COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown officially launched his campaign Monday to return to the U.S. Senate next year, brushing aside his bitter loss to Republican Bernie Moreno last fall and expressing confidence his pro-working class message can continue to resonate with the state’s voters.
The state’s best-known Democrat, Brown is seeking the seat held by Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, a former Ohio lieutenant governor, state senator and secretary of state who’s already landed President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Husted was appointed to the seat in January to succeed JD Vance when he was elected vice president. Next year’s election is for the final two years of the six-year term.
In an Associated Press interview, Brown said he was not planning a political return until he watched with his wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, as the Senate passed Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill last month.
He said the bill perpetuates a “rigged system” he’s been fighting against throughout his career, by offering tax breaks to the wealthy while cutting programs for lower-income Americans, such as Medicaid.
“We just couldn’t stay on the sideline,” Brown said. “And I know I can fight back. Nobody in the Senate is speaking out for Ohio workers, nobody. And that’s my job to do. It’s what I’ve done my whole life, and it’s what I’m going to continue to do.”
Brown, 72, is viewed as one of Democrats’ most formidable Senate candidates in next year’s midterms, as they try to take control of the chamber in the face of a daunting map. He and former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper in North Carolina are two well-known names the party’s recruited to run in high-profile races, while Republicans have struggled to line up candidates in some key battlegrounds. That includes Georgia, where Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Ossoff is Republicans’ top target of the cycle.
Brown said he was encouraged by the many everyday Ohioans who stopped him on the street or at a coffee shop to ask him to return to politics. Among dozens of others he spoke to as he weighed whether Senate or governor was the best fit was Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, who’s leading the uphill fight to win control of the chamber.
Some Ohio labor leaders told the AP they’d have preferred if Brown had chosen governor. They’re concerned about the impacts on the movement if biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — the well-funded, Trump- and state party-endorsed Republican front-runner — wins the open seat next year.
Brown, who launched a pro-worker nonprofit under his “Dignity of Work” slogan in March, acknowledged “a little bit of disappointment” with his choice of office among some. But he said he anticipates “close to 100% support” from union leadership now that he’s launched his campaign. “What labor will tell me is they don’t have any strong voice for labor in the United States Senate — for union and non-union labor alike,” he said. “And I was that, and I will be that.”
He said he isn’t ready to make an endorsement in the governor’s race, in which Dr. Amy Acton, a former state health director who helped lead the state through the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running as a Democrat.
After Brown’s decision to run for the Senate became public last week, Husted’s campaign said Brown will be “starting in the biggest hole of his political career.”
“Brown’s slogans will ring hollow as his coalition walks away, tired of the radical policies he’s forced to support to appease his coastal bosses in California and New York,” Husted spokesperson Tyson Shepard said in a statement.
Brown volleys back: “My career has been about workers. His career has been about special interests.” He cites unresolved ties Husted, 57, has to the energy company at the heart of a $60 million bribery scheme that has enveloped the state over the past five years and put a former House speaker behind bars for 20 years. Husted has never been charged with any civil or criminal wrongdoing.
In an Aug. 12 strategy memo, the National Republican Senatorial Campaign said Brown, Democrats and the political press are underestimating how firmly red Ohio — once a reliable political bellwether — has turned after 10 years of Trump.
The memo said Brown was defeated last cycle by a political newcomer and will face “an even steeper climb against a well-known incumbent” like Husted, who’s spent the past 20 years in state politics and posted $2.9 million in fundraising last quarter. Last year’s Brown-Moreno match-up was the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history.
