Scott Brown

Biography

Scott Philip Brown (born September 12, 1959) is an American diplomat and politician. A member of the Republican Party, he was the United States ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa from 2017 to 2020 under President Donald Trump. Brown was a member of the Massachusetts General Court, first in the State House of Representatives from 1998 to 2004 and then in the State Senate from 2004 to 2010. Brown served in the Army National Guard for 35 years, retiring with the rank of colonel in 2014 and receiving the Legion of Merit medal and the Maryland Distinguished Service Cross. After the death of Ted Kennedy in 2009, Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate in a 2010 special election to complete his term, defeating state attorney general Martha Coakley in a major upset. He ran for a full Senate term in 2012, losing to Democratic nominee Elizabeth Warren, but outperforming former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the concurrent presidential election. After departing the U.S. Senate, Brown worked in the private sector before moving to New Hampshire and running for Senate there in 2014, losing to incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in a close race. He ran for the same seat again in 2026, losing to former U.S. senator John E. Sununu in the Republican primary.

== Early life and education (1959–1978) == 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. Brown is part of a 9th generation New Hampshire family and was born on September 12, 1959 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), divorced when he was about a year old. When he was a child, his mother moved with him to Wakefield, Massachusetts. 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. After her divorce, his working mother received welfare benefits. 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) – and physical abuse from his stepfathers. During various periods of his childhood, Brown lived with his grandparents and his aunt. He shoplifted many times, and was arrested for stealing record albums and brought before Judge Samuel Zoll in Salem, Massachusetts, at the age of 13 or 14. 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." He graduated from Wakefield High School in 1977 then entered Tufts University where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1981. He received 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.

== Early career (1978–1992) ==

=== Army National Guard service (1978-2014) === 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, and attended Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) classes at the campus of Northeastern University. He was trained in infantry, quartermaster, and airborne duties, and in 1994 he joined the Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG). 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, and provided estate planning and real estate advice to those who were about to deploy to war zones. He spent ten days to two weeks with the Guard in Kazakhstan and a week in Paraguay. He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal for meritorious service in preparing for troop 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. He credits his military experience with causing him to focus on veteran's issues as well as issues of war and peace. 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. On May 2, 2011, Brown announced that he would soon go to Afghanistan for training as part of his Army National Guard service. When deployed in August 2011 for training, Brown stationed in and around Kabul. On August 1, 2012, Brown was promoted to colonel in a private ceremony presided over by fellow senator John McCain. He officially retired from the Army on May 13, 2014, after 35 years of service, and was awarded the Legion of Merit and the Maryland Distinguished Service Cross.

=== Modeling === 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 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 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. Brown took a leave of absence from Boston College 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. He returned to Boston after nearly two years to continue his studies at Boston College and continued to work as a model.

== State political career (1992–2010) == Brown "caught the political bug" in 1992 when he was elected property assessor of Wrentham, Massachusetts. 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.

In January 2010, The Boston Globe reported that Brown had carved out a niche regarding veterans issues. Republican Richard Tisei called Brown "the acknowledged expert on veterans' issues". Democrat Jack Hart 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." 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 that provides $1,000 for those returning from active duty in Afghanistan or Iraq.

== U.S. Senate (2010–2013) ==