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Ongoing story / Ohio

The 2026 Ohio Senate race: Jon Husted vs. Sherrod Brown

Overview · reviewed November 5, 2026

Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown defeated Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio's 2026 , flipping the seat JD Vance gave up to become vice president and returning to the Senate two years after losing his own seat.[1][2] Husted had been appointed to the seat in January 2025.[3] Democrats made the race a priority in their effort to retake the Senate,[4] AI data centers became a central issue,[5] and a September poll found Brown ahead by 3 points among likely voters.[6]

Read the timeline

Follow this story to see new developments when you return.

Husted had been appointed to the seat in January 2025.[3] Democrats made the race a priority in their effort to retake the Senate,[4] AI data centers became a central issue,[5] and a September poll found Brown ahead by 3 points among likely voters.[6]

Coverage over time

Share of tracked outlets · weekly (UTC)

Week of 2025-01-13 (UTC): 12%, 27 of 228 tracked outlets (6 left, 8 center, 13 right)Week of 2025-01-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-01-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-02-03 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-02-10 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-02-17 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-02-24 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-03-03 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-03-10 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-03-17 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-03-24 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-03-31 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-04-07 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-04-14 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-04-21 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-04-28 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-05-05 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-05-12 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-05-19 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-05-26 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-06-30 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-07 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-14 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-21 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-07-28 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-04 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-11 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-08-18 (UTC): 4%, 7 of 191 tracked outlets (1 left, 5 center, 1 right)Week of 2025-08-25 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-09-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-10-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-03 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-10 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-17 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-11-24 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2025-12-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-05 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-12 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-19 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-01-26 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-02-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-02 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-16 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-23 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-03-30 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-04-27 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-04 (UTC): 3%, 5 of 175 tracked outlets (1 left, 2 center, 2 right)Week of 2026-05-11 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-18 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-05-25 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-01 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-08 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-15 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-22 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-06-29 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-06 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-13 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-20 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-07-27 (UTC): 1%, 3 of 561 tracked outlets (2 left, 1 center, 0 right)Week of 2026-08-03 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-10 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-17 (UTC): 1%, 3 of 464 tracked outlets (1 left, 1 center, 1 right)Week of 2026-08-24 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-08-31 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-09-07 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outletsWeek of 2026-09-14 (UTC): 1%, 7 of 480 tracked outlets (0 left, 5 center, 2 right)Week of 2026-09-21 (UTC): 3%, 13 of 479 tracked outlets (3 left, 7 center, 3 right)Week of 2026-09-28 (UTC): 11%, 52 of 476 tracked outlets (14 left, 24 center, 14 right)Week of 2026-10-05 (UTC): 2%, 9 of 479 tracked outlets (0 left, 9 center, 0 right)Week of 2026-10-12 (UTC): 6%, 30 of 476 tracked outlets (7 left, 15 center, 8 right)Week of 2026-10-19 (UTC): 5%, 26 of 479 tracked outlets (8 left, 12 center, 6 right)Week of 2026-10-26 (UTC): 1%, 6 of 473 tracked outlets (1 left, 2 center, 3 right)Week of 2026-11-02 (UTC): 8%, 36 of 471 tracked outlets (8 left, 12 center, 16 right)Week of 2026-11-09 (UTC): no coverage from tracked outlets, so far

LeftCenterRightLighter bar: this week so far

Each bar is the share of the outlets on our Left / Center / Right rating scale that we tracked publishing that week which carried reporting on this story, split by the outlets' ratings. We track more outlets now than in the archive, so a share keeps earlier and later weeks comparable. An outlet counts once a week however much it published, and outlets in one ownership or syndication group count as one on each side they appear on. A rating describes the outlet, not the report. A gap means no such reports were collected that week, not that nothing was reported anywhere. Weeks run Monday to Sunday in UTC, so a report published on a Sunday evening in US Eastern time counts in the next week. 3 more outlets off the scale (not rated, or outside the left-right graphs) also reported; they are not in this chart. See them.

Weekly counts, outlets and reports (13 weeks with coverage)
Outlets on the rating scale that carried this story each week, of the outlets tracked that week, newest first
Week of (UTC)LeftCenterRightOf trackedShareReceipts
Nov 2, 20268121636 of 4718%
Oct 26, 20261236 of 4731%
Oct 19, 2026812626 of 4795%
Oct 12, 2026715830 of 4766%
Oct 5, 20260909 of 4792%
Sep 28, 202614241452 of 47611%
Sep 21, 202637313 of 4793%
Sep 14, 20260527 of 4801%
Aug 17, 20261113 of 4641%
Jul 27, 20262103 of 5611%
May 4, 20261225 of 1753%
Aug 18, 20251517 of 1914%
Jan 13, 2025681327 of 22812%

Latest coverage

The newest reporting in this story's record.

  1. Nov 4, 2026 · first reported · Headline from The Daily Signal

    Red, Purple, or Blue State? Democrats Make Gains in Ohio.

