HUDSON, N.H. — Mitt Romney returned to a familiar company in a familiar state Wednesday to campaign for Republican Senate hopeful Scott Brown, arguing that Obama administration policies backed by U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen are hurting small businesses.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential nominee, joined Brown at Gilchrist Metal Fabricating, where Romney once campaigned for president.

“This time it’s gonna turn out better,” joked Romney, who finished second in the 2008 New Hampshire GOP primary, won it in 2012 but lost both New Hampshire and overall in the general election.

Romney described Brown as an independent thinker and repeated Brown’s frequent refrain that the Democratic incumbent is a rubber stamp for President Barack Obama.

“His polices are on the ballot, and the name of those policies is Jeanne Shaheen, and that’s why she’s got to go,” said Romney, who said Shaheen’s support for a cap-and-trade program to control greenhouse gases and for what he called a “national energy tax” would drive up electricity prices and kill jobs.