Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-MA) thinks he can do something we haven’t seen in our lifetimes: represent two different states in the United States Senate. 
 
 On Thursday news broke that the former Massachusetts is forming a Senate exploratory committee, a step below him formally announcing his candidacy to replace Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) in the chamber. 
 
 Unfortunately for Brown, history doesn’t seem to be on his side. According to the U.S. Senate Historical Office, only two senators have represented multiple states in the history of the chamber: Sen. James Shields (D) served as senator from Illinois, Minnesota and Missouri in the 19th century and Waitman Thomas Willey who represented Virginia and West Virginia roughly around the same time. Willey was a member of the Republican and Unionist parties. Shields was last elected in 1879 and Willey’s last term ended in 1871. 
 
 “Quite often they were elected in the House in one body and to the Senate in the other or that sort of thing,” Senate historian Don Ritchie told TPM on Friday. “But why did so many move around? Well the nation was on the move. In the 19th Century pioneers were moving west steadily and if you look at a lot of senators from the west they were born in Vermont or Ohio or whatever.” 
 
 Shields seems to be the closest historical analogy to Brown’s modern-day scheme, since he lost re-election in Illinois and then moved to the Minnesota territory then ran once it became a state. After fighting in the Civil War, Shields later settled in Missouri, where he ran for Senate. Willey was one of West Virginia’s delegates to the state’s constitutional convention, then ran for Senate when it became a state. 
 
 Beyond that, there have been 28 lawmakers who have represented one state as delegate or representative and another state in the Senate, according to the Senate Historical Office. Today, the state-to-state moves usually happen before a candidate starts his or her political career. 
 
 “It’s different from being born somewhere else and moving to a state. Like [President Barack Obama] was born in Hawaii and educated in New York and Massachusetts and winds up in Illinois,” Ritchie said. “Once he gets there he’s like lots of other people who move to Illinois, he’s sort of establishing himself. But after he’s elected in Illinois he doesn’t move over and run in Wisconsin, let’s say” Ritchie said. “I think voters look on that in a different way.” 
 
 A prime example of a modern example of running for Senate in multiple states is Brown’s contender in GOP primary: former Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH). Smith tried to run for Senate in Florida in 2010 but lost. Now he’s back in New Hampshire hoping to get his old job again. Of course there have been plenty of past attempts, most recently Liz Cheney’s failed attempt to beat Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY) in Wyoming by moving there from Virginia. 
 
 Brown may have a better shot than Smith, but so far things aren’t looking good. A recent Suffolk University poll found Shaheen leading Brown 52 percent to 39 percent. And a small state like New Hampshire might not necessarily be friendly to outsiders coming in and running for office, said Dartmouth College political science professor Linda Fowler. 
 
 “A large state like New York is used to people moving to the state and becoming a senator,” Fowler said. “Daniel Patrick Moynihan, it’s not just Hillary, it was Robert Kennedy. There have been a bunch of them. And because it’s been such a cosmopolitan state and they have national news media that hasn’t been a problem. I think in smaller states where there’s more of a friends-and-neighbors effect it is more difficult.” 
 
 Fowler acknowledged that New Hampshire could be a special case because the Boston media market stretches up there. Brown, Fowler noted, has high name recognition in the state and has spent a fair amount of time there. 
 
 “So the usual obstacles are name recognition, political networks, and being regarded as an outsider who who doesn’t understand what the issues are facing the state,” Fowler added. “I actually think that Brown might be vulnerable on the last one. After all, Massachusetts is a very liberal state.” 
 
 “On the other hand he really did fight hard against Elizabeth Warren in a liberal state in a presidential year and he did pretty well,” Fowler continued. “So he’s been in the fire, if you will, tempered by the fire of a serious campaign and came off pretty well. I just don’t know if he wants it that much.” ||||| CONCORD, N.H. — It would have been a bizarre fantasy five years ago, when he was a little-known state senator from Wrentham. And it would have been hard to fathom two years ago, when he was a US senator from Massachusetts. 
 
 But Tuesday night Scott Brown became the Republican nominee for Senate in New Hampshire and will now face the incumbent, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, in what has already become a competitive and bitterly contested race that has drawn millions of dollars in attack ads from outside groups. 
 
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 Brown comfortably dispatched several party rivals, including his two most serious opponents, former state senator Jim Rubens and former US senator Bob Smith, according to the Associated Press. 
 
 Brown and Shaheen, who did not face a challenge for the Democratic nomination, are expected to continue running campaigns with starkly divergent themes: the challenger speaking about national issues, the incumbent sticking to local accomplishments. Aides to both say they don’t expect that messaging to substantially change in the general election race. 
 
