Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown

(Reuters) - State Senator Scott Brown pulled off a major upset on Tuesday to become the first Republican elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts since 1972.

Brown, 50, has represented a district in Boston's southwest suburbs since 2004, as one of just five Republicans in the 40-member Senate. He previously served three terms in the state House of Representatives.

He is a graduate of Tufts University and Boston College Law School.

In his race against Democratic state Attorney General Martha Coakley, Brown tapped into what he saw as a rich vein of voter concern about the policies of President Barack Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress.

Brown made his potentially crucial "41st vote" against Obama's sweeping healthcare reform effort a major rallying cry in his come-from-behind race to victory.

Brown's voting record has won high grades from business and gun owner groups and Citizens for Limited Taxation, and low marks from the National Organization for Women, the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the AFL-CIO.

An attorney who specializes in family law, he lives in Wrentham, Massachusetts, with his wife of 23 years, Gail Huff, a general assignment reporter with the local ABC affiliate.

The oldest of their two daughters, Ayla, was a semi-finalist in season five of the reality television show "American Idol."

Brown has been a member of the Massachusetts National Guard for 30 years and holds the rank of lieutenant colonel.

In 1982, he posed for a Cosmopolitan magazine centerfold, and won the publication's "America's Sexiest Male" contest. He also modeled and appeared in television commercials.

Brown competes in triathlons.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Peter Cooney)