Scott Brown, the former U.S. senator from Massachusetts and former Ambassador to New Zealand, is taking another crack at running for the Senate in New Hampshire.
Brown announced his entrance into the 2026 race to fill the seat left vacant by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s retirement through a video release early Wednesday morning. It was widely expected, with Brown being rumored for months to be mulling a Senate run. It’s also the latest turn in a political career that’s been marked by both high profile jobs and political reversals.
“My life has been the American story, but I worry about what America is going to look like in the future for my four grandchildren, and all of yours,” Brown said in his announcement video. And like a lot of you, I’m worried about where this country is headed.”
Brown, who now lives in Rye, was a relatively obscure Massachusetts state senator and longtime member of the National Guard when he rode the political energy of the Tea Party movement to win a U.S. Senate race in an upset in 2010. In that race, Brown upset then-Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley to fill the seat left vacant by the death of Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Two years later Brown lost his reelection bid to Elizabeth Warren. He then moved to New Hampshire, full time, where his family had owned a second home..
In 2014, Brown won a three way GOP primary in New Hampshire’s Senate race, before losing to Shaheen by about 16,000 votes.
Brown was among the first prominent politicians to endorse Donald Trump for president in his 2016 campaign. A year later, Trump tapped Brown to serve as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
In 2021, Brown briefly served as the dean of the New England School of Law. Since then, he’s performed with his rock band, The Diplomats; competed in triathlons; coached girls high school basketball; and kept a foot in politics by hosting presidential candidates at barbecues in Rye.
Brown joins 1st District Congressman Chris Pappas, a Democrat, as the only major declared candidates in the 2026 Senate race.
Pappas, who is now in his fourth term in Congress, announced his candidacy in April. Pappas’ family owns the Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester, and he’s appeared on every state ballot since 2002, losing just once. Pappas has been an executive councilor, Hillsborough County treasurer, and a state representative.
Pappas was endorsed by Shaheen shortly after he got in the race.
In the video announcing his run, Brown played up his ties to Trump and took direct aim at Pappas.
"President Trump is fighting every day to right the ship," Brown said. "Chris Pappas wants a better title; I want a better America.”
Pappas, meanwhile, greeted Brown’s entrance into the race by tying him to Trump and his policies.
“Scott Brown stands with corporate special interests, supports efforts to strip away health care coverage from tens of thousands of Granite Staters, and backs President Trump’s reckless tariffs that New Hampshire small businesses are speaking out against every single day,” Pappas said.
National Republicans over the past year spent significant energy courting then-Gov. Chris Sununu to run in the 2026 Senate race — either to challenge Shaheen, or to run for the open seat after she announced her retirement. Sununu’s decision to pass on a campaign left Brown as the only Republican candidate of national profile who’s expressed any interest in the seat.
While Brown played up his ties to Trump in his announcement video Wednesday, it’s unclear how involved — if at all — Trump will be in this race.
