Sherrod Brown defeated Jon Husted in Ohio's Senate race, a comeback that puts Brown back in the Senate and sends Husted out after a brief hold on the seat. NBC News projected Brown as the winner in one of the year’s most combative and expensive Senate races.
The result means Brown, 73, will serve the remaining two years of the six-year term JD Vance won in 2022 before leaving the Senate for the vice presidency. Brown lost his bid for a fourth term in 2024, but this victory restores him to the chamber at a moment when Ohio's Senate seat had become a high-cost, high-volume fight over power and direction in D.C.
For Husted, 59, the loss lands hard because it came despite a powerful tailwind. President Donald Trump rallied with him in Ohio twice in nine days during the final weeks, and Husted stood beside Trump at both events. He had also drawn the early backing of Trump, even after spending months telling voters in Stark County that he was an Ohio man and that D.C. was not his place. That message did not survive the race.
The campaign had already been shaped by attack ads and by arguments over war with Iran, gas prices, the economy, affordability and the surge in data center construction for AI companies. In August, the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in a memo that the data center issue could doom Husted's candidacy, a sign that the challenge had become visible even inside his own political world. Husted also had an unusual campaign ally in Jon Gruden, who appeared at both Trump rallies and had played football with him at the University of Dayton.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted last year after JD Vance left the seat, and Brown's win now closes that short chapter. What follows is simpler: Brown is back, and Ohio's Senate representation returns to a familiar face for the rest of the term.
