Republican Ohio Sen. Jon Husted is touting new allies in his bid to win reelection during the midterms: his opponent’s ex-supporters.
Husted has landed early endorsements from multiple Ohio labor groups who backed former Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown during his failed run for reelection in 2024. Though Husted and Brown, the likely Democratic nominee, are gearing up for what promises to be one of the most high-profile clashes of the midterms, Husted is arguing that he’s already chipping away at Brown’s traditional base seven months out from the May 2026 primary.
“Sherrod Brown lost the last election to [Republican Ohio Sen.] Bernie Moreno by over 200,000 votes, and part of his coalition is already peeling off and supporting us with several of these early labor endorsements that we received,” Husted told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a recent interview.
The International Union of Operating Engineers Local 66 (IUOE), a labor union representing northeastern Ohio workers in the construction industry, endorsed Husted on Oct. 14. The group noted in its endorsement that Husted “leads with action, not just photo ops or political talking points”
The IUOE Local 18 and the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council — comprised of 18 affiliated local unions — also publicly backed Husted’s reelection campaign despite previously supporting Brown.
“I think it’s a realization that Sherrod Brown sucks,” Moreno told the DCNF regarding his former opponent losing the support of some labor groups. “They’ve realized that Sherrod Brown did nothing for them all those years.”
A spokesperson for Brown did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
Husted is expected to cruise to the general election after an early endorsement from President Donald Trump helped clear the primary field.
He is also touting a united Republican ticket with Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP frontrunner in the state’s gubernatorial contest. The two exchanged endorsements in September, allowing both candidates to focus on turning out Republicans in a year where Trump will not be on the ballot.
Meanwhile, Brown could be forced to spend money in the primary to fend off a longshot challenge from entrepreneur Fred Ode, who has contributed $5 million to his self-funded campaign thus far.
Husted argues the early labor endorsements are a product of the trust he’s built with organized labor by helping secure economic development projects and create new labor jobs during his more than two decades in public service.
He previously served as the state’s lieutenant governor, secretary of state and speaker of the House before his Senate appointment to fill the remainder of Vice President JD Vance’s term.
“When business and labor work together, along with public officials, we can create more jobs to grow the pie, rather than being pitted against one another fighting over pieces of the pie,” Husted told the DCNF. “And that has led to the great relationship I’ve had with the local labor unions in Ohio.”
Husted also spoke positively of labor at the national level, telling the DCNF he thinks “very highly” of Teamsters Union President Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
The group has donated to dozens of Republican candidates this year despite almost exclusively supporting Democrats for decades. The Teamsters’ PAC has contributed $4,000 to Husted’s reelection campaign.
“We continue to build strong relationships because we’re result-oriented,” Husted told the DCNF. “We’ve proven ourselves in these relationships to help lift the fortunes of working men and women in Ohio.”
He is also confident that the realignment of working class voters toward the GOP during the 2024 elections will have staying power. The Democratic Party is out of step with rank-and-file union members, who believe in secure borders, the Second Amendment and commonsense policies barring biological males from women’s sports, according to Husted.
“The working people of Ohio are aligned with Republicans more than they are with Democrats,” Husted told the DCNF. “You’re seeing the organizations they work for, organized labor, particularly the locals in Ohio, very supportive of where we are going.”
Brown has also secured several early labor endorsements from local Ohio unions and has the backing of national organized labor groups closely aligned with the Democratic Party.
Husted also received the National Border Patrol Council’s endorsement on Thursday. The union, representing roughly 18,000 Customs and Border Patrol (CPB) agents, praised Husted for supporting Trump’s border security agenda and ripped Brown for “watching as the Biden Administration opened the nation to a flood of illegal immigrants.”
On the government shutdown, Husted did not hesitate to say that Brown would have voted with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to keep the government shuttered indefinitely if he were still serving in the Senate.
“He’s Chuck Schumer’s most reliable vote,” Husted told the DCNF. “We absolutely know he would vote with Chuck Schumer every single time.”
Schumer personally lobbied Brown to mount a comeback bid for Husted’s seat. Ohio is a must-win state for Democrats in their effort to retake control of the Senate in 2026.
Though polling on the battleground race is sparse thus far, Husted is up 2.5 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics polling aggregate. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the contest as “Lean Republican.”
Andi Shae Napier contributed to this report.
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