Former Sen. Scott Brown of Massachusetts has just gotten his chance at a political comeback — winning the Republican primary for Senate right next door in New Hampshire, to take on Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
With 19 percent of precincts reporting, Brown has 48 percent of the vote, followed by state Sen. Jim Rubens and former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith (who lost his own Republican primary for another term back in 2002) with 24 percent of the vote each. The Associated Press has projected Brown as the winner.
Brown has trailed Shaheen in the general election polls. It remains to be seen whether he can gain more support with the GOP primary now behind him, or if the attacks against him for having moved to the state will keep on sticking. And for her part, Shaheen is also running a strong campaign effort alongside the popular Gov. Maggie Hassan, the latter of whom is expected to easily win another term.
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Brown came out of virtually nowhere in January 2010, when he stunned the political world by winning the special election in solidly Democratic Massachusetts to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D). But by the time of the November 2012 general election, with partisan control of the Senate in the balance, his efforts to appeal to the state's voters were not enough to keep him from being defeated for a full term by Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren.
After that, Brown turned down opportunities to run again in Massachusetts, in both another special Senate election as well as opting not to run for governor. Instead, he made the very unexpected move of exploring a run for Senate in the neighboring swing state of New Hampshire, and officially launched his candidacy in April.
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