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By Andrew Stanton
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In the Ohio Senate race, Republican Senator Jon Husted and former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown have offered dueling plans on Medicare and Social Security, two issues that could be especially salient in Ohio, home to millions of seniors.
Economic issues like affordability have defined the 2026 midterms, but these government programs are a critical economic concern for many voters. As of December 2025, more than 2.6 million Ohioans received Social Security benefits, and a similar number were eligible for Medicare, according to government data.
Census data show more than 2 million Ohioans are 65 or older, making Ohio one of the states with the largest senior population.
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Brown criticized Husted’s position on these issues in a statement to Newsweek.
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“Jon Husted wants to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits that countless Ohio families rely on,” he said. “While he sells out Ohio seniors, Husted has taken over $1 million from the nursing home industry that has put seniors in homeless shelters and over $700,000 from the insurance companies jacking up premiums. It’s clear that Jon Husted doesn’t care about protecting Ohioans — he's only concerned with catering to his special interest friends.”
Newsweek also reached out to the Husted campaign for comment via email.
Why Ohio Senate Race Matters for Midterms
The Ohio Senate race is among a handful of toss-up contests that could determine the balance of power in the chamber after the midterms.
Republicans hold a 53-47 majority that is seen as increasingly at risk in November. Democrats must flip four seats to win a majority, as Vice President JD Vance would serve as the tiebreaker in an evenly divided Senate.
Democrats are targeting GOP-held states in Maine, which Trump lost by 7 points in 2024, and North Carolina, which he won by 3 points, as their top pickup opportunities. But there are no other Republican-held seats up for grabs in states he won by single digits or outright lost in 2024, meaning Democrats need to contest more conservative territory to flip control of the Senate on November 3.
Ohio, which backed Trump by about 11 points, is seen as one of the next best opportunities to win a more Republican-leaning state due to the candidacy of Brown, a former senator, and the fact that the state was more competitive as recently as the 2010s.
Where Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown Stand on Social Security
The AARP released a voter guide earlier in October in which both candidates discussed their positions on Social Security.
Brown touted himself as the lead sponsor of the Social Security Fairness Act, a Biden-era law that ended the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset to increase benefits for workers like teachers, firefighters and police officers.
“I’ll always oppose Wall Street’s efforts to privatize Social Security. To ensure Social Security benefits are there for future generations, we need to make sure that billionaires are paying their fair share by raising the tax cap so we can extend the life of the program,” he said.
In August, Brown wrote on a post to X that Social Security allows “hardworking Americans to retire with dignity.”
Husted described Social Security as a “sacred promise to our seniors.”
“I am fully committed to protecting the benefits they have earned through a lifetime of hard work,” Husted said. “Strengthening this critical program for both current and future generations will require genuine bipartisan solutions. I was proud to support the $6,000 tax deduction in the Working Family Tax Cut Act for families receiving Social Security.”
Husted has also supported efforts to modernize the Social Security income program and has voiced support for the bipartisan Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Savings Penalty Elimination Act.
That bill would “raise the SSI asset limits to $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples, and index them to inflation moving forward,” according to a statement from his office.
Where Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown Stand on Medicare, Medicaid
Brown has voiced support for health care programs like Medicaid and Medicare, and he voted in support of the Affordable Care Act back during former President Barack Obama’s time in office. He wrote in a post on X that he will “always fight to protect Medicaid and Medicare because they protect hardworking Ohio families.”
His campaign has criticized Husted over his support for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which added a work requirement to Medicaid, drawing criticism from Democrats who believe it could make it harder for some eligible people to receive benefits.
Husted defended the bill in an opinion piece that appeared in several Ohio news outlets earlier this year and was published by his campaign. He said the package sent “more Medicaid dollars and more support for rural hospitals to Ohio than ever before.”
“Not only is overall Medicaid funding going to keep increasing at 3% each year—despite inaccurate claims to the contrary—changes like these mean Ohio itself will experience a net gain in federal dollars. At the same time, Ohio taxpayers will see less of their hard-earned money funneled to illegal immigrants and fraud that other states have tolerated,” he wrote.
Does Sherrod Brown Support Medicare for All?
Brown has been critical of Medicare for All proposals.
He said he believes it would “take a while” and be “difficult” during a February 2019 interview on CNN’s State of the Union.
“It’s selling to people who now have insurance that would have to—they would have their insurance plans canceled and move into a government plan,” he said. “I think that's difficult. I want to help people now. That's why you do Medicare at 50.”
Husted has also criticized Medicare for All, writing in an August 2024 post on X that he believes it would be “extremely expensive, costing trillions of dollars over a decade.”
Jon Husted vs. Sherrod Brown: Latest Ohio Senate Polls
Polling in the Senate race has been close, but Brown has generally held a lead recently.
A new Suffolk University poll showed Brown with a 3-point lead over Husted, 47 percent to 44 percent, among 500 likely voters from October 21 to 26. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.
Brown was up 2.3 points in the latest InsiderAdvantage poll of 1,200 likely voters from October 21 to 22. Some 46.7 percent said they would vote for Brown, while 44.4 percent indicated they planned to cast their ballots for Husted. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.83 percentage points.
Meanwhile, a Fox News poll, conducted by Beacon Research and Shaw & Company Research, gave Brown a 5-point lead, 52 percent to 47 percent, among 1,592 likely voters from October 15 to 19. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Brown held a 4-point lead in a Marist University poll of 1,176 likely voters from October 15 to 18, with 48 percent support compared to Husted's 44 percent. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Brown is an anomaly in Ohio politics—a Democrat who has been able to win statewide during the Trump era even as the state shifted rightward. He won reelection in 2018, the most recent "blue wave" year, and he brings high name recognition and an established brand to the race.
Why Democrats Believe Ohio Is Competitive Again
Trump's 11-point win in 2024 was the largest Republican margin in decades, underscoring the rightward realignment in the state. Obama won it by more than 4 points in 2008 and about 3 points in 2012, before it flipped to Republicans. The state backed Trump by about 8 points in 2016 and 2020.
That trend has been driven by Trump's inroads with white working-class voters who were previously more politically mixed. His gains came from rural counties as well as the northeastern region near Cleveland.
Democratic gains in the Cincinnati and Columbus areas have not been enough to offset the realignment against them in more rural areas of the state. However, the 2026 midterms may present them with an opportunity to reverse those tough trends in what was once one of the most important swing states in the country.
In addition to the Senate race, the gubernatorial race between Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is also seen as a battleground.
Forecasters like the Cook Political Report and Sabato’s Crystal Ball give an edge to Democrats in the gubernatorial race, rating it Lean Democratic, while they consider the Senate race to be a pure toss-up.
Historically, the party in the White House loses seats in the midterms when the president is unpopular, so Democrats believe Trump's low national approval rating will translate into electoral gains for them in the midterms, particularly as Americans grapple with a high cost of living.
Democrats have also emphasized data centers as a key issue they hope will help them win over undecided voters. Ohio has become a center of the data center boom.
Ohio Voting: What to Know
Polls will be open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. in Ohio, according to the Ohio Secretary of State's office. Early voting began on October 6 and will continue until November 1. More than 1.2 million ballots have been returned in Ohio amid early voting, as the campaign enters its final stretch over the coming days.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas
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