Republican Scott Brown has won the Massachusetts Senate seat held for nearly a half-century by Democrat Edward Kennedy.

Brown’s victory in the special election gives Senate Republicans the 41st vote they need to block legislation favored by majority Democrats and President Barack Obama.

Striving for an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown pushed ahead of Democrat Martha Coakley on Tuesday in a U.S. Senate election that became a referendum on President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul and his first year.

A loss—or even a narrow victory—by the once-favored Coakley for the seat that the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy held for nearly half a century in this Democratic stronghold could signal big political problems for the president’s party this fall when House, Senate and gubernatorial candidates are on the ballot nationwide.

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