Republican Brown wins Mass. Senate race
GOP claims Kennedy's seat
January 20, 2010, 9:15 a.m.
STAFF REPORT
In a huge upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown rode voter anger to win the U.S. Senate seat held by the late Edward M. Kennedy.
The loss by once-favored Democrat Martha Coakley in the Democratic stronghold was an embarrassment for the White House after Obama rushed to Boston on Sunday to try to help her.
A top adviser to President Obama rejected assertions that Tuesday's vote was a referendum on the president or Democratic policies and instead took a shot at Coakley: "Campaigns and candidates matter."
Her defeat signaled problems for the president's party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot.
Brown becomes the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the president's health care legislation and the rest of his agenda.
Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters. The state's attorney general had been considered a shoo-in in heavily Democratic Massachusetts, which hadn't elected a Republican to the Senate in 38 years.