat congressional delegation.
“The thing that really ticks me off is how they’ve basically covered up for [President] Joe Biden for the last four years, what they’ve done or not done on the border, what they’ve done and not done in inflation, and they’re just completely out of touch with what we want here in New Hampshire. And the more I think about it, I think we can do better,” Brown argued.
Brown made headlines in 2010 because the then-state senator in blue-state Massachusetts received a particular U.S. Senate election to serve the rest of the time period of the late longtime Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy.
Former ambassador and former Sen. Scott Brown speaks with Fox Information Digital, at one in every of his ‘Backyard BBQ’ political occasions, in August 2023 in Rye, New Hampshire (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
After shedding re-election in 2012 to now-Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Brown finally moved to New Hampshire, the state the place he had spent the primary years of his childhood and the place his household had roots relationship again to the colonial period. He launched a Senate marketing campaign months later and narrowly misplaced to Shaheen within the 2014 election.
After internet hosting almost all of the Republican presidential candidates within the 2016 cycle at talking occasions he termed “No BS backyard BBQs,” Brown finally endorsed Trump within the weeks forward of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation main. After Trump was elected president, he nominated Brown as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand, the place the previous senator served for 4 years.
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Returning to New Hampshire on the finish of the primary Trump administration, Brown supported his spouse Gail, a former tv information reporter and anchor, as she ran for Congress in 2022.
And the Browns additionally stayed politically energetic in different methods, as soon as once more internet hosting lots of the Republican presidential candidates, in addition to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., at their “Backyard BBQs” throughout the 2024 presidential cycle.
Former ambassador and former Sen. Scott Brown (left), is joined by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as DeSantis ran for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, in Rye, New Hampshire on July 30, 2023 (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
Requested in Could 2023 if he’d take into account one other Senate run, Brown instructed Fox Information Digital “of course.”
Now, as Brown considers one other Senate run, time isn’t working in opposition to him.
Brown jumped in late within the 2014 marketing campaign, simply seven months earlier than Election Day.
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This time round, he emphasised, “I have a long runway. I didn’t have that obviously the first time, and I’m going to do what I have been doing for almost a decade now, going around, meeting with people participating in the process.”
Throughout his first Senate run, which got here months after he modified his residency to New Hampshire, he repeatedly confronted carpetbagger accusations.
Final week, a progressive group in New Hampshire took intention at Brown.
Amplify NH claimed in a launch that “the gentleman from Massachusetts is clawing for another chance at power, framing himself once again as a Senate candidate for New Hampshire.”
Brown says he’s not involved.
“We’ve had a house here for over three decades, and we’ve been fully engaged full-time here for over a decade. So now I think that’s old news.”
And he argued that New Hampshire’s congressional delegation “votes 100% with Massachusetts.”
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., speaks earlier than President Joe Biden arrives to ship remarks on decreasing the price of prescribed drugs, at NHTI Harmony Neighborhood Faculty, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Harmony, N.H. (AP Photograph/Steven Senne) (AP)
Whereas Shaheen cruised to re-election in 2020, profitable by roughly 16 factors, and Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan received re-election in 2022 by almost 9 factors, Senate Republicans are eyeing New Hampshire in 2026 as they intention to broaden their incoming 53-47 majority within the chamber. New Hampshire, together with Georgia and Michigan, will doubtless be closely focused by Senate Republicans.
Trump misplaced New Hampshire final month, however he lower his deficit to only three factors in his face-off with Vice President Kamala Harris, down from a seven-point loss to President Biden within the Granite State in 2020.
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And the GOP stored an open gubernatorial seat in get together arms – former Sen. Kelly Ayotte succeeded longtime Gov. Chris Sununu – whereas increasing their majorities within the New Hampshire state Home and Senate.
Requested if he’d like Trump to affix him on the Granite State marketing campaign path if he decides to run, Brown mentioned “if he’s got the time, of course.”
And pointing to Trump, Brown mentioned “not only did he help obviously, nationally, he helped here in New Hampshire.”
Former ambassador and former Sen. Scott Brown performs along with his rock band Scott Brown and the Diplomats (Scott Brown and the Diplomats)
Shaheen has but to announce if she’ll search one other time period within the Senate. That call will doubtless come early within the new yr.
However Shaheen, in a fundraising e mail to supporters on Friday, didn’t sound like she was on the brink of retire.
“Democrats need to be ready to fight back” in opposition to the incoming Trump administration, she wrote. The senator added that final month’s election setbacks for Democrats spotlight that “early preparation has never been more important.”
And Shaheen, a former three-term New Hampshire governor, is taking on subsequent month as the highest Democrat on the Senate International Relations Committee, the primary lady to carry one of many high two positions on the highly effective panel.
Shaheen additionally turns 78 subsequent month.
Requested if age can be a think about a possible Shaheen-Brown rematch, Brown mentioned he likes Shaheen and actually appreciated her help throughout his affirmation as ambassador to New Zealand, however added that “that’s certainly up to her.”
“I’m 65. I can’t imagine it. I really feel like I’m 40. My spouse says I act like I’m like 12, he added.