 Brown is focusing on retail political events, meeting voters while discussing federal issues — from immigration to the growing threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria — and trumpeting his independence. He paints his opponent as painfully partisan, and he rarely misses an opportunity to note that she votes in lockstep with President Obama, who polls have found is increasingly unpopular in the Granite State. 
 
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 Shaheen is relentlessly focused on the town-by-town, city-by-city specifics of what she has done for New Hampshire, while framing the former Massachusetts senator as driven by self-interest and woefully out of touch with his new home state. (Brown moved his primary residence to New Hampshire last year.) 
 
 With 75.7 percent of precincts reporting Tuesday night, Brown led with 49.9 percent of the vote, according to the Associated Press. Rubens, his next closest rival, had 23.7 percent. 
 
 In Manchester Tuesday, Shaheen addressed a crowd of about 500 supporters for 10 minutes. Her remarks were sharp and pointed in the direction of Brown. 
 
 “No matter where he lives, Scott Brown will not be there for working people,” said Shaheen, ticking off a list of Brown’s financial ties to Wall Street and business alliances she says have hurt the workforce here by exporting American jobs to China. 
 
 The crowd booed, on cue. 
 
 “Fact is, he may have changed his address but he hasn’t changed his stripes. New Hampshire is not for sale and New Hampshire is not Scott Brown’s consolation prize,” she continued, alluding to his 2012 loss to Elizabeth Warren. 
 
 Brown spoke to an upbeat crowd of supporters in Concord late Tuesday evening in a speech that stretched for about 20 minutes, touching on a number of topics but focused squarely on his Democratic rival. 
 
 “Nobody in the Senate is more invested in the policies and failures of President Obama than Senator Shaheen,” he said, standing in front of a large image of an American flag. “Listen, they campaigned together in our state six years ago. They were elected on the same day. And from that day to this day, she has voted for the failed Obama agenda more than 99 percent of the time,” he said, emphasizing the salient number. The crowd booed, on cue. 
 
 New Hampshire Republican strategist Jim Merrill said the incumbent was trying to run as locally focused an effort as possible, “like she’s in a campaign for mayor of New Hampshire.” 
 
 Shaheen aides and allies see that emphasis as an inherent advantage. “There’s nothing [Brown] can point to and say: ‘I’ve done that for New Hampshire,’ ” said campaign spokesman Harrell Kirstein . “We can.” 
 
 Brown, for his part, has spoken about what he could do for the state and how it would be to New Hampshire’s benefit to have “an independent voice” who doesn’t vote with the president so frequently. 
 
 He has recently held six in-person town halls, a New Hampshire tradition that gives voters a chance to ask politicos anything, and has repeatedly criticized Shaheen for not hosting any similar events. At those forums, and others, he often speaks about federal issues — such as Obama’s health care overhaul — while connecting them to their impact on the state. 
 
 While analysts said the specifics of the campaign will matter, the New Hampshire race is part of a furious nationwide battle for control of the US Senate, where the GOP must pick up a net of six seats in this year’s midterm elections to win the chamber. 
 
 National factors, which currently favor Republicans as likely voters sour on Obama, could have a significant impact in the Granite State, which often swings with the broader political winds. 
 
 Stuart Rothenberg, a nonpartisan political analyst who closely follows US Senate races, said he was not convinced that the Republican wave would be enough to carry Brown. Still, he said, if the national environment is extremely good for the GOP, Brown “can win, but he’s going need a strong wind at his back.” 
 
 Polling has found the race to be competitive. One poll, conducted in August by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, found the race to be a dead heat. Other recent surveys have found Shaheen with a single-digit lead. 
 
 Juliana Bergeron, the Republican national committeewoman for New Hampshire, said Brown was the underdog, as Shaheen is well known from her years in the public eye as a US senator, governor, and state senator. But Brown, she said, “is trending up.” 
 
 Wherever the race stands, it is set to become substantially more heated. 
 
 “Let’s go,” Brown said as he finished his speech Tuesday night. “Let the games begin!” ||||| CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Former Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Scott Brown won New Hampshire's Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday, moving forward in his attempt to get back to Washington from another state. 
 
