Ohio’s biggest political mystery, the one that seems to keep Republicans and Democrats awake at night, has been solved at last — maybe.
Democrat Sherrod Brown, nine months after losing his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate in Ohio’s GOP tsunami, is ready to try it again — maybe.
He may take on Ohio’s junior senator, Republican Jon Husted, in 2026 for the remaining two years of a Senate term won in 2020 by now-Vice President JD Vance.
At least that’s what The Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com said in an exclusive, sourced story that popped into millions of inboxes Tuesday morning.
The story was based on reports from three unnamed Ohio labor leaders who told the Plain Dealer that Brown had shared his plans with them. Brown hasn’t said anything about it yet, but there have been no denials from Brown or the Democratic Party since the story surfaced Tuesday.
Clearly, this is exactly what Democratic party leaders from Washington, D.C., to Columbus wanted to see happen.
It’s why twice this summer, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made trips to Brown’s home in Columbus. Clearly the purpose for Schumer was to sweet-talk Brown into taking on Husted, the former lieutenant governor who was appointed to the Senate vacancy by Gov. Mike DeWine, when Vance was sworn in as vice president in January.
Almost immediately after the story broke, Husted’s campaign leapt on a theme they think will work well for their candidate in a state Donald Trump won by 11 percentage points in 2024 — making Brown out to be Schumer’s boy in Ohio, which they believe will not endear him to the MAGA faithful.
“Should Brown enter the race as Schumer’s hand-picked candidate he will be starting in the biggest hole of his political career,’’ Husted campaign spokesman Tyson Shepard said to WVXU. “He has never faced a candidate like Jon Husted.”
Ohio voters likely are going to hear a lot out of the Husted campaign about “Chuck Schumer’s hand-picked candidate” over the next 15 months. But it begs the question: Why wouldn’t Chuck Schumer — or the leadership of the Ohio Democratic Party — want Brown to carry the banner in 2026? He’s clearly the most formidable candidate the Democrats could put out there.
All the Democrats must do is flip four Senate seats and Schumer ends up with a promotion to majority leader of the Senate. No easy task, but very doable. And Ohio could be a key component of that.
Last year, when Brown was running for re-election against Cleveland-area car dealer Bernie Moreno, he was running against a political novice in a year when Trump was winning Ohio by a double-digit margin.
Moreno defeated Brown by about 3.5 percentage points. Clearly the Republican won by riding the coattails of Trump.
But Ohio voters' affair with Trump may be wearing thin.
A Baldwin-Wallace University Poll earlier this year showed Trump’s approval rating among Ohioans was under water by a small margin. But, with the backlash against Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” the unpopularity and uncertainty of the Trump tariffs, and a host of other issues, it is hard to imagine that Trump’s standing among Ohio voters is going to get any better.
In the early stages of his campaign, Husted has been touting his vote in favor of the “Big Beautiful Bill” as a boon for Ohio families.
David Niven, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, said Husted is “creating a real opportunity for Sherrod Brown.”
“Every time a community hospital closes or has to cut back services, or a food bank can’t afford to operate, it’s going to be blamed on Donald Trump and the Republicans who support him,” he said.
The Brown-Moreno race was the most expensive Senate race in the country last year, with nearly $485 million spent.
Husted-Brown could beat that record, with a half billion or more.
“Ohio was used to being at the center of presidential races for a long time,’’ Niven said. “That’s no longer the case. But it can be the most important Senate race in the country.”
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