Reports: Sherrod Brown planning to run for Senate after 2024 rejection

Former Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is hoping for vindication.

CNN reported that the former lawmaker has alerted “Democratic allies” that he is planning to run for Senate next year, vying for the seat currently held by Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, Ohio’s former lieutenant governor.

“It’s not, I promise you, the last time you’ll hear from me,” Brown said in December 2024 during his last speech on the Senate floor.

The 72-year-old Brown served in the U.S. Senate from 2007 until 2025. Current Republican U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno stunningly defeated Brown, who previously served in the U.S. House from 1993 until 2007, in November 2024

Cleveland.com first reported the news of Brown’s likely run.

Brown was also previously linked to a possible gubernatorial run next year. However, his apparent interest in returning to the U.S. Senate follows a reported dinner he had with Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer at the Guild House in Columbus’ Short North neighborhood in June.

The Ohio Capital Journal reported that Schumer has ventured to Columbus two times in recent weeks, ostensibly attempting to persuade Brown to run for the seat.

“Should Brown enter the race as Schumer’s handpicked candidate he will be starting in the biggest hole of his political career,” Tyson Shepard, a spokesperson for Husted’s campaign, told WTOL-TV in a statement. “He has never faced a candidate like Jon Husted. Brown’s slogans will ring hollow as his coalition walks away, tired of the radical policies he’s forced to support to appease his coastal bosses in California and New York.”

The Buckeye State was previously a battleground state, but it has shifted toward a reliably Republican state in recent years. Brown, who ousted the current Republican Gov. Mike DeWine from the U.S. Senate in 2006, has survived several tight races, including in 2012 and 2018, CNN reported.

“Ohioans firmly rejected Sherrod after he oversaw Biden’s disastrous inflation crisis as Banking Chairman, and they’ll gladly do it again,” Senate Leadership Fund Chairman Cory Gardner, a former Colorado Republican senator, told CNN.com.

Brown’s entry into the race would give Democrats the big-name candidate they need. The Ohio Capital Journal reported that Chris Volpe, a gaming and technology businessman from Columbus, is so far the only Democrat to officially announce a run for the seat.

“I feel bullish about our chances in 2026,” Ohio Democratic Party chair Kathleen Clyde said in an interview with the Ohio Statehouse Scoop, the Statehouse News Bureau’s podcast. “This is similar to what we saw in 2018, a midterm election year with a president who is struggling with popularity and the Republicans don’t have the name I.D. at the top of the ticket, like they did with Gov. DeWine, who had been on the ballot so many times that he was very familiar to Ohio voters.

“We came very close in 2018 in the gubernatorial race, and we won the competitive Senate race in Ohio,” Clyde added. “So I think things are exciting and looking bright for 2026.”

Nationally, Democrats need a net gain of four seats to retake the U.S. Senate, which will put the Buckeye State back in the political spotlight.

“They want to fight hard to try and win back the Senate in the midterm election and a key feature of that would be to put Ohio in play,” Robert Alexander, a political science professor at Bowling Green State University, told WTOL-TV.

“He’s certainly been elected to statewide office multiple times, but there’s still a lot of Ohioans who don’t have high name recognition of who he is,” Alexander added, per the station. “It would be a bit of a surprise if Brown is able to pull it off, but certainly not out of the realm of possibility.”