Ohio voters appear to already be souring on former three-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s comeback bid after rejecting the ex-senator at the ballot box last November, according to recent polling.
Brown, who officially entered the state’s 2026 Senate contest on Monday, trails incumbent Republican Ohio Sen. Jon Husted 44% to 50% among active registered voters with just 7% undecided, according to an Emerson College survey released Friday morning. Although Democrats have touted Brown as the party’s best possible recruit for the race, the ex-senator faces long odds in defeating Husted — and serving another term in Washington.
Brown is behind in the first public poll of the two-way matchup conducted since his entry in the race — despite 40% of voters saying they are neutral toward or have not heard of the incumbent senator. Just 14% of active registered voters are unsure or have never heard of Brown.
“In the first public poll following Sherrod Brown’s 2026 campaign kick-off, the former Senator trails the incumbent Jon Husted by six points, though he has a higher name recognition than the first-term Senator,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a release accompanying the poll. “Husted has a 16-point lead among male voters and voters without a college degree, and a 14-point lead among voters over 40. Brown has a 13-point lead among voters under 40, a three-point lead among women voters, and an eight-point lead among independent voters.”
Brown ran for reelection for a fourth Senate term in 2024 but lost to Republican Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno by about four percentage points. President Donald Trump carried Ohio by 11 points in the same election cycle.
Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in January appointed Husted to succeed Vice President JD Vance in the upper chamber. Husted secured Trump’s endorsement in April, putting the new senator on a glide path to seek reelection in 2026. He has a track record of winning statewide contests after serving as lieutenant governor and secretary of state. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the midterms contest as “Lean Republican.”
In a potentially worrisome sign for Brown’s campaign, support for Trump and his deportation agenda appears to be holding strong among Ohio voters, according to the survey.
Nearly 50% of Ohio voters have a favorable view of Trump’s job performance while 42% disapprove. Additionally, 57% of respondents said the mass deportation of illegal immigrants in Ohio is a good thing for the state.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, touted the survey’s results Friday on the social media platform X. The group is expected to aggressively defend Husted’s seat, which Democrats view as a must-win contest to retake Senate control.
“Ohio knows @JonHusted is the real leader who will put them FIRST!” the NRSC wrote on the social media platform X on Friday.
The Emerson College survey of 1,000 Ohio active registered voters was conducted from Aug. 18 to Aug. 19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3%.
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