2010 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts

2010 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts

← 2006 January 19, 2010 (2010-01-19) 2012 →

Nominee Scott Brown Martha Coakley Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,168,178 1,060,861 Percentage 51.83% 47.07%

County results Municipality results Congressional district results Precinct results Brown:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90% Coakley:      40–50%      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Tie:      40–50%

U.S. senator before election Paul Kirk[a] Democratic Elected U.S. Senator Scott Brown Republican

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v t e

The 2010 United States Senate special election in Massachusetts was a special election held on January 19, 2010, in order to fill the Massachusetts Class I United States Senate seat for the remainder of the term ending January 3, 2013. It was won by Republican candidate Scott Brown.

The vacancy that prompted the special election was created by the death of Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy on August 25, 2009. Kennedy had served as a U.S. senator since 1962, having been elected in a special election to fill the vacancy created when his brother John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States in 1960. The seat was held until the election by an appointee, Senator Paul Kirk, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, who was not a candidate in the election to complete the term. This was the first open seat U.S. senate election in Massachusetts since 1984 and the first in this seat since 1962 where Ted Kennedy was first elected.

A party primary election determining the winners of party nominations was held on December 8, 2009.^[1][2] The Democratic Party nominated Martha Coakley, the Massachusetts attorney general; the Republican Party nominated Scott Brown, a Massachusetts state senator. The race drew national attention due to Brown's unexpectedly closing the gap and running even with, or ahead of, Coakley in independent and internal polling in the last few days of the campaign.^[3][4]

Polls closed at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time. At 9:06 p.m., BNO News projected Brown as the winner of the race.^[5] At 9:13 p.m., The Boston Globe reported that Coakley telephoned Brown and conceded her defeat in the election.^[6] As a result of the election, the Republicans would control 41 seats in the United States Senate, enough to successfully make the Senate filibuster happen.^[7] Although Democrats would retain control of both houses of Congress until January 2011, Brown's victory would greatly affect their political plans, most notably for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, though the legislation was signed into law two months later.^[8][9]

With his victory, Brown became the first Republican to win this seat since 1946, and the first to win either Massachusetts Senate seat since 1972. Indeed, he was the first Massachusetts Republican to be elected to Congress since Peter Blute and Peter Torkildsen won reelection to the House in 1994. As of 2023^[update], this is the last congressional election in Massachusetts won by a Republican. The only Massachusetts congressional Republican throughout his whole Senate tenure, Brown lost his bid for a full term in 2012; he later moved to New Hampshire where he unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2014. This election was the first time since 1946 that the winner of Massachusetts's Class 1 Senate seat was not a member of the Kennedy family.

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