Sherrod Brown Takes Back JD Vance’s Senate Seat

Democrat Sherrod Brown is heading back to the Senate after defeating incumbent Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted in a massive flip for Democrats.

Brown is currently projected to win by just over two points with 84% of ballots counted. Decision Desk HQ called the contest at 11:15 p.m. Eastern Time. 

Husted’s defeat flips a state President Trump carried by more than 11 points less than two years ago, and could go a long way toward determining which party has control of the U.S. Senate starting in January.

With the flip, Democrats have now taken control of the Senate. 

Brown’s victory comes two years after Ohio voters ousted him from the Senate in favor of Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024. Brown had previously held Moreno’s seat since 2007. 

Brown is the first Democrat to win a partisan statewide election in Ohio since his own re-election in 2018, as Republicans have dominated the Buckeye State going back to President Trump’s first victory in the state in 2016.

Husted was originally appointed to the seat by Republican Governor Mike DeWine in January of 2025 after it was vacated by now-Vice President JD Vance. Brown will serve the remaining two years of Vance’s six-year term and will be up for re-election again in 2028. 

Brown held a three-point lead in the RealClearPolitics polling average in the two weeks heading into the election. Husted had been trailing Brown in the RCP average since June.

Since June, top GOP strategists had shifted more resources to the state — despite President Trump carrying it three times — out of concern that low turnout projections could spell the demise of the GOP ticket. 

Husted and GOP messaging groups had been hammering anti-socialist messaging and cast Brown as a career politician with little to show for his 32 years in Washington. President Trump also made multiple visits to the state ahead of Tuesday. 

The race drew more than $400 million in total ad spending, the most of any race in the country. Brown outraised Husted for five straight quarters, but outside GOP groups spent heavily in the race, with the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund committing $79 million to the Ohio race — its largest investment of the cycle.

Brown, 73, presented himself as a moderate throughout the election, focusing on rising costs and data centers as key points of his campaign. 

The result leaves Ohio with a split Senate delegation, with Brown serving alongside the man who unseated him. 

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