Donna Cordell and Bill Myers graduated in the same class as Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown from Mansfield Senior High School in the North Central Ohio community in 1970.
“I met him my sophomore year,” said Cordell. “He was easy to approach, easy to talk to. We were not surprised that he went into politics because he knows how to work a crowd. “
“I do remember distinctly that he and I had a teacher, Miss Randall, and we had public speaking together,” said Myers. “He did good [in class]. He’s a natural.”
Cordell remembers Brown organizing Mansfield's first Earth Day march.
“That was April 22, 1970, and I remember being in the park in front of the school where we were out picking up trash,” Cordell explained.
Fifty four years later, Brown is leading and organizing on a much larger stage. But after years in the senate, some political analysts are calling this year's race the fight of his career. Mansfield voters show the advantages Brown holds and the challenges he faces in his bid for reelection.
Brown’s father was a physician in Mansfield. A tarnished door knocker engraved with the name Brown remains on the front door of their former home on Marion Avenue.
Ed Kossick and his wife are now raising their family in that home. Kossick is a teacher at Clear Fork Valley Schools and he’s well aware of who the door knocker refers to.
“We asked [Brown] if he wanted the knocker and he's like, ‘No, keep it, keep the knocker with the door’. And, you know, he kind of laughed about it,”” said Kossick.
Kossick gave Brown a video tour showing off the home improvements he's most proud of. And during the holidays they’ve exchanged photos comparing the best place to set-up the Christmas tree.
Brown’s campaign themes focus on protecting Medicare and the rights of workers and unions. Kossick is president of his school’s teacher's union and shares Brown’s political philosophies.
“We’re keeping the democratic vibes here,” Kossick said, smiling.
But Mansfield has changed dramatically since Brown lived in that house. Brown’s former classmate Bill Myers said Mansfield was all industry in the 1960s and ‘70s.
“And it is all gone,” Myers said. “Mansfield was a blue collar working town. You could lose a job one day and have another job the same day, and it's just not like that now. I have two sons that are bringing up their families, and they're fighting and things are tough.”
Myers committed his vote to Brown in the November election, but not for the top of the democratic ticket. He lost hope in the party.
“All my life I've been a Democrat until recently,” Myers said. “I don't really think that they're for the working man anymore. But, Sherrod, I think he's a little different. I think he still holds on to those old beliefs. I really do.”
Nearly 70% of Richland County voters went for Trump in 2020. (Brown fared slightly better in the county the last time he was on the ballot, in 2018, capturing 40% of the vote.) Driving into Mansfield from the north through the back roads, Trump 2024 yard signs outnumbered all the others combined. A large homemade banner stood in the yard of a home in Savannah, about 18 miles northeast of Mansfield. It read in part, “Save America, Stop Communism”.
Charles Osborn made that sign and has lived in his house for more than half a century. Like Myers, he too used to be a Democrat, but changed parties with the rise of Ronald Reagan in 1980s. As for trusting Brown, who grew up in the next town over, Osborn had reservations.
"He likes to play the Republican side to get votes,” said Osborn. “That's how I see him."
Mansfield has changed since Brown’s early days running for office. Buildings once home to business and manufacturing sit empty next to homes falling into disrepair – a common view in some midwestern cities that have lost steel and auto plants.
But in the minds of those who remain here after Brown left, like his former classmate Donna Cordell, there’s hope.
“People still have that hope for this area, for this community,” said Cordell.
