Sherrod Brown stood in front of dozens of supporters at a suburban watering hole, talking glowingly about his final day in the US Senate in 2024.
Then he caught himself.
“Well, I thought it was my last night,” said Brown, eliciting applause in the room. “There are going to be more nights now.”
The former three-term senator from Ohio is mounting a comeback bid that’s critical to national Democrats’ hopes of winning the Senate this fall. He’s trying to become the first person since 1988 to win a Senate seat after losing reelection in the prior election cycle, in a state that was once one of America’s premier battlegrounds but has shifted markedly to the right.
Brown is running the same type of progressive populist campaign that helped him hold public office for half a century, railing on corporations and a “rigged” system – something he believes carries particular resonance at a time of high gas prices and economic malaise. While President Donald Trump won Ohio in 2024 by 11 points, now-Sen. Bernie Moreno beat Brown by less than 4.
