Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Brown, full name Sherrod Campbell Brown, was born on November 9, 1952, in Mansfield, Ohio, where he grew up.⁠[1][2]

In 1974 Brown received a B.A. in Russian studies from Yale UniversityYale UniversityYale University is a research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Its predecessor, the Collegiate School, received a charter in 1701. Trustees chose New Haven in 1716; the institution became Yale College in 1718 and Yale University in 1887. Yale provides undergraduate, graduate and professional education and has 14 undergraduate residential colleges. As of October 2026, its president was Maurie McInnis, who took office in July 2024. In 2026, Yale expanded aid for incoming undergraduates and celebrated its 325th anniversary.Open the full entry; he then earned a master’s degree in public administration (1979) and a master’s degree in education (1981) from Ohio State University.⁠[1]

From 1979 to 1981 he was a faculty member at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus.⁠[3]

In 1974 Brown was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives, becoming the youngest person elected to that body at the time; he served there until 1982.⁠[1]

Brown served as Ohio secretary of state from 1983 to 1991. He lost his 1990 bid for re-election to Republican Bob Taft.⁠[1]

From 1993 to 2007 Brown represented Ohio’s 13th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives for seven terms.⁠[1][3]

In the House he led opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and in 2004 he published the book Myths of Free Trade.⁠[1]

Brown entered the U.S. Senate in 2007 and represented Ohio there for 18 years, leaving office in 2025.⁠[4][3]

He supported the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. His Senate committee assignments included Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs; Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry; Finance; and Veterans’ Affairs.⁠[1]

On his campaign website Brown says he led the effort to protect the pensions of more than 100,000 Ohioans, helped cap insulin costs for Ohio seniors, worked with Republicans to secure VA care for veterans exposed to burn pits, and secured full Social Security payments for more than 2 million former public workers.⁠[2]

In January 2021, after Democrats gained control of the Senate, Brown was set to chair the Senate Banking Committee. He said Wall Street had held too much sway over the committee for about a decade, adding: “We need a banking committee in the Senate that will stand up to those corporate interests.”⁠[5]

He said economic success should be measured by wages, health care and pensions rather than by the stock market, and named a new economic recovery package as his first priority.⁠[5]

In 2024 Brown sought a fourth Senate term and lost to Republican Bernie Moreno, who received 50.1% of the vote to Brown’s 46.5%.⁠[3][6]

After the defeat, Brown and his wife, Connie Schultz, moved from Cleveland to Bexley, Ohio, and he started the Dignity of Work Institute, a nonprofit focused on workers’ issues.⁠[6]

In August 2025 Brown announced a bid in the 2026 Ohio U.S. Senate special election, challenging Republican Senator Jon Husted. The seat had been held by JD Vance; after Vance became vice president, Governor Mike DeWine appointed Husted to it in January 2025.⁠[7][6]

He said: “It is clear there is no voice in the U.S. Senate for Ohio, none, and I want to be that voice again.” He also said: “I didn’t plan to run for office again, but when I see what’s going on, I know I can do something about it for Ohio.”⁠[7][6]

On May 5, 2026, Brown won the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Ohio, with the Associated Press projecting his victory. He received 89.4% of the vote to 10.6% for first-time candidate Ron Kincaid. Husted faced no challengers in the Republican primary.⁠[8][3]

Brown described the heavy outside spending against him during the campaign, including money from crypto and tech interests, as an example of corruption; at an October 24, 2026, rally he named “Elon MuskElon MuskElon Musk is an entrepreneur who founded SpaceX and has long served as chief executive of Tesla; he also took part in creating PayPal, OpenAI, Neuralink, The Boring Company, and xAI. He acquired Twitter in 2022, and his businesses span spaceflight, electric vehicles, energy, artificial intelligence, and social media.Open the full entry, Peter ThielPeter ThielPeter Thiel is an American entrepreneur and investor, a co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, and the first outside investor in Facebook. He is a partner at the venture capital firm Founders Fund and founded the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young people to leave college and build new things; his public skepticism of higher education, his support for Trump in 2016, and his funding of litigation against Gawker Media have drawn controversy.Open the full entry and Donald Trump” as billionaires who spent to defeat him.⁠[4]

Just after 11 p.m. on election night, November 3, 2026, the Associated Press called the special election for Brown. With about 87% of the vote counted, Brown had 48.6% and Husted 46.5%. Libertarian Bill Redpath and independent Gregory Levy were also on the ballot.⁠[4][3]

By the morning of November 4, with about 99% of the expected vote counted, Brown had 2,301,042 votes (50%) and Husted 2,077,748 (45%).⁠[9]

In his victory speech Brown said: “You sent an undeniable message tonight: Ohio is not for sale.” The seat is up again in 2028, and Brown will serve as Ohio’s junior senator alongside Bernie Moreno.⁠[4]

Brown married Larke Recchie in 1979; they divorced in 1987. In 2004 he married columnist Connie Schultz, a Pulitzer Prize winner; the couple live in Columbus.⁠[1][2]

Personal website: https://www.sherrodbrown.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/sherrodbrown (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt_l7Nge_872rTm5Jvbo6Mw (opens in a new window).⁠[2]