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Sherrod Brown to challenge U.S. Sen. Jon Husted

IN THE RACE — Former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, shown meeting with reporters in 2023, says he will seek the Democratic nomination to run for the Senate in Ohio. -- Associated Press

Democrat Sherrod Brown is seeking a return to the U.S. Senate, announcing he will challenge Republican Jon Husted, appointed to an open seat eight months ago, in the 2026 election.

Saying the country is going in the wrong direction, Brown said he “can’t stay on the sidelines” and do nothing.

“It is clear there is no voice in the U.S. Senate for Ohio, none, and I want to be that voice again,” Brown said about running next year against Husted.

In response, Tyson Shepard, a Husted campaign spokesman, said: “Sherrod Brown’s recent announcement means Ohio will face a clear choice in 2026. For 30 years, he has imposed Washington’s problems on Ohio, pushing radical liberal policies that have left a lasting burden on the next generation. Jon Husted offers the opposite approach, applying Ohio ‘s values and solutions to fix a broken Washington.”

Brown said in announcing his plans Monday to return to the Senate, where he served for 18 years, Ohio voters will see a huge contrast between him and Husted, who served as lieutenant governor before Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him to J.D. Vance’s seat. Prior to that, Husted was secretary of state and speaker of the Ohio House.

“Husted spent his whole career fronting for special interest groups, whether it’s FirstEnergy, whether it’s Wall Street, whether it’s drug companies,” Brown said. “That’s his whole career so it didn’t surprise me at all after DeWine appointed him that he would land in Washington and do the same thing.”

Brown added: “I had a reputation in Washington for being the strongest voice for workers in the whole Senate — union and nonunion,” and “when you fight for workers, you win elections and that’s what’s going to happen” in 2026.

It’s been Brown’s platform for years, but he wasn’t re-elected in 2024, losing by 3.6 percent to Republican Bernie Moreno.

Brown, who served 18 years in the Senate, said with Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, faring so poorly in Ohio — she lost to Republican Donald Trump by 11.2percent — there “weren’t enough” Trump-Brown voters last year.

“Moreno had no record in public office, no votes, no record,” Brown said. “Husted surprised nobody with where he’s come down on his votes and his performance as an elected official. That’s going to be easier to explain, and voters are going to know that.”

Brown added: “I ran ahead of Harris, but I couldn’t run enough ahead of our presidential candidate to win. Politics is more that way now. People vote president and vote all the way down (the ticket with the same political party). That really wasn’t the case 20 years ago.”

Since his January appointment to the Senate — to a seat vacated by Vance after he was elected vice president — Husted has closely aligned himself with Trump, who has won Ohio in the last three presidential elections.

Shepard said: “The challenges our nation faces are the same ones Husted has helped our state confront and overcome, championing the values he learned growing up in northwest Ohio: Hard work, personal responsibility, family, faith, freedom and patriotism.”

Brown gave serious consideration to three options: Running next year for senator, for governor or retiring from politics.

“After thinking a lot about it, I just think I can do more in the Senate and that’s where I want to land,” he said.

Regarding governor and senator, Brown said, “Both were interesting and both were tempting. Originally, I started not thinking I’d run for anything.”

While Brown is the most recognizable Democrat in Ohio, the state has moved significantly to the right, particularly with the success of Trump, but even before that. Besides Brown, the last Ohio Democrat to win a statewide election with party affiliation on the ballot was Richard Cordray in 2008 during a special election for attorney general.

Brown said since Husted took office in January — which coincided with Trump’s presidency, Republicans maintaining slim control of the House and taking over the Senate — “it’s clear that things have gotten worse.”

Brown said: “Drug prices keep going up, grocery prices keep going up. Now 490,000 — it’s just an unbelievable number to say 490,000 — Ohioans will likely lose their insurance (through Medicaid cuts.) There’s a huge tax cut for the richest people in the country and the largest corporations and adding $43 trillion to the deficit. The more I thought about that, the more Connie (Schultz, his wife) and I thought we can’t stay on the sidelines.”

Brown added: “Husted has some really bad votes already.”

Word leaked last week that Brown had decided to run for senator instead of governor, disappointing a number of his political allies.

“The people who were disappointed are on board overwhelmingly” with the Senate bid, Brown said.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee went after Brown on Monday with an online ad and text messages for his “radical record.”

Nick Puglia, an NRSC spokesman, said: “Ohioans just rejected Sherrod Brown’s radical agenda of allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports, fueling mass illegal immigration and failing to protect Ohio’s good-paying manufacturing jobs. If Brown wins his primary, we remain confident voters will reject him again in 2026.”

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 27,000 skilled electrical workers in Ohio, endorsed Brown’s candidacy Monday.

The 2026 election is for the two remaining years of Vance’s Senate term. If he is successful in 2026, Brown will have to run again in 2028.

“I’m not thinking about what happens in two years except what happens when I’m in the Senate,” he said. “I’m thinking a lot about that. But I’ve got no thoughts about what I will do in two years politically.”

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