BOSTON (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown has been endorsed by former GOP Massachusetts Gov. William Weld, who called him “moderate” and “independent.”

Weld, governor from 1991 to 1997, appeared with the senator at his campaign headquarters in Boston on Friday.

Weld, who now lives in New York, says Brown has shown a willingness to cross the aisle on critical votes and has also stood up to his own party.

He referenced Brown’s letter to the head of the Republican National Committee prior to last month’s GOP convention in which he asked the party to be more inclusive of pro-choice viewpoints on abortion.

Brown praised Weld as a social moderate with a “famous independent streak.”

Brown’s Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, campaigned Friday with Caroline Kennedy and Mayor Thomas Menino in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.