 Scott Brown, left, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, speaks to supporters after he won New Hampshire's Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday Sept. 9, 2014 in Concord, N.H. Brown will face... (Associated Press) 
 
 Scott Brown, right, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, waves to supporters as his wife Gail, left, claps. after he won New Hampshire's Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday Sept. 9, 2014 in... (Associated Press) 
 
 Scott Brown, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, waves to supporters after winning New Hampshire's Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday Sept. 9, 2014 in Concord, N.H. Brown will face incumbent... (Associated Press) 
 
 Scott Brown, a former U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, waves to supporters after winning New Hampshire's Republican U.S. Senate primary on Tuesday Sept. 9, 2014 in Concord, N.H. Brown will face incumbent... (Associated Press) 
 
 Brown faced nine primary opponents, though only two mounted serious campaigns. The front-runner from the start, he spent months tailoring his message toward a November showdown with incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, and he spent Tuesday reminding voters that Republicans need to gain six seats to win a majority in the Senate during the last two years of President Barack Obama's term. 
 
 "After six years of missed opportunities at home and growing dangers around the world, we need change," Brown said in his victory speech. "And the problem is a vote for my opponent will change exactly nothing." 
 
 This is Brown's third U.S. Senate campaign in five years. One of the original tea party favorites, he shocked the nation by winning a 2010 special election to replace the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Democrat. That win in a Democratic stronghold going back decades vaulted Brown to the top of the GOP's list of rising stars, but he was soundly defeated by Democrat Elizabeth Warren in 2012. Last year, he moved to New Hampshire, where he had a vacation home and had lived as a toddler, seeking an alternate route to Washington. 
 
 If he's successful, Brown would become only the third U.S. senator to serve multiple states. Waitman Willey served Virginia and then West Virginia when it became a state during the Civil War, and James Shields represented Illinois and Minnesota before being elected from Missouri in 1879. 
 
 Shaheen wasted no time contrasting Brown's recent arrival in the state to her decades of public service as a state senator, the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire and the state's first female U.S. senator. 
 
 Before polls closed Tuesday, she began running one television ad criticizing Brown and one featuring New Hampshire residents and communities she's helped. 
 
 "I didn't just move here. I've been here, working to make a difference for New Hampshire," she planned to tell supporters Tuesday night. "No matter where Scott Brown lives, he's going to put Scott Brown first. Not you. Not your family. Not New Hampshire." 
 
 Shaheen's biggest advantage is that almost every voter likely has not only met her but interacted with her, said Neil Levesque, director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. 
 
 "She's made it about her relationship with individual constituents here in New Hampshire," he said. "So far, she's been successful at saying, 'Remember me? I'm that person you reached out to, and I reached back, and together we solved problems.'" 
 
 Brown's two main primary challengers, former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith and former state Sen. Jim Rubens, cast him as a liberal flip-flopper, arguing that he's shown more consistency voting with Democrats than he has sticking to his convictions. Brown answered by calling himself an independent problem-solver willing to work across the political aisle and by reminding voters that, unlike his rivals, he never left the Republican Party. But he mostly focused on Shaheen, attempting to tie her to the increasingly unpopular Obama, particularly in her support for Obama's health care overhaul law. 
 
 "Just because she's been throwing her vote away in the Senate does not mean you have to throw your vote away in November," Brown said. "If we're ever going to hold this president accountable, we have to hold this senator accountable." 
 
 That strategy could work if New Hampshire continues its recent trend of favoring Democrats in presidential election years and Republicans in the midterms. Levesque said Brown's challenge is to keep the focus on Obama, though he said Brown also has shown himself to be a tenacious grass-roots campaigner. 
 
 Both will benefit from national interest in the race, Levesque said. While races in several other states are considered more competitive, outside groups already have poured $6.6 million into New Hampshire, bringing the total spent on the race to nearly $16 million.
– Scott Brown is on the road to becoming the first person since the 19th century to have represented more than one state in the Senate. The former Massachusetts senator comfortably won the Republican primary in New Hampshire yesterday, the AP reports, and will face incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen this fall in what the Boston Globe reports has already become "a competitive and bitterly contested race" that has drawn plenty of money from outside the state. Brown "may have changed his address, but he hasn’t changed his stripes," Shaheen told a rally yesterday, slamming Brown's ties to big business. "New Hampshire is not for sale, and New Hampshire is not Scott Brown’s consolation prize," she said. Shaheen has focused on her achievements for New Hampshire, but Brown has been doing his best to tie her to President Obama, the AP reports. "Just because she's been throwing her vote away in the Senate does not mean you have to throw your vote away in November," Brown says. "If we're ever going to hold this president accountable, we have to hold this senator accountable." Brown was defeated by Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts in 2012, and if he prevails this fall, he will be just the third person to represent more than one state in the Senate, Talking Points Memo reported when he announced the New Hampshire run earlier this year. Waitman Thomas Willey, a Unionist and then a Republican, served both Virginia and West Virginia in the 1860s, while Democrat James Shields represented Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri in a long political career interrupted by Civil War service.