Former longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio on Tuesday won his party’s 2026 Senate nomination, the Associated Press reports.
Brown, who served three decades in Congress before being defeated for re-election in 2024 by now-GOP Sen. Bernie Moreno, will face off in this year’s general election with Republican Sen. John Husted, Ohio’s former lieutenant governor who was appointed to replace Vice President JD Vance.
The general election winner will fill the final two years of Vance’s Senate term. Vance, who was elected to the Senate in 2022, stepped down from the chamber after he and President Donald Trump won the 2024 election for president and vice president.
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Vance traveled to his home state Tuesday morning, stopping at a polling station in Cincinnati to cast a ballot in the primary.
The Senate race in Ohio is one of a handful that will decide if Republicans successfully defend their slim majority in the chamber, or if the Democrats win back control for the first time in four years.
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Republicans currently control the Senate 53-47.
Brown defeated long-shot rival Ron Kincaid, an IT professional and Special Olympics coach, to capture the Democratic Senate nomination. Husted ran unopposed for the Republican Party’s Senate nomination.
“Ohioans are fed up with the corruption and greed in Washington. They deserve a senator who fights for working families, not CEOs and billionaires,” Brown said on social media after winning his primary. “That’s why we’re going to win this November.”
Earlier in the evening, Husted took to social media after Trump praised the senator in a Truth Social post.
“Thanks President Trump! Your support for Ohio jobs means a lot to the hardworking people of our state. The Working Family Tax Cut is helping Ohio families keep more of what they earn so they can spend, save, and invest in their own priorities,” Husted wrote. “America First! Ohio First!”
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Once a top general election battleground state, Ohio has shifted to the right over the past decade, with Trump carrying the state by 11 points in the 2024 election.
But this year’s races for the Senate and governor are expected to be very competitive.
