Former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown has instructed Democratic allies that he intends to run for Senate subsequent yr, two individuals aware of his plans instructed NCS, and is quickly poised to launch a 2026 marketing campaign geared toward vindicating his defeat two years in the past after three a long time in Congress.
The choice to run for Senate, which Brown had quietly thought of for months, provides one other layer of intrigue to the Democratic Party’s uphill combat to win management of the Senate. Yet his candidacy is way from a profitable guess, contemplating the rising GOP energy in Ohio, the place Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to the job earlier this yr, faces reelection.
Brown is making good on the promise he made in his farewell speech on the Senate ground in December 2024, declaring: “It’s not, I promise you, the last time you’ll hear from me.”
The choice was first reported by Cleveland.com. An aide to Brown didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
Husted was appointed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, in January to fill the seat previously held by Vice President JD Vance.
Prior to his 2024 defeat, Brown had a protracted historical past of profitable hotly contested races in Ohio. He ousted DeWine from the Senate in 2006 and fended off stiff challenges in 2012 and 2018, even because the state shifted rightward.
A essential battleground as lately as 2012, Ohio was handled by each events as non-competitive in the 2024 presidential race. Brown ran nicely forward of the highest of the Democratic ticket, shedding by 3.6 proportion factors whereas the celebration’s presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, misplaced by 11.2 factors in Ohio.
Democrats want a internet achieve of 4 seats in subsequent yr’s midterm elections to win management of the Senate — a stiff challenge on a map that sees the celebration defending its personal seats in the swing states of Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire, with comparatively few viable pick-up alternatives.
Democrats scored a recruiting coup in North Carolina, the place former Gov. Roy Cooper has given the celebration maybe its greatest likelihood at flipping a GOP-held Senate seat.
In addition to North Carolina and Ohio, they’re hoping some mixture of Maine, a blue-leaning state the place Republican Sen. Susan Collins is seen as likely to run for reelection; Texas, the place Sen. John Cornyn faces an already bruising primary fight towards state Attorney General Ken Paxton; and Iowa, the place Sen. Joni Ernst has not but formally declared whether or not she is operating for reelection, will emerge as aggressive in the approaching months.
Brown, 72, had additionally been contemplating a run for governor, with DeWine term-limited and ineligible to search a 3rd time period.
Though the election is greater than a yr away, Husted and Brown are the doubtless nominees of their events. National Democrats spent months attempting to woo Brown into the race. And President Donald Trump endorsed Husted in April, all however closing the door to viable major challengers.
This story has been up to date with further particulars.