Former Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown is considering the possibility of running for president in 2016.
Brown appeared at the Iowa State Fair Sunday. With refreshing disregard for political custom, Brown made it clear why he was visiting Iowa.
“I want to get an indication of whether there’s even an interest, in Massachusetts and throughout the country, if there’s room for a bipartisan problem solver,” Brown told the Boston Herald Sunday. “It’s 2013, I think it’s premature, but I am curious. There’s a lot of good name recognition in the Dakotas and here – that’s pretty good.”
Brown won Ted Kennedy’s old seat in the U.S. Senate in a 2010 special election and quickly established himself as one of the most popular political figures in the state and one of the most popular Republicans in the country.
However, after his losing re-election campaign in 2012 to Elizabeth Warren, in which he tried to win crossover votes by touting a “People Over Party” slogan, Brown offended Massachusetts Republicans.
As The Daily Caller revealed, Brown made it clear to decision-makers in the state party that he would only run in a 2013 special election for John Kerry’s vacated Senate seat if Republicans backed his pick for state GOP chair, Kirsten Hughes, who worked for Brown’s last campaign. Conservatives backed businessman Rick Green in opposition to Hughes. The race was hotly contested, and Hughes won the chairmanship by two votes on the second ballot on February 1.
Brown then texted Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr Feb. 1 with the message, “U r the first to know I am not running” for Senate.
Brown’s abrupt move angered many Massachusetts Republicans, and it would be very difficult for Brown to win a Republican primary for the Massachusetts governorship in 2014, one insider previously told The Daily Caller.
Brown’s friend and fellow Republican Charlie Baker, an executive at General Catalyst Partners who ran for governor in 2010, has been making “overt moves” behind-the-scenes in exploring another gubernatorial run, leading insiders to suspect that Brown will not seek the 2014 GOP nomination.
Brown, who has also expressed some interest in running for the Senate in New Hampshire, addressed Massachusetts gubernatorial speculations earlier this month, saying, “There’s nothing wrong with a primary” against Baker.