Republican wins in Massachusetts

Republican Scott Brown won a bitter US Senate race in Massachusetts yesterday, dealing a stunning blow to President Barack Obama…

Republican Scott Brown won a bitter US Senate race in Massachusetts yesterday, dealing a stunning blow to President Barack Obama's legislative agenda and casting doubt on the fate of his health care overhaul.

Mr Brown's defeat of Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley robbed Democrats of the crucial 60th Senate vote they need to overcome Republican procedural hurdles and created nervousness among Democrats facing tough races in November's congressional elections.

What once seemed an easy Democratic victory turned into a desperate scramble in the last few weeks as Mr Brown surged ahead on voter fears over the economy, the health care reform bill and Mr Obama's agenda.

Mr Obama, who won almost 62 per cent of the state's vote in the 2008 presidential election, made a last-minute appeal in Massachusetts on Sunday to try to ignite enthusiasm for Ms Coakley's campaign to replace the late senator Edward Kennedy, a Democratic icon and longtime champion of health care reform.

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Mr Brown, a Massachusetts state senator, had promised to be the pivotal 41st Republican vote against the health care overhaul in the 100-member Senate.

"People don't want this trillion-dollar health care plan that is being forced on the American people," Mr Brown told cheering supporters at a Boston hotel.

He said voters were rejecting the closed-door deals that were driving the health care debate and he took satisfaction in proving the experts - and Democrats - wrong.

"They thought that they owned this seat. They thought that they couldn't lose," Mr Brown said. "You all set them straight."

Mr Brown's upset with 52 per cent of the vote in heavily Democratic Massachusetts raised the spectre of large losses for Democrats across the country in November.

"Anyone who has been out on the campaign trail has seen the anger," Ms Coakley, who was criticised for running a weak campaign, told a room of dispirited supporters at a Boston hotel. "I am heartbroken at the result."

In Washington, an Obama spokesman said the president called Mr Brown after the result. "The president told Senator Brown that he looks forward to working with him on the urgent economic challenges facing Massachusetts families and struggling families across our nation," the spokesman said.

Reuters