A Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by the late Edward M. Kennedy posed nude for Cosmopolitan in 1982. State senator Scott Brown, who announced his long-shot bid for the seat on Saturday, is known around the state as a social and fiscal -- but apparently not a physical -- conservative.

Brown, the father of American Idol contestant Ayla Brown, posed for the nude centerfold when he was a 22-year-old law student at Boston College. He won Cosmo’s “America’s Sexiest Man” title, which included a $1,000 prize, according to Newsweek.

"I'm not ashamed of my body," Brown told Cosmo, as reported by Newsweek. "I work hard enough to keep it in shape. When you go to the beach, you automatically seek out the best bodies, female and male. Why should it be different in a magazine?"

The photos were unearthed by Wonkette in 2007, but Brown’s U.S. Senate bid brings wider interest to the spread, particularly in light of his socially conservative views. 

In 2007, Brown used his state senate seat to vote for an amendment banning same-sex marriage.