NEW: Longtime Democrat Senator Trailing In 2026 Race

Former three-time Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has announced plans to return to the political arena after a massive, ego-shattering loss in the 2024 elections. Today, he officially announced his candidacy for Ohio’s special Senate election in November 2026.

A report from Newsweek says that Brown’s return to the Senate race is a prime opportunity for Democrats to try cutting into the GOP’s current majority over the upper chamber of Congress. Brown’s political career started during the 1970s when he served as a state representative.

He then won Senate races in 2006, 2012, and 2018 consecutively. He was defeated in 2024 by current Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) by over 200,000 votes.

Given the sparse Democratic field of candidates, Brown is likely to face off against GOP Sen. Jon Husted. Husted once served as the former lieutenant governor and secretary of state. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the vacant Senate seat left open by JD Vance, who is now serving as President Donald Trump’s vice president.

While Brown is the Democrats’ strongest recruit in the state, the former senator was defeated 50-46 by Moreno in 2024, and polls examining a match-up between Brown and Husted show the Republican in the lead by multiple points.

Surveys conducted by the Democracy and Public Policy Network at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) and YouGov have Husted in the lead by 6 and 3 percentage points, respectively.

A professor of political science and founding director of the Democracy and Public Policy at BGSU, Robert Alexander, said that Brown’s return is “huge news,” despite polling suggesting a GOP victory.

“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.”

“For the past eight months, all they’ve done is made things worse for Ohioans, handing over your hard-earned money to corporations and to billionaires,” Brown went on to say in a campaign launch video. “Their reckless tariffs and economic chaos are increasing prices and threatening the survival of small businesses all across our state.”

“Brown, 72, was heavily courted by Democrats who saw him as their only hope to flip a Senate seat in an increasingly out-of-reach red state. Brown has cultivated a brand as a grizzled populist who supports the labor movement and is skeptical of free trade agreements. He has repeatedly outperformed other Democrats in the state, including in 2024, when Brown lost his seat by fewer than 4 percentage points. Former Vice President Kamala Harris fell short by 11 points in the same election,” Politico said in its latest article.

The report explains that Brown is good at raising money, bringing in over $100 million during the last Senate contest.

Many Democrats in the Senate are looking to familiar individuals from the past to help them reclaim ground in the 20126 midterm elections in a scramble to try and take back control of Congress. Brown was paid a visit by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who encouraged him to run.

Democrats have also convinced former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper to make a bid for the Senate. Maine Gov. Janet Mills will likely also campaign against Sen. Susan Collins.