Tuesday night, in a wildly enthusiastic, dancing-in-the-aisles type session of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago’s United Center, you might have expected to see Ohio’s senior senator, Sherrod Brown, in the middle of the Ohio delegation, boogying the night away.
You might well have expected to see Brown, during the ceremonial roll call of the states, grab the microphone and deliver Ohio’s delegate votes to Kamala Harris, while DJ Cassidy played Springfield native John Legend’s “Green Light.”
Instead, you saw Elizabeth Walters, chairwoman of the Ohio Democratic Party, deliver that moment for the good ol’ Buckeye State.
Brown was nowhere to be found. He was, in fact, back home in Ohio, campaigning for re-election. Hundreds of miles from Chicago and his party’s lovefest for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
The 71-year-old old Brown, in his sixth decade in elective office, is facing what is probably the fight of his life in politics, as he tries to hold on to his Senate seat in a race that could decide which party controls the Senate going forward.
He is in a somewhat sticky situation. Brown is one of two incumbent Democratic senators running for re-election in a state won by Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
The other incumbent is Jon Tester of Montana. And guess what? Tester has decided to skip the convention too.
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Brown, like Tester, clearly wants to create space between himself and President Biden and the Harris-Walz ticket in a state where the conventional wisdom says Trump could win Ohio for a third election in a row.
Which explains Brown’s increasingly frequent and very public policy differences with the Biden administration over the past year or so.
The Ohio Republican Party’s candidate for Ohio’s senate seat, multi-millionaire car dealer Bernie Moreno, carries his own baggage into the campaign — including multiple former employees suing him for refusing to pay them overtime they say they are entitled to.
The Ohio GOP is trying to make hay out of Brown’s absence from the Democratic convention. The party has issued press releases this week asking the question: Where’s Sherrod? And why is he not in Chicago gallivanting with his fellow progressives?
"Sherrod Brown's record is a clear indication of his priorities and alignment with the most progressive wing of the Democratic party,” Ohio GOP Chairman Alex Triantafilou said in a press release. “Ohioans aren’t buying it, Sherrod Brown and his radical allies don't align with Ohio's seniors and workers.”
“We may not know where he is, but we sure know who he is,’’ the Ohio GOP press release says.
Well, actually, we do know exactly where he is.
According to campaign spokeswoman Eliza Green, Brown is doing campaign events in Youngstown, Toledo, Cleveland, Chillicothe, and Sandusky this week. A trip to Cincinnati is planned for next week.
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The campaign says Brown was never planning on being in Chicago; the plan all along was to use this week when the Senate is not in session to campaign in Ohio. And he publicly endorsed Harris after President Biden dropped out of the race.
David Niven, political science professor at the University of Cincinnati, said Brown’s absence from Chicago makes perfect sense.
“Going to Chicago gets him nothing,’’ Niven said. “It’s just a week away from the campaign trail. And, if you are Sherrod Brown, you don’t have a week to waste.”
“There are not too many folks in Ohio who are going to forget that Sherrod is a Democrat,” Niven said.
But, Niven said, it’s Brown’s independent streak that attracts voters, not his party label.
“He’s where he needs to be this week,’’ Niven said. “In Ohio. Campaigning.”
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