Former Sen. Sherrod Brown has decided to run for Senate next year in Ohio, according to three sources familiar with his plans, potentially putting the Republican-leaning state in play for Democrats.
Brown lost his race for a fourth term last year by about 3.5 percentage points as President Donald Trump carried Ohio by 11 points. But a midterm year is typically tougher for the president’s party, and Democrats have been aggressively recruiting Brown to run in the special election to serve the remainder of Vice President JD Vance’s Senate term against Sen. Jon Husted, the former lieutenant governor whom Gov. Mike DeWine appointed to Vance’s seat.
Cleveland.com was the first to report Brown’s plans to run for Senate in 2026.
Democrats face an uphill climb to take control of the chamber, looking to net four seats as Republicans defend a 53-47 majority. Democrats have two ripe targets in North Carolina and Maine, but would they would then have to flip two GOP-held seats in states Trump won by double digits last year to take control of the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has traveled to Ohio twice in recent months, with the latest visit coming in late June, a source familiar with the meeting, first reported by Axios, confirmed to NBC News. The former senator’s ability to overperform the national environment in a state that’s been broadly trending away from Democrats is one main reason why they’ve been so bullish trying to lure Brown into the race.
Tyson Shepard, a spokesman for Husted’s campaign, said in a statement to NBC news, “Should Brown enter the race as Schumer’s handpicked candidate he will be starting in the biggest hole of his political career. He has never faced a candidate like Jon Husted. 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.”
Brown, who had also been weighing a run for Ohio governor, has been working to reorient his party, which, in view, has lost its way among working-class voters.
“I’m not going to whine about my loss,” Brown told NBC News late last year. “But I lost in large part because the national reputation of the Democratic Party is that we are sort of a lighter version of a corporation — a corporate party. We’re seen as a bicoastal, elite party. And it’s hard to argue that.”
“We couldn’t pass the minimum wage because Republicans almost uniformly were against it,” Brown said at the time. “It’s always Republicans who are on the wrong side, and there aren’t enough Democrats on the right side to win. … It’s a good example of how workers get screwed.”
A Senate run from Brown would also provide some clarity for Ohio Democrats as they look to fill out the rest of their statewide slate.
Dr. Amy Acton, a Brown ally who has been running for governor for months, could ramp up her campaign without the nagging speculation that the former senator might enter the race and push her to the sidelines.
Young Democratic mayors like Justin Bibb in Cleveland and Aftab Pureval in Cincinnati could concentrate fully on their uncomplicated 2025 re-election bids free of pressure to step up to a Senate race next year, though they could be courted for down-ballot contests. Pureval, in an interview last week at a Democratic Mayors Association conference that Brown addressed in Cleveland, said he had no preference for what office Brown seeks.
“I think Sen. Brown is still our best advocate and still our best messenger for the Democratic agenda,” Pureval said. “His deep and genuine roots in the labor movement and his exceptional record while in office speak for themselves. But now is the time for genuine leadership in Ohio, and I believe Sen. Brown is the person to demonstrate that.”
The one remaining wild card is former Rep. Tim Ryan, who lost to Vance in 2022 and has shown interest in a run for governor or Senate in 2026.
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