Ohio Democrat Makes Senate Comeback Bid Official

Next year’s U.S. Senate race in Ohio officially got more interesting on Monday morning. After weeks of speculation, and even more definitive chatter last week, former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, announced on the social media platform X that he’s running once more for the Senate.

Brown will challenge Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed earlier this year to replace now Vice President JD Vance, triggering the special election. Whoever wins next year will also have to run again in 2028.

The video announcement from Brown, 72, places an emphasis on workers and “working as hard as possible for the people of Ohio,” principles he says he’s tried to live his life by, though he claims that “that’s not what’s happening in Washington.”

Brown places the blame on what’s been happening for the past seven months, when the 119th Congress and President Donald Trump’s second term began. The former Democratic senator lost last November to now Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno.

“All they’ve done is made things worse for Ohioans, handing over your hard-earned money to corporations and to billionaires,” Brown charges in his video, referencing “reckless tariffs and economic chaos.” There are also lamentations about prices and health care, including threats to small businesses and alleged cuts to Medicaid. Other Ohio Democrats have echoed such narratives.

“I didn’t plan to run for office again,” Brown offers, “but when I see what’s going on, I know I can do something about it for Ohio. That’s why I’m running for Senate.” As the ad takes a more hopeful tone, Brown once more focuses on workers and talks about a desire to “stop this craziness and get things done for Ohio.”

Although Brown’s video announcement does not make much reference to how he previously served for three terms in such a role, Republicans have highlighted the former senator’s liberal record in their reactions.

“Sherrod Brown’s recent announcement means Ohioans 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,” Tyson Shepard, the communications director of John Husted for Senate told The Daily Signal in a statement. “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.”

Moreno, who defeated Brown by 3.6 percentage points last November, chimed in on X with a quoted repost of the announcement video.

In his post, he highlighted liberal aspects of Brown’s record, including on the border, which Moreno says “brought in millions of illegals that lowered wages and raised costs for American workers,” as well as transgender politics and electric vehicle mandates.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee also responded to Brown’s formal announcement with a video of its own. Such a video responds to Brown’s claims about “fighting for working people” via an ad that portrays the Ohio Democrat as “FOR SALE to the far left.”

That includes a mention that “he folded when union jobs were on the line,” as well as highlighting his record on sex changes for minors, defunding the police, taxes, illegal immigration, and religious freedom.

“Sherrod Brown didn’t stand up for Ohio. He sold it out,” a video announcer states. “Ohio deserves better, not a liberal sellout like Sherrod Brown.”

Last week, in light of reports that Brown would be running, Jai Chabria, a Republican strategist, spoke to The Daily Signal about how Brown will have to overcome that record.

In part, he mentioned that “there were tens of millions of dollars spent to define [Brown] as too liberal,” which Chabria said “will continue to stick,” and it’s “a brand [Brown’s] got to spend just to overcome in a state that’s moved red.”

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball and Cook Political Report consider a prospective Brown-Husted race as “Lean Republican.”

The U.S. Senate race is not the only one out of Ohio causing recent chatter. With reports that Brown was indeed running for Senate again, there’s speculation that former Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan could run for governor.

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