Background

When JD Vance resigned his Ohio Senate seat to become vice president, President-elect Donald Trump privately encouraged Vivek Ramaswamy to consider an appointment to it, and Ramaswamy expressed interest.[7] Gov. Mike DeWine, who had to fill the seat for two years until a special election in 2026,[8] chose his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, in January 2025.[3]

Read the full background (3 more paragraphs)

In August 2025, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who had lost his own seat to Republican Bernie Moreno the year before, launched a bid to return to the Senate.[2] Brown won the Democratic nomination in May 2026, and Husted was unopposed in the Republican primary.[4]

Data centers became a central issue. In August, the Senate Republicans' campaign arm warned AI companies in a private memo that hostility toward data centers was hurting the party's chances of holding the seat.[5] In Washington, Senate Republicans brought up Husted's bill to protect taxpayers from the costs of power-hungry AI data centers, as Senate Democrats divided over how to respond.[9] The House had passed the measure with bipartisan support, but on September 30 it failed to advance, falling short of the 60 votes it needed in the Senate, 57-43.[10]

The race stayed close into the fall. A Bowling Green State University poll in September found Brown ahead by 3 points among likely voters,[6] as Brown, 73, sought to win back voters in parts of the state that had turned Republican.[11] The political giving of Ohio billionaire Les Wexner made the Epstein files an issue in the race.[12] At the end of September, reports said Trump planned a Saturday trip to Ohio to campaign for Husted.[13] Former President Barack Obama campaigned with Brown in Cleveland in October.[14] Brown won on November 3, in a seat that was crucial to Democrats' strategy to retake the chamber.[1]

Supporting stories (14)
  1. Sherrod Brown makes comeback to US Senate in Ohio
  2. Sherrod Brown launches Senate comeback bid in Ohio
  3. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine expected to appoint Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to Vance's Senate seat
  4. Ohio Senate race set between Jon Husted, Sherrod Brown after projected primary wins
  5. Data Center Resistance Risks Ohio Senate Race, Warns Internal GOP Memo
  6. Ohio governor, Senate races nearly tied: Poll
  7. Vivek Ramaswamy, an Ohio native, is interested in filling Vance's old Senate seat
  8. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine Announces JD Vance's Senate Replacement
  9. Democrats divided as Senate heads for AI data-center showdown
  10. Democrats block data centers bill, derailing Senate GOP bid to act on affordability ahead of midterms
  11. Ohio voters rejected Sherrod Brown. Two years later, are they ready to give him a second chance?
  12. Billionaire’s political contributions make the Epstein files a focus of Ohio’s US Senate race
  13. Trump to travel to Ohio to stump for Sen. Jon Husted as the Republican faces competitive challenge
  14. Obama, in Ohio, assails 'cruelty' and indecency from Trump and his allies in the midterm campaign

The full record

Each date is when an update was first reported.

All 27 recorded updates

November 2026

  1. Midterm election: Did Ohio move from red to purple?Headline from NBC 4 Columbus · 2 outlets
  2. Sherrod Brown makes comeback to US Senate in OhioHeadline from WOWK Charleston · 38 outlets

October 2026

  1. Sherrod Brown talks goals, accomplishments in final stretch of Senate raceHeadline from WKBN Youngstown · 1 outlet
  2. Trump visits Ohio: Chillicothe highlights economic struggles in historically red cityHeadline from NBC 4 Columbus · 6 outlets
  3. Obama, in Ohio, assails 'cruelty' and indecency from Trump and his allies in the midterm campaignHeadline from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette · 29 outlets
  4. Barack Obama to campaign with Ohio Democrats in ClevelandHeadline from Toledo Blade · 9 outlets
  5. Sherrod Brown says he would not support impeaching Trump if electedHeadline from The Hill · 3 outlets
  6. Trump attacks immigrants from Somalia and Haiti while rallying in Ohio for Republican candidatesHeadline from Philadelphia Inquirer · 8 outlets
  7. Trump holds raucous Ohio rally as he tries to shore up base voters for GOPHeadline from KION Central Coast · 17 outlets
  8. An Ohio edge. An Iowa tossup. New CNN polls give Democrats hope in a pair of red statesHeadline from KEYT Santa Barbara · 8 outlets
  9. Trump, campaigning in Ohio, says the midterms will bring a ‘big surprise’Headline from NBC News · 3 outlets
  10. Trump tells Ohio it’s booming, pitches corporate plansHeadline from The Columbian · 3 outlets
  11. Trump backs data centers in Ohio amid tight Senate raceHeadline from The Hill · 6 outlets
  12. Trump rallies in Ohio to boost Jon Husted in a tight Senate race against Sherrod BrownHeadline from Philadelphia Inquirer · 11 outlets

September 2026

  1. Democrats block data centers bill, derailing Senate GOP bid to act on affordability ahead of midtermsHeadline from KVIA El Paso · 46 outlets
  2. Democrats divided as Senate heads for AI data-center showdownHeadline from The Hill · 3 outlets
  3. Trump to travel to Ohio to stump for Sen. Jon Husted as the Republican faces competitive challengeHeadline from MyNorthwest · 6 outlets
  4. Billionaire’s political contributions make the Epstein files a focus of Ohio’s US Senate raceHeadline from Bangor Daily News · 12 outlets
  5. Ohio voters rejected Sherrod Brown. Two years later, are they ready to give him a second chance?Headline from MyNorthwest · 3 outlets
  6. Ohio governor, Senate races nearly tied: PollHeadline from The Hill · 4 outlets

August 2026

  1. Data Center Resistance Risks Ohio Senate Race, Warns Internal GOP MemoHeadline from PJ Media · 3 outlets

July 2026

  1. Sherrod Brown comfortably outraises Jon Husted as outside groups enter Ohio’s U.S. Senate raceHeadline from Ohio Capital Journal · 3 outlets

May 2026

  1. Ohio Senate race set between Jon Husted, Sherrod Brown after projected primary winsHeadline from CBS News · 6 outlets

August 2025

  1. Sherrod Brown launches Senate comeback bid in OhioHeadline from Roll Call · 7 outlets

January 2025

  1. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine expected to appoint Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to Vance's Senate seatHeadline from NBC Chicago · 20 outlets

Coverage & sources

Read the reports, see how much was collected over time, or compare outlets by political leaning.

Coverage & sources →