Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown distances himself from Vice President Kamala Harris amid the biggest fight of his political career
Kamala Harris is officially the Democratic presidential candidate for 2024
Following the roll call at the DNC in Chicago, Kamala Harris accepted the Democrats’ nomination for president at a rally in Milwaukee.
Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown prefers not to talk about Vice President Kamala Harris.
To be fair, he also did not want to talk about President Joe Biden.
In a state increasingly dominated by Democrats that former President Donald Trump won twice, the Democrats’ top spot is more of a hindrance than a boon for Brown, who is vying for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate against Republican businessman Bernie Moreno. Polls suggest Trump could win by double digits here, even as enthusiasm for Harris is growing in key swing states nationwide.
The same polls suggest Brown has a lead over Moreno, a far lesser-known candidate who won the Republican primary with Trump’s backing.
So Brown, a superdelegate, will not attend the Democratic convention – the first he has skipped in years – as the party celebrates the nomination of the first Asian and Black candidate. He is not expected to campaign alongside Harris, who will spend more time in neighboring Pennsylvania and Michigan than in Ohio.
Brown confirmed that he endorsed Harris through a spokesman, not through a press release in which Harris praised her qualities. In interviews, Brown has said little about Harris or the presidential campaign – but he has credited her with focusing on working people.
“I have a lot more voters in Toledo than I do in Chicago,” Brown said during a campaign rally on Wednesday. “But I’m doing my job, and my job is to continue to serve the people. Elections run themselves if you do your job the way you’re supposed to.”
Sherrod Brown stands alone
Brown has been the state’s only statewide elected Democrat for more than a decade.
Sure, Democrats have gained seats on the Ohio Supreme Court (which, until a recent change, didn’t list party affiliation with Republicans). But they’ve failed in presidential, gubernatorial and Senate races and lost ground in the Ohio legislature.
Brown is fighting the battle of his political career to defeat Moreno. In this race, Brown is courting outsiders, a gamble that former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan used with less success in his 2022 Senate campaign: appeal to Republican voters and hope Democrats stick with you.
“The Democratic base is strong and behind me, and I’m getting a lot of Republicans and a lot of others as well,” Brown said Wednesday following a press conference with two bipartisan sheriffs.
Television ads from a group with ties to Senate Democrats tout Brown as a tough opponent of drug enforcement at the border who is working on legislation that Trump signed. Brown’s ads focus on his work with Republicans to bring Intel’s semiconductor manufacturing plant to central Ohio – a message that helped Republican Gov. Mike DeWine win re-election in 2022.
This trajectory did not end well for Ryan. He lost to Republican JD Vance in 2022 by 47% to 53%. Vance is now Trump’s running mate.
“(Brown) really doesn’t want a repeat of what happened with Tim Ryan,” said Brianna Mack, assistant professor of politics and government at Ohio Wesleyan University. “(Ryan) ended up campaigning as a Trump-lite and of course Ohio voters are asking themselves, ‘Why would we vote for Trump-lite when we could vote for the actual Trump-supporting JD Vance?'”
But Brown is a more successful politician than Ryan and is financially supported by national Democratic groups. The state’s highest-ranking senator has lost only one race: in 1990, future governor Bob Taft defeated Brown in the election for secretary of state.
Brown also has a long record and a lot of leeway among Democratic voters – even those who might think it would be a mistake to avoid enthusiasm for Harris.
“It’s not like he’s attacking them. I think he’s just keeping his distance,” said Kyle Kondik, editor in chief of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “There’s no reason for Brown to nationalize the campaign, and there’s every reason for Republicans to nationalize the campaign.”
How Harris and Trump could influence the Senate race in Ohio
The Republicans are pursuing precisely this goal: to nationalize the Senate election campaign in Ohio.
Moreno was among a list of Republican Senate candidates who spoke at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month, emphasizing the party’s desire to regain control of the Senate. He frequently links Brown to the Biden administration’s policies and even speculated that his opponent would support Trump for president.
The fixation on the top job could also help Moreno – who has no political experience and little name recognition – curry favor with Republican voters. Earlier this month, he toured Ohio on a bus with “Support Trump” emblazoned in large letters.
Moreno also has a close relationship with Vance, who supported Moreno during the Republican Senate primaries and reportedly urged Trump to enter the race.
“How can you vote for Kamala Harris when your own Senate candidate refuses to campaign with her, refuses to be seen with her, and doesn’t even go to the convention when it’s his job to elect her president of the United States?” Moreno said during a visit to the Washington Court House. “Why? Because he doesn’t want to be exposed as the liar and fraud that he is.”
While Brown is forging his own path, his re-election campaign is already being influenced by presidential politics, and changes at the top of the ticket could continue to impact him.
Brown called on President Joe Biden to withdraw his candidacy two days before announcing his withdrawal from his re-election campaign. Biden’s decision saved House and Senate elections nationwide and neutralized some of the attacks comparing Brown to Biden.
Does this mean that Brown would be better off with Harris as the Democratic candidate?
“Harris at the top of the ticket is both a help and a disadvantage,” Mack said. Harris will mobilize millennials and Generation Z, while Biden may have helped Brown appeal to white men and some moderates, Mack added. “There’s a trade-off there.”
As Ohio Democrats mobilized for Harris in Chicago, state chairwoman Liz Walters said Brown was exactly where he belonged. And Brown continues to follow the convention: During his visit to Toledo on Wednesday, he asked reporters if they had heard Walters touting the formation of the AFL-CIO in Columbus during the DNC roll call.
“His absence shows how seriously he takes his campaign,” Walters said. “We know Ohio is a difficult state, even in a good year.”
Jessie Balmert and Haley BeMiller are reporters for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which covers the Columbus Dispatch, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio..
