Former Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) released his first TV ad Thursday in his bid to unseat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), as he works to convince New Hampshire voters that he isn't simply a state-shopping carpetbagger.
The ad features the pickup truck that also played a starring role in an ad run by Brown's campaign as he went up against Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley (D) in the 2010 race to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). In that ad, he said the truck had almost 200,000 miles, but it's since picked up many more.
"Scott Brown has almost 300,000 miles on this truck," a male narrator says in the new ad. "Over the last few weeks, it's taken him all across New Hampshire, listening, learning."
Brown embarked upon a listening tour across the 9,350 square mile-state of New Hampshire before last week's long-awaited announcement that he'll contest the Republican primary to challenge Shaheen.
The truck trope has long been a favorite of Brown's. He closed his 2010 victory speech in Boston with "I'm Scott Brown, I'm from Wrentham, I drive a truck, and I am nobody's senator but yours."
Brown also drove the truck in ads as he faced Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who prevailed in 2012.
The Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC supporting Democratic incumbents and candidates, went up with a TV ad in January targeting Brown before he had jumped into the race.
A new WMUR poll released Thursday shows Brown gradually closing the gap with Shaheen, as he now trails the senator by just six percentage points
Brown will have to defeat three GOP primary challengers in order to take on Shaheen: former Sen. Bob Smith, former state Sen. Jim Rubens and conservative activist Karen Testerman.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated former Sen. Scott Brown's (R-Mass.) political affiliation.
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