Sherrod Brown Reclaims Senate Seat in Ohio

Mother Jones illustration; Sue Ogrocki/AP, Jason Whitman/AP Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. Former Sen. Sherrod Brown has narrowly won back a seat in the U.S. Senate. As of 11:30 p.m. Tuesday, the Ohio Democrat leads incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted by more than 2 percentage points, according to the Associated Press. Historically, the party in power loses congressional seats in midterm elections, as frustrated Americans seek a change of course. This year, high gas and grocery prices that voters have tied to Trump administration policies, including the war with Iran, hurt Republicans more than usual. But Brown still faced stiff political headwinds. Before losing his seat in 2024, the three-term Senator was the only Democrat holding a statewide nonjudicial office in Ohio. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump carried Ohio by 8 points in 2016, 8 points in 2020, and 11 points in 2024. In addition to Brown winning the Senate seat, Ohio also elected its first Democratic governor since 2006. Shortly before the Senate race was called, GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy conceded to Democrat Amy Acton. “This will be one of the happiest nights of my life,” said Mike Schedek, who was sitting next to his wife at the Democratic watch party in Columbus. “Apart from the the night I married my wife,” he added. Brown was first elected to the House in 1992 and to the Senate in 2006, so he had strong name recognition going for him. According to a recent poll by Bowling Green State University, a quarter of Ohio voters thought Brown was the incumbent, not Husted, who was appointed in 2025 to complete JD Vance’s Senate term. Rather than presenting a clear platform of his own, Husted spent most of his campaign arguing that Brown’s long tenure was the reason he shouldn’t return to the Senate. “He’s been in office for over 50 years. Can you name one thing he’s delivered that’s improved the quality of people’s lives in this state?” Husted said at a rally in October. Stumping for Ohio’s former lieutenant governor, Trump also didn’t have much to say about Husted’s political strengths. Instead, he most often commented on Husted’s supposedly strong ass. “I’m studying his body. I’ve never studied the body of a man before. It’s not my thing. Nothing wrong with it, of course,” Trump said last month. “But I looked at his ass, and then I looked at his legs. I said, ‘His ass, shit, it’s like, it’s like a pile of muscle.’ Then I looked at his legs, and I said, ‘Man, his feet are big.’ Then I looked at his shoulders, and I tapped him on the shoulder, and it actually hurt my hand. He’s like a piece of steel.” Physical features aside, Husted was hamstrung (see what I did there?) by unbecoming ties to controversial figures. His name repeatedly came up in court hearings over what federal prosecutors have described as the largest public corruption scheme in Ohio’s history. The scandal stemmed from utility company FirstEnergy funnelling tens of millions of dollars into dark money groups to elect state lawmakers, who then helped pass a massive bailout for struggling power plants. Husted was not charged with any crime in the case, though his political operation previously received $1 million in donations from FirstEnergy. Separately, Husted faced criticism for accepting tens of thousands of dollars from billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, a close friend and client of the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who managed Wexner’s finances. As a senator, Husted voted to table an amendment to a military funding bill that would have required Congress release investigative files related to Epstein. It’s also likely that the unpopularity of the Republican at the top of Ohio’s ballot, gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, kept some would-be Husted supporters home. The biotech billionaire’s campaign for governor went up in flames after he released an October ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton. Why is the mother estranged? One reason is that she stayed married to the man who was indicted for raping Acton when she was a child. Husted stood by his endorsement of Ramaswamy until the end. They went down together.