Scott Brown (politician)
Scott Philip Brown (born September 12, 1959) is an American diplomat, attorney, and politician who served as the United States ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. He is a former United States senator from Massachusetts (2010–2013), and also was the 2014 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. Before his Senate tenure, Brown served as a member of the Massachusetts General Court, first in the State House of Representatives (1998–2004) and then in the State Senate (2004–2010).
For other people named Scott Brown, see Scott Brown (disambiguation).
Scott Brown
John O'Brien
Lisa Freudenheim
Richard Ross
2, including Ayla
1979–2014
Army Commendation Medal with 4 oak leaf clusters
Meritorious Service Medal
Legion of merit
Army reserve components achievement medal with silver and bronze oak leafs
Armed forces reserve medal with silver hour glass
National defense service medal with bronze star
Army achievement medal with 2 oak leafs
Global war of terrorism service medal
In 2010, Brown faced Democratic candidate Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley in a special election which occurred after the 2009 death of longtime Senator Ted Kennedy. While initially trailing Coakley by a large margin, Brown saw a sudden late surge and posted a come-from-behind win to become the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts since Edward Brooke in 1972. Brown ran for a full Senate term in 2012, but lost to Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren. After his defeat, Brown joined the board of directors of Kadant paper company, joined Fox News as a commentator, and joined Nixon Peabody where he provided legal services.[1][2][3]
After re-establishing residence in New Hampshire, Brown then campaigned for the U.S. Senate from New Hampshire in the 2014 elections. Brown won the Republican nomination by a significant margin, but was defeated by incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in the general election.[4] In 2017, he was nominated by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate as U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.[5][6][7][8][9]
From January to August 2021, Brown served as dean of New England Law Boston, a private law school. In April 2022, Brown became head of The Competitiveness Coalition, a newly formed conservative coalition group.[10]
Early life and education (1959–1978)[edit]
Brown is of English ancestry, from a family that has been in New Hampshire since the colonial era. His earliest American ancestor was 17th century immigrant Francis Matthews, who sailed from Devonshire, England.[11] Brown is part of a 9th generation New Hampshire family[11] and was born on September 12, 1959[12] at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard located on Seavey's Island in Kittery, Maine. Brown's father, Claude Bruce Brown, and mother, Judith Ann "Judi" (née Rugg),[13][14] divorced when he was about a year old.[15] When he was a young child, his mother moved with him to Wakefield, Massachusetts.[16] He often spent his summers in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where his father served as a city councilor for 18 years. He also spent summers in Portsmouth, New Hampshire during his youth. His father and his grandfather were Republicans. His father has said that young Scott became interested in running for political office in the mid-1960s while accompanying him on a campaign for state office.[17]
Brown had a difficult childhood; after her divorce, his working mother received welfare benefits.[18] Brown experienced sexual abuse from a camp counselor who threatened to kill the 10-year-old boy if he told anyone – which he did not disclose, even to his family, until his autobiography Against All Odds (2011)[13][19] – and physical abuse from his stepfathers.[20] During various periods of his childhood, Brown lived with his grandparents and his aunt. He shoplifted many times,[20] and was arrested for stealing record albums and brought before Judge Samuel Zoll in Salem, Massachusetts at the age of 13 or 14.[21] Zoll asked Brown if his siblings would like seeing him play basketball in jail and required Brown to write a 1,500-word essay on that question as his punishment. Brown later said, "that was the last time I ever stole."[16]
He graduated from Wakefield High School in 1977.[22] He received a Bachelor of Arts in History,[23] cum laude from Tufts University in 1981 and a Juris Doctor from Boston College Law School in 1985. During his undergraduate career at Tufts, Brown was a member of the Kappa chapter of Zeta Psi International Fraternity.[15][24]
Early career (1978–1992)[edit]
Army National Guard service[edit]
Brown has said the rescue efforts of Army National Guard during the Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 impressed him. When he was 19, he joined the Massachusetts Army National Guard, received his basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey,[16] and attended Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) classes at the campus of Northeastern University.[25] He was trained in infantry, quartermaster, and airborne duties, and in 1994 he joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG).[25] He was active in the Guard for 35 years rising to the rank of colonel. As the Army National Guard's head defense attorney in New England, Brown defended Guard members who had disciplinary difficulties such as positive drug tests,[26] and provided estate planning and real estate advice to those who were about to deploy to war zones.[25] He spent ten days to two weeks with the Guard in Kazakhstan and a week in Paraguay.[26]
