BOSTON (WGGB/AP) — Former Republican Senator Scott Brown has confirmed that he will not run for John Kerry’s Senate seat.

In a statement released Friday, Brown notes that “Over these past few weeks I have given serious thought about the possibility of running again” after Kerry resigned his post after being confirmed of Secretary of State.

Even though Brown’s competitive instincts were leaning towards a run and he had “received a lot of encouragement from friends and supporters to become a candidate,” he says that he wasn’t certain that “a third Senate campaign in less than four years, and the prospect of returning to a Congress even more partisan than the one I left, was really the best way for me to continue in public service at this time.”

So Brown says he won’t be a candidate for senator in the special election.

Brown was defeated in November by Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren. He had won the seat in a special election in 2010.

Tim Vercellotti, Director of the Polling Institute at western New England University, says Scott Brown remains a popular political figure in Massachusetts and wouldn’t be surprised if he runs for office again,”So we may see him run again for governor in 2014, we may see him sit out this special election and go for the senate seat when it comes up again which won’t be that far down the road again in 2014, I don’t think we’ve heard the last from Scott Brown,” says Vercellotti.

U.S. Reps. Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch are seeking the Democratic nomination for the seat being vacated by Kerry, who is leaving the Senate to become Secretary of State.

The Democratic and Republican primaries are scheduled for April 30 and the special election for June 25. Gov. Deval Patrick has named William “Mo” Cowan, a former top aide, to fill the seat on an interim basis until the election.

Full Statement from Scott Brown:

“Representing Massachusetts in the United States Senate was the greatest privilege of my life, an experience that takes second place only to my marriage to Gail and the birth of our daughters. It was a higher honor than I had ever expected, and in the time given to me I always tried to make the most of it.

“When I was first sent to the Senate in early 2010, it wasn’t exactly welcome news for President Obama or many other Democrats. Yet among my best memories from those three years in office are visits to the White House to see the President sign into law bills that I had sponsored. I left office last month on the best of terms with colleagues both Republican and Democrat. I had worked well with so many of them, regardless of party, to serve the public interest just as we are all supposed to. All of this was in keeping with the pledge I made at the beginning to do my own thinking and to speak for the independent spirit of our great state.

“Over these past few weeks I have given serious thought about the possibility of running again, as events have created another vacancy requiring another special election. I have received a lot of encouragement from friends and supporters to become a candidate, and my competitive instincts were leading in the same direction.

“Even so, I was not at all certain that a third Senate campaign in less than four years, and the prospect of returning to a Congress even more partisan than the one I left, was really the best way for me to continue in public service at this time. And I know it’s not the only way for me to advance the ideals and causes that matter most to me.

“That is why I am announcing today that I will not be a candidate for the United States Senate in the upcoming special election.”

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Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.