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One of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s skills is that he is good at recruiting candidates. Schumer got his top recruit, popular former governor Roy Cooper to run for the open US Senate seat in North Carolina, and now former Sen. Sherrod Brown will run for his old job in Ohio.
It may not have taken much convincing for Brown to take a run at returning to the Senate after he was one of the Senate Democrats to narrowly lose in 2024.
Politico reported, “Sherrod Brown has decided to run for Senate in Ohio in 2026, according to two people familiar with his thinking, making a play for his old job just months after he was beaten by Republican Bernie Moreno last November.”
Brown, like former Sen. Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, had the misfortune of trying to run for reelection while the top of the Democratic Party was in chaos.
Given what Trump and congressional Republicans have managed to do to the US economy in just a few months, there is a very good chance that Brown’s blue-collar and pro-worker message will find a much more welcome reception among Ohio’s voters.
Donald Trump won Ohio by 12 points over Kamala Harris. Brown only lost his election by three points.
Sherrod Brown will be a strong candidate in Ohio, and his entry into the race means that Republicans will have to spend significant amounts of money defending another red state Senate seat.
Democrats are recruiting strong candidates, while Republicans are warning that the nomination of AG Ken Paxton in Texas as their Senate candidate would require spending millions and millions of dollars to prevent a collapse.
Things are going exactly as Democrats wanted on the Senate side, but nothing matters unless the American people show up to vote.
What do you think about Sherrod Brown running in Ohio? Join the conversation in the comments below.