He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service in preparing for troops mobilization for Operation Noble Eagle (the mobilization of National Guard and U.S. Army Reserve personnel to provide security on military installations, airports, and other potential homeland targets) shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and later for mobilization support for Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom of the Iraq War.[22][27] He credits his military experience with causing him to focus on veteran's issues as well as issues of war and peace.[26] He has served on the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs, the Hidden Wounds of War Commission, and the Governor's Task Force on Returning Veterans during his career as a legislator.[26]
On May 2, 2011, Brown announced that he would soon go to Afghanistan for training as part of his Army National Guard service.[28] When deployed in August 2011 for a week of training, he spent most of his time in Kabul.[29]
On August 1, 2012, Brown was promoted to colonel in a private ceremony presided over by fellow senator John McCain.[30] He officially retired from the Army on May 13, 2014, after 35 years of service, and was awarded the Legion of Merit.[31]
Modeling[edit]
In June 1982, Brown, then a 22-year-old law student at Boston College, won Cosmopolitan magazine's "America's Sexiest Man" contest. After two weeks on a crash diet of "three cans of tuna a day" and intensive workouts[20] he was featured in the magazine's centerfold, posing nude but strategically positioned so that according to Brown, "You don't see anything". In the accompanying interview, he referred to himself as "a bit of a patriot" and stated that he had political ambitions. The Cosmopolitan appearance and its $1,000 fee[26][32][33] helped pay for law school, and began for Brown a "long, lucrative" part-time catalog and print modeling career in New York and Boston during the 1980s.[34][35] Brown took a leave of absence from Boston College[36] and further pursued his modeling career in New York where he was represented by Wilhelmina Models while taking classes at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.[37] He returned to Boston, after nearly two years, to continue his studies at Boston College and continued to work as a model represented by Boston agent, Maggie Trichon of Maggie Inc.[38]
Post-ambassadorship[edit]
In December 2020, Brown became the dean of New England Law Boston. He had been selected for this position in November 2019, with an initial agreement being made that he would assume the position in December 2020, at the end of his commitment with the State Department to serve as ambassador.[134][135] He started his tenure as dean in January 2021. He resigned from this job in August 2021, with his resignation letter citing a difference of vision from that of the board of directors, and declaring that he would "re-engage in the political arena," by supporting,
"candidates and causes who share my vision of re-building the Republican Party and moving our country beyond partisan gridlock."[136]
In April 2022, it was reported that Brown would lead "The Competitiveness Coalition", a coalition formed in opposition to the proposed American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICO). Organizations included in the coalition include the National Taxpayers Union, Americans for Prosperity, and the R Street Institute.[10]
Organizational associations and honors[edit]
Brown was a 35-year member of the Army National Guard, retiring as a colonel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps. Brown was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service in organizing the National Guard to quickly support homeland security following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.[211][212] He has also completed Airborne School and been awarded the Meritorious Service Medal.[22]
Brown has received the Public Servant of the Year Award from the United Chamber of Commerce for his leadership in reforming the state's sex offender laws and protecting victims' rights.[213] Brown's family has helped raise funds for such non-profit organizations as Horace Mann Educational Associates (HMEA, Inc.), Wrentham Developmental Center, Charles River Arc, and the Arc of Northern Bristol County, all for the care and support of those with developmental disabilities. He has also been recognized by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) for his work in creating an environment that encourages job growth and expansion in Massachusetts.[214] The Boston Globe selected Brown as the 2010 Bostonian of the Year, citing his "profound impact on national politics in the last year".[215]
Personal life[edit]
Brown is married to former NH1 News reporter Gail Huff, whom he met through modeling.[216] They have two daughters, Ayla, an American Idol semi-finalist and 2010 graduate of Boston College, and Arianna, a competitive equestrian and 2012 graduate of Syracuse University.[34][217][218] Arianna earned a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Cornell University in 2018 and is a practicing vet.[219] Gail announced in September 2021 her candidacy in a run for New Hampshire's 1st congressional district in the 2022 election.[220][221]
Besides their primary home in Rye, New Hampshire, the couple owns three rental condos in Boston, and a timeshare on the Caribbean island of Aruba.[222][223]
Brown and his family are members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. They also have a relationship with a Trappist community[224][225] of Trappist nuns at Mount St. Mary's Abbey in Wrentham, Massachusetts. The Brown family has "assisted efforts to raise $5.5 million" to replace the abbey's candy factory with a new greener facility with solar panels and a wind turbine.[16]
Brown plays guitar in his spare time, and as of February 2014 had appeared on stage multiple times with American power pop band Cheap Trick as a guest musician.[226] Brown is currently playing guitar with his band "Scott Brown and the Diplomats."[227]
Brown coached his local Rye, New Hampshire, junior high school boys basketball team in the 2015–16 and 2016–17 seasons before returning to the coaching in 2021.[228]