Senate confirms former Sen. Brown as New Zealand envoy

WASHINGTON – The Senate has confirmed former Sen. Scott Brown as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand.

The vote Thursday was 94-4.

Brown is a Republican who represented Massachusetts in the Senate from 2010 to 2013. He won a special election to fill the seat held by the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy, a Democrat.

Brown lost the seat to Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and in 2014, he lost a Senate race in New Hampshire to Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

There are 188 ambassador jobs. Roughly a third are filled by political appointees and the rest by career foreign service officers. President Donald Trump had made 11 ambassador appointments as of Monday, according to the American Foreign Service Association, which tracks appointments.