Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeanne Shaheen has held onto her seat in New Hampshire, NBC News projected, despite an impressive late surge from Republican challenger Scott Brown, who moved to his vacation home in the Granite State after losing his Massachusetts Senate seat to Elizabeth Warren two years ago. Brown has yet to concede, insisting the race is still too close to call.
Brown, who once posed nude for Cosmo, is now the first person in American history to have lost Senate races to two different women. As msnbc’s Rachel Maddow joked on Tuesday night, he’s now something of a “feminist hero.”
PHOTO ESSAY: Election Day 2014 is here: America votes on the future of the Senate
Of course, that’s not the title Brown was gunning for. Had he managed to pull off an upset in New Hampshire, Brown would have been just the third person in American history to represent two different states in the Senate.
But voters weren’t convinced. According to the NBC News exit poll in New Hampshire, Brown, who became a thorn in the Democrats’ side when he took Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat in 2010, suffered from perceptions that he was a political opportunist. When asked if Brown had lived in New Hampshire long enough to represent their state effectively, 53% of voters said he had not.
