Former Senator Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Senator Jon Husted in Ohio on Tuesday, flipping a seat that was crucial to Democrats’ strategy to retake the chamber and providing a ray of hope for the party’s longer-term prospects in a former swing state that had turned sharply to the right over the last decade.
Brown won after hammering Husted relentlessly throughout one of the nation’s most expensive races, drawing attention to the Republican’s support for artificial intelligence data centers, his ties to a bribery scandal at the statehouse and campaign donations he’d taken from billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, who once employed the late sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. Husted argued that Brown, who has spent five decades in politics, was out of date and too liberal for Ohio voters. Late in the campaign, President Donald Trump — who made several Ohio visits on Husted’s behalf — became fixated on Husted’s athletic physique, promoting the former college football player as the better-looking candidate. “America is a great nation. “And it’s on all of us to make this country a better place. For one thing, Trump was not on the ballot to drive Republican turnout, and the president’s low approval ratings complicated the impact of his once-coveted endorsements for candidates such as Husted. The president and vice president — with an advertising boost from technology companies — pressed a positive message on artificial intelligence data centers during their multiple rallies for Husted, keen on reversing one of his key vulnerabilities. Ultimately, it wasn’t enough.
Since Tuesday was technically a special election in Ohio, Brown now serves out the final two years of the Senate term won by JD Vance in 2022. But the president’s tariffs, trade war with Canada and the war with Iran that sent fuel prices soaring gave Brown, 73, a fresh opening with rural and working-class voters.
You should love it, and you should fight for our founding ideals that our rights belong fundamentally to us, not to government,” Husted said.
Husted — a former lieutenant governor, secretary of state and state House speaker — was appointed to replace Vance when he ascended to the vice presidency last year.
