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Democrat Sherrod Brown won Ohio’s special U.S. Senate election on Tuesday, returning to the chamber two years after voters removed him from office, replacing President Donald Trump's pick, incumbent Jon Husted.
CNN projected Brown as the winner at 11:01 ET, with 88 percent of the estimated vote counted. He had received 48.5 percent, compared with 46.6 percent for Republican Senator Jon Husted.
"You sent an undeniable message tonight: Ohio is not for sale. Ohio is not giving up on the dream of this country that we're a place where anyone who works hard can get ahead," Brown said in his victory speech. "We've not had an economy and we've not had a government that works for you, that fights for you, until now."
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The victory gives Democrats a Senate seat from a state carried by President Donald Trump by 11.2 percentage points in 2024 and restores Brown, a three-term former senator, to the office he lost that year.
Husted acknowledged his supporters.
"We ran a great campaign, we gave it all we could," Husted said during his concession speech. "Thank you for believing in me and fighting for me. I'll be forever grateful."
Ohio became the latest state to flip to Democrats, with the party's candidate leading by 1.9 points with 88 percent of the vote counted. Democrats had already flipped South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire and Texas, where James Talarico held a 20-point lead with 69 percent counted.
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Sherrod Brown Defeats Incumbent Jon Husted for Ohio Senate
Brown, 73, is a Mansfield native and one of the most electorally successful Ohio Democrats of the modern era, having served in the state's House of Representatives, and as Ohio Secretary of State from 1983 through 1991. He then served in the U.S. House from 1993 through 2007, when he became Senator.
From January, he will serve through January 2029, completing the final two years of the six-year term JD Vance won in 2022 before resigning to become vice president. Republican Governor Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the seat in January 2025.
Brown lost his 2024 reelection campaign to Republican Bernie Moreno, who still holds his seat, making Brown the junior senator for Ohio.
Why Sherrod Brown Won in Ohio
Brown ran with the economically populist, pro-labor identity that has defined his career. His campaign emphasized affordability, workers' rights, prescription drug and health care costs, opposition to stock trading by members of Congress, and requiring data centers to bear the costs of their electricity and water use.
That message appeared to resonate with voters across the state, with Brown leading by roughly five points when most votes had been counted, with clear wins in the state's major urban areas of Cuyahoga County covering Cleveland, Hamilton County covering Cincinnati, and Franklin County covering Columbus.
Sherrod Brown Makes Victory Speech as Husted Concedes
During his victory speech Tuesday night, Brown told supporters that they had sent "an undeniable message" that Ohio was "not for sale."
"This campaign, this election is about you, the people who make our state and our country work," he said, adding that his pledge to all Ohioans "is that I will always be on your side, always."
Brown said his first legislative goal would be to prohibit members of Congress from trading individual stocks.
Husted, who received significant backing from Trump, said in his concession speech that, "Sometimes there is a course of events that you can’t control. We ran a great campaign. We gave it all we could. I’m grateful for all who supported us in so many ways."
Why Ohio Mattered in 2026
Ohio also became a crucial part of the Democratic route to Senate control. Republicans entered the election with a 53-47 majority, so Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take control of the upper chamber.
David Niven, a University of Cincinnati political scientist who studies campaigns and Ohio politics, described the contest before the election as potentially "the most important Senate race in the country."
He told Newsweek in a pre-election phone call that the central force shaping the contest was dissatisfaction with Trump and Republican control of state and federal government.
"The biggest factor right now is that Trump’s popularity has plummeted," Niven said. "He has given away the Republican advantage that they otherwise have here."
Economic concerns had made the state more competitive despite its longer-term movement toward Republicans, he added.
"If Ohioans vote economics, this is a very competitive state," Niven said, pointing to Ohio’s combination of manufacturing, agriculture and major corporations.
National investment reflected that uncertainty. By June, the campaigns had already spent $16 million on advertising, while outside partisan groups had pledged tens of millions more. Niven said at the time that "money flows in politics to uncertainty."
The total advertising expenditure later surpassed $500 million, according to reporting by the Columbus Dispatch, placing the contest among the most expensive Senate races in the country.
Brown's victory formed part of a broader Democratic breakthrough in Ohio. Amy Acton won the governorship, becoming the first woman elected to the office and ending a 20-year Democratic drought, while Don Leonard defeated Republican Representative Mike Carey in the 15th Congressional District.
Test of Ohio’s Republican Shift
Ohio once occupied a central place in presidential elections. Its combination of agriculture, manufacturing, large cities and smaller industrial communities made the state broadly representative of the national economy.
"What Ohio was and the reason it was a competitive state is it was economically representative," Niven said. "This is a state with big agriculture and a state with big manufacturing, and an economy that looks a lot like the American economy."
That bellwether status faded as the state moved toward Republicans. Trump won Ohio by about 8 points in 2016 and 2020, then expanded the margin to 11.2 points in 2024.
Brown nevertheless continued to run ahead of his party’s presidential ticket. He lost his 2024 Senate race to Republican Bernie Moreno 50.1 percent to 46.5 percent, a 3.6-point margin that was considerably narrower than Trump’s statewide advantage. That performance helped persuade Democrats that Brown retained a path in Ohio that could be unavailable to a less-established candidate.
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What It Means Now
Brown's victory demonstrates that Ohio’s movement toward Republicans is not absolute, particularly when Democrats field a candidate with a long statewide record and an established working-class identity.
Speaking before the election was called, Niven said the result would begin as "a reaction to Trump," but cautioned against interpreting it solely as evidence of a fundamental partisan realignment.
He said Ohio voters had become much more Republican over the previous dozen years without becoming equally conservative, leaving an opening for a candidate who could persuade them "that he was on their side."
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Fitzpatrick and Dave Siminoff.
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