Sherrod Brown says he didn’t plan to run for office again. But it turns out that’s exactly what he’s doing nine months after he lost his U.S. Senate seat in November of last year.
In an interview on Sunday, Brown explained why he’s opted to end his brief retirement from politics to run for Ohio’s other U.S. Senate seat, held by Republican Sen. Jon Husted, in the November 2026 election.
He said he and his wife, Connie Schultz, have watched the last eight months with alarm, singling out President Donald Trump’s signature spending bill – which Husted is campaigning on after voting for it. Brown said prices haven’t yet come down and said Trump’s bill will force rural hospitals to close and cause 490,000 Ohioans to lose their health insurance. That’s a figure in line with the Kaiser Family Foundation’s estimates on the bill’s effects on Medicaid, the state and federal government-run health care program for the poor and disabled.
“There’s not one senator of the 100 on the Senate floor that is fighting for Ohio workers. Zero,” Brown said. “And so Connie and I thought we’d never run. But we can’t stay on the sidelines when we see these kinds of things happening.”
Brown getting back in the game shortly after losing his seat
Brown, 72, is a living institution in state Democratic politics. First elected to the state legislature in 1974, he then served as Ohio Secretary of State and, after that, a U.S. Representative. After serving in the U.S. Senate from 2007 through 2024, he was defeated by Republican Bernie Moreno, a former luxury car dealer.
Brown lost to Moreno 50% to 47% in a state President Donald Trump won by 11 percentage points. Ohio now has just one remaining statewide elected Democrat: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Jennifer Brunner, who is running for reelection next year.
Asked why he believes he can win this time, Brown said he poses a clear contrast with Husted, a longtime elected Ohio Republican whom Gov. Mike DeWine appointed to a vacant U.S. Senate seat in January. The seat used to belong to JD Vance, who resigned it when he was elected Trump’s vice president in November.
“They’re going to vote for a guy that’s spent his career fighting for workers or vote for a guy who spent his career working on helping special interest billionaires and drug companies and Wall Street and FirstEnergy,” Brown said.
In a statement, Husted campaign spokesperson Tyson Shepard said Brown’s 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,” Shepard said. “Jon Husted offers the opposite approach, applying Ohio’s values and solutions to fix a broken Washington. 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.”
The national picture
Brown’s entrance into the Senate race is a coup for national Democrats, who face an uphill battle in their attempt to retake control of the U.S. Senate. Ohio likely wouldn’t have been on the national radar had Brown not run, given Ohio’s solid Republican lean and its lack of candidates with a similar national profile.
Now, the Ohio race will at least be competitive, and Brown’s presence likely will prompt Republicans to direct more resources here than they would have otherwise. That could potentially come at the expense of more competitive states like Georgia, Michigan – both Democratic-held – and North Carolina, which will all have an open seat following the retirement of a longtime Republican incumbent.
And if Brown pulls off an upset victory, Democrats would stand a chance of getting control of the Senate, although they’d still have to win in Republican-leaning states such as Alaska or Texas while holding all their current seats.
On the other hand, Brown’s decision will leave some Ohio Democrats high and dry – particularly those in the organized labor movement, who wanted Brown to run for governor instead.
Brown called deciding to pass on the governor’s race a “hard decision.”
“I talked to literally hundreds of people,” Brown said. “In the end … I just thought the Senate was the best way to have the impact that I want to have and to advocate for workers.”
Brown’s decision leaves an open lane for Amy Acton, the former state health director, to get the Democratic nomination for governor. But it also could draw former Democratic congressman Tim Ryan into that race; he was not considering challenging Brown for the gubernatorial nomination.
Several of Brown’s top advisers are working for Acton’s campaign. But if Brown has a preference in that race, he’s not saying so publicly.
“The focus is on this race. We’ll see what happens there,” Brown said.
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Not making it about Trump
Brown’s campaign launch video references his decision-making process and priority issues while also alluding to how many Ohio Democrats likely are feeling these days.
“Together, we can stop this craziness and get things done for Ohio,” Brown said from a factory floor, wearing a trademark blue denim shirt and khaki pants.
On Sunday, Brown fielded several Trump-related questions. But in a 20-minute conversation, he didn’t say the president’s name once. This suggests a calculated decision to keep the race narrowly focused on Husted – a state GOP mainstay who predates the Trump phenomenon and who isn’t exactly beloved by the president’s core voters. (Trump has endorsed Husted.) This is a variation from, say, Brown’s 2018 campaign, when he touted his willingness to work with Trump when he thought the situation merited it – a strategy that made more sense with Trump’s political hold on the state wasn’t as clear.
“This election’s about Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown,” Brown said Sunday before jokingly chiding himself for speaking in the third person.
Brown also didn’t seem interested in opining on whether next year’s election could see a favorable political climate for Democrats – a necessity if the party is going to have success here.
“It will be a good year for one select candidate in Ohio running as a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate,” he said.