Scott Brown, a previously obscure state legislator, lawyer and former male model, became the new star of the Republican Party yesterday, with some members suggesting that he should now aim for the White House.
The father of two delivered what he called a “voter bomb” to take the seat held by Edward Kennedy, the Democratic “Lion of the Senate” for 47 years — and by his brother John F. Kennedy before that.
Mr Brown, 50, triumphed in what is viewed as America’s most liberal state, provoking speculation that he could try for the Republican nomination for the presidency. But he told a Boston press conference: “To think about something higher ... I’m just honoured to be in this position.
“If you would have told me growing up — a guy whose mum was on welfare and whose parents had marital problems and I had some issues growing up — that a guy from Wrentham would be standing here and going to Washington, are you kidding me? It’s overwhelming.”
Rapturous supporters saw him as a symbol of Republican resurgence after the crushing defeat in 2008 that put Barack Obama in the White House and gave the Democrats control of both chambers of Congress.
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Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts Governor and Republican presidential contender, said that it could be a model for elsewhere: “This shows the American people are rejecting the arrogance of ‘Obama-ism’ — the idea that the government knows best.”
Mr Brown said voters were fed up. “The main thing they want is good government back and to be part of the process,” he said. “I think they sent a very, very powerful message that business as usual is not going to be the way we do it.”
The shock victory deprives Democrats of the 60-seat “super-majority” that allows them to defeat Republican filibusters in the 100-seat US Senate. Mr Brown suggested that he would force the Democrats’ health plan — which was on the brink of passage after decades of trying — back to the drawing board.
“To have the one-size-fits-all plan that is being pushed nationally, it doesn’t work,” he said. “What I am hoping to suggest . . . is to let the states tell the federal Government, ‘Hey, this is what we’d like to do. Can we work with you in a team effort?’”
As a 22-year-old law student in Boston, Mr Brown posed naked for Cosmopolitan magazine’s June 1982 centrefold and was named Cosmo’s “Sexiest Man”. But he drifted into obscurity as a property lawyer. His parents divorced and each remarried three times. For a time he lived with his grandparents and an aunt. At the age of 12, he was arrested for shoplifting.
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A month ago he was only the third most famous person in his family. His wife, Gail Huff, is a reporter for a Boston television station, who had to disqualify herself from covering the campaign. His daughter Ayla made the semi-finals of American Idol, the TV talent show. She performed Dancing in the Street at his victory party.
Touring the state in a 2005 pick-up truck with 201,000 miles on the clock, Mr Brown tapped into anti-incumbent anger. Strong turnout by independent voters handed him victory.
Democrats blamed their candidate, Martha Coakley, who said in a radio interview that she did not want to campaign outside because she might get her hands cold.