Affordability Wars: Democrat Sherrod Brown Launches Early Attack in Ohio’s Pivotal Senate Race

Affordability — from housing to health care to groceries — has become a Democratic rallying cry entering the holidays.

And former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who’s attempting a political comeback, is using the issue as a bludgeon against Republican Sen. Jon Husted as Ohio voters prepare for the 2026 midterms.

In a new digital ad campaign reviewed by NOTUS, Brown, the former three-term U.S. senator, accuses Husted of not doing enough to lower prices for Ohio families ahead of Thanksgiving.

The ad is the first major attack from either campaign, kicking off what will be a long cycle for Ohioans.

“Everywhere I go in Ohio, I hear the same thing: prices are just too high. Beef is up 15%, coffee is up 41%, and turkey? Up 40%. And what’s Jon Husted doing about it? Absolutely nothing,” Brown says while standing in a grocery store in the ad.

“Jon Husted is not doing his job, and Ohioans are paying the price,” Brown says.

Husted, for his part, has fashioned himself a “proven conservative champion for the values Ohio families care about the most,” and told NOTUS earlier this month that Ohio voters already rejected Brown once and will be primed to do it again.

“He lost by 200,000 votes, and even some of the people that supported him the last time have already flipped to support me,” Husted said.

Democrats nationally are leaning into voters’ resentment around high prices and nagging inflation, with evidence from recent successes in elections at the beginning of the month.

In 2024, Brown lost his Senate seat by about 4 percentage points to now-Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Republican. But Democrats believe Brown is uniquely positioned to make use of affordability issues, as he has long allied with organized labor and blue-collar workers.

“In the months since Jon Husted has been in Washington, prices have gone up, farmers are facing catastrophic losses, and half a million Ohioans are at risk of losing their health care,” Lauren Chou, a spokesperson for the Brown campaign, said in a statement. “But while Jon Husted has been busy passing the largest tax break for billionaires and corporations in history, Sherrod Brown has been standing with working families.”

Brown’s allies say the former senator will highlight how tariffs are increasing prices and affecting farmers. Husted has defended President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which the president has said will spark jobs and factories to come “roaring back” to the United States.

“His brand of dignity of work and being a worker-first-centered elected official makes him very different,” Nan Whaley, the Democratic former mayor of Dayton and a former nominee for governor, told NOTUS.

In recent years, Democrats have struggled in Ohio, which has grown increasingly conservative during the past two decades.

But despite Brown’s loss in 2024, he overperformed the top of his party significantly.

For example, while Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris lost Ohio by 11 percentage points in 2024, Brown’s race — even in defeat — was significantly closer. The party has newfound optimism and support from the Democratic National Committee, hoping Ohio may return to its former status as a swing state.

Brown’s decision to join the race coincides with national Democrats’ efforts to win back control of the Senate.

A Bowling Green State University Democracy and Public Policy Network poll released last month showed Brown and Husted statistically tied. An Emerson College Polling survey conducted in August showed Husted leading Brown by 6 percentage points, 50 to 44.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to his Senate seat in January after JD Vance resigned to become vice president.

The Senate race is expected to attract tens of millions — potentially hundreds of millions — in political spending.

Brown’s race against Moreno broke records for the most expensive non-presidential race in American history, with spending reaching over $500 million between the two campaigns.