By Tim Hains - February 13, 2013

FOX News Channel has announced the hiring of former Republican Sen. Scott Brown as a contributor. He will make his debut Wednesday night on "Hannity."

Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming at FOX, said in a statement that “Senator Brown’s dedication to out-of-the-box thinking on key issues makes him an important voice in the country, and we are looking forward to his contributions across all FOX News platforms.”

In the same statement, Brown said that he is “looking forward to commenting on the issues of the day and challenging our elected officials to put our country's needs first instead of their own partisan interests.”

Brown represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate from 2010 to 2012 after winning a special election to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. His victory stunned the political establishment and catapulted him into the national spotlight.

Brown was defeated in November by Democrat Elizabeth Warren, and he recently declined to run in another special election being held this year to fill the vacancy left by John Kerry, who left the Senate to become secretary of state.