There’s been plenty of talk about Brown, one of the state’s only Democrats with considerable name recognition, since he lost his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate to Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno in November 2024. Brown lost that election by 3.6 percentage points in an election where President Donald Trump won the state by more than 11 points.
The overperformance helped paint Brown as a viable gubernatorial candidate to challenge presumed GOP nominee Vivek Ramaswamy. Instead, recent reports from the Cleveland Plain Dealer and others indicate that Brown has decided to try to reclaim a spot in the U.S. Senate — the seat Husted currently holds.
Husted, who was appointed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to serve out the remainder of a Senate term originally won by Vice President JD Vance, shrugged off the idea of a Brown challenge, noting that he’d rather not talk politics.
“Let’s get some work done. Let’s focus on actually solving problems at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Sinclair Community College and those places before we start talking politics,” Husted said. “But, if he chooses to run, he’s been around for 50 years in elected office. They spent $300 million on him just ten months ago, and he lost. So, we’ll see.”
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Avery Kreemer can be reached at 614-981-1422, on X, via email, or you can drop him a comment/tip with the survey below.
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