Sherrod Brown turns to unions in Senate comeback effort

Brown’s path back

Sherrod Brown is counting on union voters as he works to return to the U.S. Senate after losing his Ohio seat in 2024. The loss came after Brown had spent 32 years in Congress.

His effort focuses on a group that has long been central to his political identity: workers organized through labor unions. Brown’s challenge is turning that connection into votes after an election in which many working-class Ohioans turned out for Donald Trump.

The 2024 presidential turnout does not show how every working-class voter cast a ballot in the Senate race. It does, however, frame the task Brown now faces: asking union voters to support another run for Washington while trying to reach a broader working-class electorate.

What the union strategy must show

Brown’s focus on union voters creates two separate tests. The first is participation — whether union members vote in the numbers his effort needs. The second is voter choice — whether those voters back Brown when they cast their Senate ballots.

The larger question extends beyond union membership. Working-class voters include people outside organized labor, so support from union households alone would not establish that Brown has regained the broader group highlighted by the 2024 turnout.

The next signs will come from how Brown organizes around unions, whether labor groups actively encourage members to participate and whether his appeal reaches working-class voters who do not belong to a union. Those developments will show the reach of his approach before voters settle the outcome.