Brown Defeats Coakley

Scott Brown has beat out opponent Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts special election for the Senate, ending the Democrats' 60-seat Senate majority, and shifting Ted Kennedy's old seat to Republican hands. Kennedy was a champion of health-care reform, while Brown ran on his promise to vote against the bill. Coakley's team spent most of Election Day sparring with Washington Democrats, after leaking a memo that preemptively blamed them for her loss. Brown held a 52 percent to 47 percent lead over Coakley with almost all precincts reporting. "I’m Scott Brown. I’m from Wrentham. And I drive a truck," he announced in his victory speech. "What happened in this election can happen all over America."