--- title: Why the Most Requested Democrat in Ohio Isn't Biden or Obama description: Sen. Sherrod Brown, a populist progressive, has built up a striking level of credibility and affection in Republican-trending Ohio. canonical: https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-11-02T18:30:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:58:58.799Z article:section: Politics og:title: Why the Most Requested Democrat in Ohio Isn't Biden or Obama og:description: The populist progressive has built up a striking level of credibility and affection in Republican-trending Ohio. og:url: https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d2d0c3e5d53c72/698a3705d07533dafce6d655/GettyImages-1241885925.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Advancing Public Transportation under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Update from the Federal Transit Administration og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why the Most Requested Democrat in Ohio Isn't Biden or Obama twitter:description: The populist progressive has built up a striking level of credibility and affection in Republican-trending Ohio. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d2d0c3e5d53c72/698a3705d07533dafce6d655/GettyImages-1241885925.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why the Most Requested Democrat in Ohio Isn't Biden or Obama  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Nov 2, 2022 6:30 PM UTC  Rep. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, at a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Washington. Rep. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, at a Senate committee hearing on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, in Washington.Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Nov 2, 2022 6:30 PM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio—The honorific came without an ounce of irony Tuesday afternoon from the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor: “The Vote Whisperer, Sherrod Brown.” The crowd at a dive bar not far from Youngstown State roared with approval as Ohio’s Democratic senator waited his turn to speak. Brown is the only Democrat to be elected to statewide office in Ohio since 2011\. That makes him more than just an anomaly in this once-mighty [swing state](https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/3635032-democrats-aim-to-make-ohio-a-swing-state-again/), which for a long, long time effectively [picked](https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/movies/04nati.html) the presidency. Brown is the Democrats’ unicorn, and his political DNA rivals anything theorized in Jurassic Park. Over almost half a century, Brown, an unapologetic populist progressive, has built up a striking level of credibility and affection in a state where grievances are as strong as the [Great Lakes](https://www.greatlakesbrewing.com/) ales and pleasing a majority of voters is close to impossible. He managed to [survive](https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/exit-polls/ohio/senate) the revenge of white, working-class voters that tipped the state from [twice](https://www.cnbc.com/2012/11/07/obama-reelected-as-crucial-ohio-goes-his-way.html) backing Barack Obama to doing the [same](https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-joe-biden-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-elections-6f1895b82ea8658f4587ce8df5e64170) for Donald Trump. As such, Brown might be the region’s most-requested co-headliner this week before a crucial election—[certainly](https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-political-scene/is-tim-ryan-the-last-of-the-midwestern-union-democrats) more so [than](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tim-ryan-no-biden-on-campaign-trail-ohio-senate/) Obama or President Joe Biden. On Tuesday alone, Brown spent his morning in Steubenville with the Democratic nominee for Senate, Rep. Tim Ryan, and the afternoon here in Youngstown with his party’s nominee for governor, former Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley. By the end of the week, Brown is scheduled to appear with Whaley at least two more times when he’s not even on the ballot. Brown’s imprint on the campaign trail goes beyond his busy schedule. At Democratic [events](https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/05/joe-biden-should-retire-the-phrase-dignity-of-work.html) in recent years in Ohio, you’re as likely to hear about “[the dignity of work](https://www.cleveland.com/open/2019/10/sen-sherrod-brown-hopes-to-hear-his-dignity-of-work-message-at-ohios-debate.html)” as you are to see a Buckeyes sweatshirt. Brown [introduced](https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/12/24/democrats-dignity-of-work/) the phrase to a new generation of Democrats, picking up on the [rhetoric](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sherrod-brown-the-dignity-of-work%5Fn%5F5c76b5eae4b062b30eba20c2) of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, whom Brown is careful to credit. That idea, which became a theme of Biden’s successful general election campaign, can be traced back to Brown, who served with Biden in the Senate. The “dignity of work” thesis