'I’m really upset that Jeanne Shaheen voted for Obamacare,' a woman says in the video. Brown all but declares Senate run

Scott Brown all but made his run for a Senate seat from New Hampshire official on Friday, launching an exploratory committee, releasing a web video and delivering a speech to a GOP gathering attacking the president’s health care law.

The former Massachusetts senator, who recently changed his permanent residence to his vacation home in the neighboring Granite State, plans to go on a weeks-long “Main Streets and Living Rooms” listening tour.


“If we do things right this year, we will bring a defining victory to our cause,” Brown said in an 18-minute speech at the Northeast Republican Leadership Conference in Nashua. “A big political wave is about to break in America, and the Obamacare Democrats are on the wrong side of that wave.”

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His focus on the Affordable Care Act was in step with attacks by many GOP candidates in this year’s midterms.

“If we don’t like Obamacare, we can get rid of it,” Brown said. “Period.”

Along with his speech came the release of a campaign-style, 90-second video featuring people saying they hope Brown decides to take on Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

“I’m really upset that Jeanne Shaheen voted for Obamacare,” a woman says to the camera. “It’s hurting people in New Hampshire …We need somebody in Washington who is going to look out for us, and I think that person is Scott Brown.”

“He’s not afraid to speak his mind and tell it like it is,” a man in a tie adds. “That’s why we need him.”

The New Hampshire Democratic Party released a dueling web video, highlighting a host of clips with Brown talking about his Massachusetts roots and ties.

“I’ll probably die here,” he says of Massachusetts in one TV interview.

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Brown, 54, sought to rebut charges that he is a carpetbagger, highlighting what he called his “long and strong family ties to this great state” in his Nashua speech. He noted that his famous truck, which he used to campaign successfully for his first Senate race in Massachusetts, now has nearly 300,000 miles on it — and “Live Free or Die” license plates.

“So much of my life played out in Massachusetts, and I’m very proud and thankful for those opportunities, but a big part of it was always right here in New Hampshire,” he said.

Brown said his father and mother met when she was a waitress in Hampton Beach, N.H., and he was in the military. He was born in the state’s Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard.

The former senator talked about his hardscrabble upbringing. His mom and dad were married and divorced four times each. He lived in 17 houses by the time he was 18, and he spent part of his childhood on public assistance.

Brown, who lost his Massachusetts Senate seat in 2012 to Democrat Elizabeth Warren, said his wife, the television journalist Gail Huff, has been encouraging him to run for months.

Meanwhile, one of the Republican candidates already running for Senate in New Hampshire, state Sen. Jim Rubens, made clear he will fight Brown through the September primary.

“This primary campaign will draw a clear contrast between the voices of the voters in New Hampshire, and the one-size fits all, top-down approach from those in Washington,” Rubens spokesman James Basbas said.

Brown announced that New Hampshire GOP operative Andy Leach will manage his campaign-in-waiting as a “senior adviser.” Leach was formerly executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party and has worked for the powerful Sununu family and Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.).