School of Political Science, Public Affairs, Legal and Security Studies Faculty Publications

Ohio U.S. Senate Race: Farewell to the Last Statewide Elected Democrat

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

1-2026

Abstract

The 2024 U.S. Senate race in Ohio between three-term progressive populist Senator Sherrod Brown (D) and Colombian-born car dealer magnate Bernie Moreno (R) hinged less on the candidates and their strategies than it did on what Ohio had become since Donald J. Trump first carried the state in 2016: a red, Make America Great Again (MAGA)-dominated state, awash with electioneering cash from outside interests, in which Trump’s endorsement in a primary is sufficient to elevate his preferred candidate into the general election. The contest highlighted how potent feelings of economic and cultural grievance have come to define Ohio’s political sensibility in the era of Trump. “Economically, culturally and politically, Ohio is more like Missouri now than Virginia…” according to one observer (Healy 2024). Brown was the last elected Democrat in statewide office and a renowned champion of policy initiatives focused on the dignity of work. His defeat meant that the fundamentality of Ohio’s partisan change was beyond debate.

Comments

© 2025 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Publication Title

The Roads to Congress 2024

DOI

10.1007/978-3-032-07120-0_16

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