During a heated interview on CNN Thursday, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio claimed that he lost his reelection bid because Republicans “rigged the system.” Earlier this month, Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno defeated Brown, a three-term senator, with 50.2% of the vote compared to Brown’s 46.6%. Brown accused Republicans of manipulating the electoral process, particularly in response to his campaign advertisements addressing transgender issues. One notable ad featured Vice President Kamala Harris, highlighting her efforts to support transgender prisoners in obtaining sex changes during her tenure as Attorney General of California.
“They lie about it and they put — in this case, they — they spent $40 million on 8 different ads on that issue,” Brown argued, later adding: “They weren’t talking about how to make Ohio a better state. They’re not doing their job on education. They’re not doing their job on health care. They’re not doing their job on creating jobs.” It should be noted that many of his and Harris’ campaign ads were also misleading or outright false, such as when Harris continually claimed that the now-president-elect was behind “Project 2025.”
After CNN reporter Manu Raju acknowledged the campaign’s success and confirmed the Republicans’ election victory, Senator Sherrod Brown responded by presenting his own allegations. “Yeah, but they’re winning elections in part because they — they’ve rigged the system. They’ve made it harder to vote,” Brown whined. “They’ve changed ballot language in a draconian, in a dramatic way with the last election. They did that with abortion rights. It didn’t work in that case.”
Brown grew impatient when Raju inquired whether Democrats were “out of touch” with American issues.
“Yes, they spent all this money on you — against you — you guys. One, are you out of touch on those issues? Two, should you guys have done a better job in pushing back?” Raju asked. “I’m not out of touch on those issues,” Brown responded. “I go home, I hear people all the time. I know how they focus group and they lie. I mean, how do you call me out of touch when they lie about an issue?”
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President-elect Trump won Ohio with 55.2% of the vote, while Kamala Harris received 43.9%. In the 2024 election, Republicans also secured four Senate seats, including those held by Democratic Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Independent Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Republican Senator J.D. Vance, will vacate his Senate seat on January 20 when he assumes the role of vice president, leaving Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to appoint a temporary replacement until a special election is held in 2026.