Ohio Dem Sherrod Brown Plots Senate Comeback

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) is ready to run for office again after losing his Senate seat to Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) in the 2024 election amid reported controversies.

Brown will challenge Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH) in the 2026 election, cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer first reported on Tuesday, citing Ohio labor leaders. As of press time, Brown had not formally announced his campaign, but other news outlets have confirmed his plans.

In a story published last month, Brown told Semafor that “everything’s on the table” while “talking to family and friends” and deciding whether he “want[s] to get back in and do this.” He also said, “I’m concerned about the direction of my state; I’m concerned about the direction of my country. So I don’t know.”

Brown, a former Ohio secretary of state and congressman, first won election to the Senate in 2006 against incumbent Mark DeWine, who went on to become governor. During his three terms in the Senate, Brown served as chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

The Daily Wire covered Brown a number of times while he was in the Senate, including reports on donations from drug companies at the center of the opioid crisis and how he attended a ritzy Hollywood fundraiser while constituents worried about the water quality at their home after the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine.

In the 2024 election, Brown ran for a fourth term against Moreno, a businessman who was endorsed by now-President Donald Trump. Estimates show roughly $500 million was spent on that Senate contest, which POLITICO dubbed the most expensive non-presidential election in U.S. history.

Moreno defeated Brown 50.1%-46.5%. Trump’s margin of victory over then-Vice President Kamala Harris in Ohio was much larger, with the final results coming in at 55.2%-43.9%.

Brown will now face off against Husted, who was selected by Governor DeWine to temporarily replace JD Vance after he resigned from his seat in the Senate in order to become vice president. The winner will serve out the remainder of the term that ends in 2029.

Axios reported that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) had been urging Brown to get back in the ring, a push that comes as Democrats hope to retake control of the upper chamber. But Husted’s team shrugged off the pending challenge.

“Should Brown enter the race as Schumer’s handpicked candidate he will be starting in the biggest hole of his political career,” Husted campaign spokesman Tyson Shepard said in a statement posted to X by Jeremy Pelzer, the reporter who broke the story.

“He has never faced a candidate like Jon Husted,” Pelzer continued. “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.”