Jon Husted and Sherrod Brown set for Senate showdown after Ohio primary victories | US news
Republican senator Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown won their respective parties’ nominations in Ohio’s primary on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press; That sets them up for a Senate race in November’s midterm elections that is expected to be high-profile and expensive.
While Husted ran unopposed, Brown had only one opponent, whom he easily defeated.
The veteran politicians are taking part in a special election to be decided in the Nov. 3 midterms that will determine who will serve the remainder of the six-year term that J.D. Vance won in 2022 before becoming vice president last year.
Husted was appointed to replace Vance by Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, while Brown, a former three-term senator, is trying to mount a comeback after losing his re-election bid in 2024.
Ohio’s Senate seat is one of four that Senate Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer has prioritized in the party’s bid to regain control of the chamber; That seemed like a long shot after Donald Trump won the election two years ago, but with the president’s approval ratings falling, it’s looking increasingly achievable.
The Senate’s main Republican Super Pac has announced plans to spend $79 million in Ohio, and pro-Democratic groups are expected to do the same.
In the gubernatorial primary to replace term-limited DeWine, biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was the Republican choice, and former state health department director Amy Acton won the Democratic nomination. The other major Republican candidate was internet personality and auto racing engineer Casey Putsch.
Ohio, once a swing state that decided Republican George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential bid before Barack Obama won two presidential victories, has supported Trump all three times he has been on the ballot, and by widening margins.
But Democrats hope his administration’s unpopularity will turn out voters and help them expand their seats in the congressional delegation, which currently consists of five Democrats and 10 Republicans.
They also think Ramaswamy will struggle to rally Republicans, which could boost Acton’s chances of becoming the first Democrat to serve as governor since 2011, along with Brown and other Democrats.
