(The Center Square) — Former Trump ambassador Scott Brown is considering a run for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire, setting up a potential re-match against Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in the swing state.
Brown, 65, is a former senator from neighboring Massachusetts and was a 2014 Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire. He also served four years as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand in President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration.
In recent weeks, Brown has hinted that he is considering another U.S. Senate run, citing Trump’s return to the White House in January and his concerns about illegal immigration, the state of the economy and other national issues. He argues that New Hampshire Democrats have largely sided with the Biden administration’s “failed” policies.
“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,” Brown said in a recent interview with Fox News. “And the more I think about it, I think we can do better.”
Brown, a former Massachusetts state senator, rose to notoriety during the Tea Party red wave in 2010 after winning a special U.S. Senate election in the deep blue state to serve the remainder of the term of the late longtime Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. He handily lost the Senate seat to Democrat Elizabeth Warren two years later in the 2012 elections.
In 2014, Brown narrowly lost to Shaheen in a New Hampshire U.S. Senate race characterized by claims that he was a ‘carpetbagger’ because he had moved to the state shortly before running for the seat.
Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor, is up for reelection in two years.
The liberal Democratic activist group Amplify NH criticized Brown’s potential return to politics, calling his political career a “masterclass in opportunism” and suggesting he was more focused on “chasing the next political title instead of improving the lives of his fellow citizens.”
“In the wake of another Trump victory, the gentleman from Massachusetts is clawing for another chance at power, framing himself once again as a Senate candidate for New Hampshire,” the group said in a statement. “But New Hampshire doesn’t need a self-serving politician from over the border.”
However, the news that Brown could be running in 2026 prompted the incoming National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman, Sen. Tim Scott, to suggest that the Granite State could be on the RNC’s top “pick up” list in the 2026 midterm elections.
“I believe we have an opportunity to expand the majority. Georgia, New Hampshire, Michigan, three states where we can win today,” Scott told Fox News. “It’s going to take a lot of work, but the good news is we have the right president leading the charge. This is [Donald Trump’s] Republican Party. We’re going to add to his majority.”
