Scott Brown
United States Senator from Massachusetts
Incumbent
Assumed office February 4, 2010 Serving with John Kerry
Preceded by	Paul G. Kirk
Member of the Massachusetts Senate from the Norfolk, Bristol & Middlesex district
In office March 25, 2004[1] – February 4, 2010
Preceded by	Cheryl Jacques
Succeeded by	Richard Ross
Member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from the 9th Norfolk district
In office 1998–2004
Preceded by	Jo Ann Sprague
Succeeded by	Richard Ross
Member of the Wrentham, Massachusetts Board of Selectmen
In office 1995–1998
Member of the Wrentham, Massachusetts Board of Assessors
In office 1987–1990
Personal details
Born	Scott Philip Brown (1959-09-12) September 12, 1959 (age 52) Kittery, Maine
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Gail Huff
Children	Ayla Brown Arianna Brown
Residence	Wrentham, Massachusetts
Alma mater	Tufts University (B.A.) Boston College (J.D.)
Profession	Politician, lawyer, soldier
Religion	Christian Reformed Church in North America
Website	scottbrown.senate.gov
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army National Guard[2]
Years of service	1979 – present
Rank	Colonel
Unit	Judge Advocate General's Corps[2]
Commands	Head defense attorney for the New England States
Awards	Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service in homeland security; Meritorious Service Medal

Scott Philip Brown (born September 12, 1959)^[3] is an American politician and the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. Brown previously 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).

Brown is a member of the Republican Party, and faced the Democratic candidate, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, in the 2010 special election to succeed U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 2013. While initially trailing Coakley in polling by a large margin, Brown won the election and in January 2010 became the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts since Edward Brooke in 1972.

Prior to entering the state legislature, he had experience as a town selectman and assessor. He is a practicing attorney, concentrating in real estate law and serving as defense counsel in the Judge Advocate General's Corps of the Massachusetts Army National Guard. Brown is a graduate of Wakefield High School (1977), Tufts University (1981), and Boston College Law School (1985).

Early life and education[link]

Brown was born on September 12, 1959 in Kittery, Maine^[4] and grew up in Wakefield, Massachusetts.^[5] He often spent his summers in Newburyport, Massachusetts, where his father served as a city councilor for 18 years. Brown's father, Claude Bruce Brown, and mother, Judith Ann “Judi” (née Rugg),^[6][7] divorced when he was about a year old. Both his parents have since remarried three times. 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.^[8] Scott Brown recalls holding campaign signs for his father.^[2]

Brown had a difficult childhood; after her divorce his working mother received welfare benefits.^[9] 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)^[10]—and physical abuse from his stepfathers.^[11] During various periods of his childhood, Brown lived with his grandparents and his aunt. He shoplifted many times,^[11] and was arrested for stealing record albums and brought before Judge Samuel Zoll in Salem, Massachusetts at the age of 13 or 14.^[12] 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.^[5]

He graduated from Wakefield High School in 1977.^[13] He received a Bachelors of Arts in History,^[14] 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.^[4][15]

Early career[link]

Army National Guard service[link]

Brown has said the rescue efforts of Army National Guard during the Northeastern United States blizzard of 1978 impressed him. He joined the Massachusetts Army National Guard when he was 19, receiving his basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey,^[5] and attending Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) classes at the campus of Northeastern University.^[16] He was trained in infantry, quartermaster, and airborne duties, and in 1994 he joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG).^[16] He has been active in the Guard for about 30 years and has risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel. As the Army Guard's head defense attorney in New England, Brown defended Guard members who had disciplinary difficulties such as positive drug tests,^[2] and provided estate planning and real estate advice to those who are about to deploy to war zones.^[16] He spent ten days to two weeks with the Guard in Kazakhstan and a week in Paraguay.^[2]

He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service in homeland security shortly after the September 11 attacks.^[13] He credits his military experience with causing him to focus on veteran's issues as well as issues of war and peace.^[2] He has served on the Veterans and Federal Affairs Committee, the Hidden Wounds of War Commission, and the Governor's Task Force on Returning Veterans during his career as a legislator.^[2]

On May 2, 2011, Brown announced that he would soon go to Afghanistan for training as part of his Army National Guard service.^[17] When deployed in August 2011 for a week of training, he spent most of his time in Kabul.^[18]

Modeling[link]

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^[11] 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^[2][19][20] 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.^[21][22]

State political career[link]

Brown "caught the political bug" in 1992 when he was elected property assessor of Wrentham, Massachusetts.^[2] In 1995, he was elected to the Wrentham Board of Selectmen.

He successfully ran for the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1998, representing the 9th Norfolk District for three terms. Brown again moved up the ladder of state politics to the state Senate in March 2004 when he won a special election to replace Democrat Cheryl Jacques. Brown was re-elected for a full term in November 2004, and again in November 2006, running without opposition the second time. He won re-election in November 2008, defeating Democratic candidate Sara Orozco by a 59–41 percent margin. Following his re-election, Brown was one of five Republicans in the 40-seat Massachusetts senate. In the Massachusetts Senate, Brown served on committees dealing with consumer protection, professional licensing, education, election laws, public safety, and veterans' affairs.^[15]

In February 2007, a controversy arose after Brown's appearance at King Philip Regional High School in Wrentham, Massachusetts as part of a debate on gay marriage. The high school students had launched a Facebook group attack on Brown and had made a derogatory remark about his daughter, Ayla. During his presentation, Brown defended himself and his daughter by directly quoting several vulgar statements they had made and announcing the names of the students who had written the statements. Critics questioned whether Brown should have quoted the profane comments in front of a high school audience.^[23]

In January 2010, The Boston Globe reported that during six terms in the Legislature, three each in the House and Senate, Brown had a modest record of legislative initiatives, but he had carved out a niche as a leading advocate for veterans. Richard R. Tisei of Wakefield, Massachusetts, the leader of the Republican minority in the state Senate, called Brown "the acknowledged expert on veterans' issues."^[24] State Senator Jack Hart, a Democrat of South Boston, said: "He does his homework, he's comprehensive in his approach, and on veterans' issues, he's one of them and has done a very good job on their behalf."^[24]

Brown lists among his achievements as a legislator his authorship of a 2007 law that created a check-off box on state income tax forms for veterans to indicate whether they served in Iraq or Afghanistan. The state uses the information to notify veterans of available services and benefits, including the Welcome Home Bonus^[25] that provides $1,000 for those returning from active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq.^[24]

U.S. Senate[link]