A long-serving Democratic senator is heading into the 2026 election cycle in a bad place, which is terrific news for the Republican majority.
Former three-term Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has announced his return to politics following a crushing defeat in the 2024 elections. On Monday, he officially launched his candidacy for Ohio’s special Senate election set for November 2026.
According to Newsweek, Brown’s reentry into the race offers Democrats a key opportunity to chip away at the GOP’s current majority in the Senate. Brown’s political career began in the 1970s when he served as a state representative, but he was defeated in 2024 by now-freshman Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) by over 200,000 votes.
If Brown secures the Democratic nomination as anticipated, he will go head-to-head with Republican Sen. Jon Husted. A former lieutenant governor and secretary of state, Husted was appointed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to fill the Senate seat vacated by JD Vance after Vance became Vice President under President Donald Trump.
Brown faces an uphill battle, with recent polls showing him trailing. Surveys by the Democracy and Public Policy Network at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) and YouGov put Husted ahead by 6 and 3 points, respectively.
Robert Alexander, a political science professor and founding director of the Democracy and Public Policy Network at BGSU, called Brown’s comeback “huge news,” even as polling points to a likely GOP advantage.
“There were a lot of kinds of inside baseball Ohio folks thinking he was going to run for the governor’s position, and would probably have a better shot at running for governor,” Alexander explained. “I think a lot of Democrats are concerned that [Republican Vivek] Ramaswamy will take the state even further into Trump-y territory.”