is widely seen as a template for winning Ohio—respect for a chance, but not open-ended welfare. Not that Brown minds. For him, the phrase is more than a slogan. It’s the potential for the government’s role in helping rebuild a middle class. For his adherents, it’s a way to crack the code in a Midwest that has, to be blunt, [rejected](https://time.com/4951191/divided-democratic-party-debates-its-future/) a lot of Democrats’ messaging in recent years. Hillary Clinton [lost](https://www.politico.com/2016-election/results/map/president/ohio/) Ohio by 9 percentage points in 2016\. Brown [won](https://www.vox.com/2018/11/6/18056138/senate-midterm-results-ohio-sherrod-brown-winner) two years later by 7\. Biden would go on to [lose](https://www.politico.com/2020-election/results/ohio/) by 8 two years after that. But here’s the problem with copycats: they more often meow than roar. “Workers aren’t _on_ the agenda. They _are_ the agenda,” Brown tells me after a few minutes of good-natured ribbing following the event. It’s hokey, but it works when he says it. You see, Brown is as understated as he is authentic. It’s easy to see why he was a [favorite](https://time.com/5547529/sherrod-brown-presidential-campaign-2020/) for Heartland Democrats to run against Trump in 2020 until he decided against it. You mention _Brown_ and there’s a puzzled look, even among party insiders; they wonder if the Supreme Court has revisited _Brown v. Board_ the same way they [toppled](https://time.com/6190995/abortion-future-after-roe/) _Roe v. Wade_. Use Brown’s first name, and a grin spreads as wide as they hear it. And that is The Power of _Sherrod_. He’s an embedded fixture in Ohio’s political scene dating to 1975—two years after Biden joined the Senate. Brown effectively controls the state political machine, [installing](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/politics/government/2021/01/12/sen-sherrod-brown-endorses-walters-ohio-democratic-party-chair/6621645002/) a loyalist as its chairwoman in 2021\. And yet Brown has survived criticism that he’s a career politician, in part because he can outhustle anyone in a union hall and out-empathy even those who aren’t much inclined to give Democrats a chance. It’s much the same way his counterpart, retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman, can summon the patrician GOP base with even-keeled conservatism that doesn’t offend Democrats despite a pedigree dating to George H.W. Bush’s White House. Still, Democrats in Ohio remain at a disadvantage. Because of their exclusion from power at the state level and the congressional delegation, they have struggled on any number of fronts, including being unable to influence the current congressional map, which favors Republicans by a 12-to-4 margin, even though Biden [won](https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/results/state/ohio/president) 42% of the popular vote in 2020\. A reserve of future talent is a perennial problem child for national Democrats, and that’s especially true in Ohio, where much of the anemic liberal grassroots has stopped thinking of victory as even an option. “Look at the farm system. The bench is hard to build because you have so many districts that are predetermined,” Brown tells me in the parking lot of a proud dive bar in Youngstown. “It affects the morale of Democrats.” Whaley, a self-described mentee of Brown who nonetheless has about [one-tenth](https://www.cleveland.com/news/2022/10/gov-mike-dewine-continues-to-outraise-outspend-nan-whaley-in-final-weeks-of-ohio-governors-race.html) of her opponent’s warchest in hand, picked up right where he left off: “The unlimited money they have, particularly for the statehouse races, makes it very difficult.” Which, in turn, only increases Brown’s cachet—as long as everyone remembers to call him _Sherrod_. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/"},"headline":"Why the Most Requested Democrat in Ohio Isn't Biden or Obama","datePublished":"2022-11-02T18:30:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:58:58.799Z","description":"The unapologetic progressive populist has managed to build up a striking level of credibility and affection in Republican-trending Ohio.","url":"https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/","keywords":["The D.C. Brief","democrats","Congress","feature","2022 Midterm Elections"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d2d0c3e5d53c72/698a3705d07533dafce6d655/GettyImages-1241885925.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Elliott","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt37d2d0c3e5d53c72/698a3705d07533dafce6d655/GettyImages-1241885925.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Advancing Public Transportation under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Update from the Federal Transit Administration","caption":"Advancing Public Transportation under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law: Update from the Federal Transit Administration","creditText":"Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/the-dc-brief/","name":"The D.C. Brief"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/","name":"Why the Most Requested Democrat in Ohio Isn't Biden or Obama"}}]}] ```