Sherrod Brown to run for Senate in 2026

According to a report from Cleveland Plain Dealer, former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has told his allies that he will run for the Senate again in 2026.

Brown will seek the seat currently held by U.S. Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), who previously served as Ohio’s lieutenant governor. Gov. Mike DeWine (R) appointed Husted to the U.S. Senate earlier this year to fill the seat left vacant when J.D. Vance was sworn in as vice president.

A spokesperson for Husted’s campaign released a statement condemning Brown entering the Senate race.

Husted campaign spokesman @Shepard_Tyson statement on Brown’s decision: pic.twitter.com/yzUKLEN1TI

— Jeremy Pelzer (@jpelzer) August 12, 2025

U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno (R), a close ally of President Donald Trump, defeated Brown in a tight race last November that cost both sides nearly $500 million, making it the most expensive non-presidential election in history.

Brown served three consecutive terms in the U.S. Senate before his loss to Moreno. His political career dates back to 1975, when he was first elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. Brown then served as Ohio’s secretary of state and a U.S. representative from 1993-2007.

Brown will likely be the Democratic nominee to take on Husted. The winner of the race will only serve for the last two years of Vance’s term. Another Senate race will be held in 2028 for a full six-year term.

Democrats are hoping Brown can flip Ohio’s Senate seat in their uphill effort to take back the U.S. Senate. Republicans currently have a 53-47 majority in the Senate, with Vance in place as a tiebreaking vote as the vice president.

Brown is a proponent of progressive policies who has pushed back against his party for failing to protect workers’ rights from corporate interests.

“Reconnecting the Democratic Party to the working class is an electoral and a moral imperative, and it will be my mission for the rest of my life,” Brown wrote in an op-ed from March.

Although Ohio used to be a swing state, it has drifted to the right for the last decade-plus. In addition to a U.S. Senate seat, Ohio will hold elections in 2026 to fill the governor’s mansion, secretary of state’s office, and the state auditor. All three hold influential power over Ohio’s redistricting process, which Republicans have used to gerrymander the state after the state GOP tricked voters last year.