**The shock Republican winner of a Senate election in the Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts has said he tapped into mounting aggravation among voters.**Scott Brown’s victory is a serious setback to President Barack Obama’s key domestic agenda on reforming healthcare and passing a climate change bill.
The result stunned Democrats and means Republicans now have enough Senate votes to impede the president’s plans.
Mr Brown will be Massachusetts’ first Republican senator since 1972.
The BBC’s Paul Adams, in Boston, says it is a humiliating defeat for the Democrats, and a deeply unwelcome anniversary present for President Obama exactly one year after his inauguration.
“This is a referendum on the Barack Obama agenda and a way of working in Washington, an arrogant approach to politics”
Mitt Romney
Senior Republican
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He adds that it is one of the biggest political upsets in years - in a seat held for almost half a century by Edward Kennedy, a Democratic Party colossus, who died last year.
Senator-elect Brown told NBC’s Today show he did not think the vote was a referendum on President Obama’s first year in power.
He said it was a sign of voter disenchantment over partisan gridlock in Washington.
Mr Brown, 50, also said voters had “enjoyed the message” he pushed while campaigning, including his criticism of Mr Obama’s healthcare plans.
‘Senator Beefcake’
The Republican beat Democratic rival and Massachusetts attorney general Martha Coakley by 52% to 47%.
Dubbed Senator Beefcake in the US media, Mr Brown is a lawyer and former model who posed almost naked for Cosmopolitan magazine in the 1980s while in law school.
MARDELL’S AMERICA
“This is a calamity for the Democrats, all the more on the very day the president has been in power a year”
Mark Mardell
Read more of Mark’s thoughts
Senior Republican figure Mitt Romney told Fox News the vote was a referendum on President Obama, and a verdict on “an arrogant approach to politics in this country”.
The Republican win has robbed the Democrats of their filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate.
After conceding the election in a telephone call to Mr Brown, Ms Coakley told her supporters she was “heartbroken at the result”.
Sen Robert Menendez, head of the Senate Democrats’ campaign committee, said he had “no interest in sugar-coating” the result.
“There is a lot of anxiety in the country right now,” he added. “Americans are understandably impatient.”
Lacklustre
President Obama had campaigned personally on behalf of Ms Coakley.
Analysts say the race should have been an easy win for her. Just weeks ago, she had a double-digit lead in polls and seemed destined to win.
WHAT NEXT FOR OBAMA AGENDA
- Obama’s bid to reform healthcare and pass climate bill now in doubt
- On healthcare, Democrats in House could pass bill already passed by Senate
- Or rush a compromise bill through before Brown can take his seat
- But that could spark a political backlash on Democrats, even if both houses could agree it so soon
- On climate, cap-and-trade bill passed by the House faces even more difficulties in Senate
But a lacklustre campaign allowed her Republican opponent to seize on voter discontent and overtake her in the final stretch.
Voters flocked to the polls through the snow and rain that fell all day on Tuesday.
Ms Coakley said she had received a telephone call from President Obama, who told her: “We can’t win them all.”
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president had called to congratulate Mr Brown and say he was looking forward to working with him.
Correspondents say the vote does not bode well for the Democrats ahead of November’s congressional elections, and that if they cannot hang on to a party stronghold such as Massachusetts they could be vulnerable almost anywhere.
The result comes amid opinion polls showing nearly half of Americans think President Obama is not delivering on his major campaign promises.
It was the third major loss for Democrats in state-wide elections since he became president: Republicans won governors’ seats in Virginia and New Jersey in November.