--- title: Democrats' Best Shot at a Senate Majority Runs Through Ohio description: In a state Democrats once wrote off, Sherrod Brown is leading in the latest polls. But Republicans have a plan to boost incumbent Jon Husted. canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/06/23/ohio-may-be-the-sleeper-senate-race-of-the-midterms/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-06-23T18:06:38.238Z article:modified_time: 2026-07-30T08:39:50.036Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ohio May be the Sleeper Senate Race of the Midterms og:description: In a state Democrats once wrote off, Sherrod Brown is leading in polls. But Republicans have a plan to boost incumbent Jon Husted. og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/06/23/ohio-may-be-the-sleeper-senate-race-of-the-midterms/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt671e4f986b18ead3/6a3ac78899e9a7ecff3ca0cf/Jon-Husted-Sherrod-brown-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x100.00%2Coffset-y0.00 og:image:width: 2398 og:image:height: 1349 og:image:alt: Jon-Husted-Sherrod-brown-2.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ohio May be the Sleeper Senate Race of the Midterms twitter:description: In a state Democrats once wrote off, Sherrod Brown is leading in polls. But Republicans have a plan to boost incumbent Jon Husted. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt671e4f986b18ead3/6a3ac78899e9a7ecff3ca0cf/Jon-Husted-Sherrod-brown-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x100.00%2Coffset-y0.00 ---  # Ohio May Be the Sleeper Senate Race of the Midterms > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. 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It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=937bb717-8e7a-4e42-a2e0-ae51bfbf4c59&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1)  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jun 23, 2026 6:06 PM UTC  Left: Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former U.S. senator, speaks at an event in Cleveland in May. Right: Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, speaks during an event in Washington in March. Left: Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former U.S. senator, speaks at an event in Cleveland in May. Right: Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, speaks during an event in Washington in March. Brown: Sue Ogrocki—AP; Huster: Jacquelyn Martin—AP  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Jun 23, 2026 6:06 PM UTC Let’s call it a Red State Reset. A raft of klieg-light Senate candidates are driving coverage of Democrats looking to retake the majority in this fall’s elections. [Maine](https://time.com/article/2026/06/09/maine-democratic-senate-primary-graham-platner-scandals-susan-collins/), [Texas](https://time.com/7381394/james-talarico-jasmine-crockett-texas-primary-democrats/), [Iowa](https://time.com/7378634/democrats-senate-iowa-josh-turek-zach-wahls-nathan-sage/), and [Alaska](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/2026/06/peltola-democrats-alaska-senate/687593/) all have high-wattage, younger nominees who are raising hopes among party insiders that John Thune won’t be the Senate’s Majority Leader much longer. But missing from much of the breathless coverage of this year’s Senate map are the pair of understated, gray-haired, grind-it-out baby boomer Democrats running in Ohio and North Carolina—where Donald Trump won three times in a row. Both [Sherrod Brown](https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/), a former Senator from Ohio, and Roy Cooper, a former North Carolina Governor, are perhaps the only Democrats who have a shot at flipping those particular Senate seats back into the blue column. Both races are worth attention, but I’m going to focus here on Brown, who is leading in polls in Ohio, which was not too long ago dismissed by Democrats as a lost cause. Now, it may be the lynchpin to Democrats winning the Senate. In conversations with operatives in Washington and Ohio, it’s clear Brown is running _the_ playbook for how to run against Trump without giving him control of the conversation. Making all the difference here is that, unlike [Graham Platner ](https://time.com/article/2026/06/08/the-democrats-platner-problem/)in Maine or [James Talarico](https://time.com/article/2026/06/02/james-talarico-girlfriend-vegan-polls/) in Texas, the 73-year-old Brown doesn’t have to spend a lot of time introducing himself to the state’s voters. Brown already represented Ohio for almost two decades in the U.S. Senate, and notched more than 30 years in Ohio politics before that. Brown, who remains the most [powerful](https://time.com/6227612/sherrod-brown-popularity-ohio-senate/) endorsement available in Ohio, is a progressive voice who knows how to balance being a loyal Democratic elder statesman while also landing blows against Clinton-era free-trade policies. “Sherrod is not looking for a viral moment,” one former Democratic elected official told me. “Voters in Ohio know him and he’s the only Democrat to win statewide in near-on two decades. “Yes, he’s an old white dude in a Red State. But he knows who he is. So do voters.” The incumbent, Jon Husted, was only appointed to the role last year, replacing J.D. Vance as the state’s junior Senator. In a Fox News poll that closed June 1, Husted was trailing Brown by eight points. It’s hard not to view those numbers as largely a proxy on Trump. In that same poll, a remarkable 57% of Ohioans carry an unfavorable view of the President. To put that in context, Trump had a 52-46% _positive_ rating in 2024, when he won the White House. It’s a massive shift that is leaving Republicans in Washington All this helps explain why increasingly frustrated Republicans are sketching out plans to shift the conversation away from Trump, and onto another national figure: Chuck Schumer. The New York Democrat is in line to take back the Majority Leader’s gavel if Democrats win back the Senate. Schumer has seen his unfavorables jump from 52% at the start of Trump’s second term, to 68% earlier this year. By casting Brown as a vote for Schumer in charge, Republicans hope to galvanize Republicans and dampen Democratic enthusiasm. It’s not far off from the plan to nationalize the 2010 House races as a referendum on then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi. It was [ugly](https://time.com/6227229/paul-pelosi-attack-unease-on-campaign-trail/) as heck. But it worked. It’s why no one in Brown’s orbit wants to bathe in Schumer’s glow. Asked directly about Schumer’s return to Leader, Brown has a [dodge](https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/17/politics/sherrod-brown-jon-husted-ohio-senate-democrats-midterms) at the ready: “I’m not doing punditry.” Ohio is a weird place politically. In 2004, we all looked at Ohio at the barometer of the national mood. Heck, there was even a [documentary](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0432337/) about its abilities to predict the national mood, _… So Goes the Nation._ Ohio also happens to be my home turf—I grew up there, went to undergrad there, got my first newspaper job there, worked in The Associated Press bureau in Columbus, took my Youngstown-based family to the Nats game last night. I’ve watched the state go through a massive political reset. George W. Bush won re-election there. Then Barack Obama, Obama, Donald Trump, Trump, Trump. Down-ballot, the results were dramatic. Republicans over the last 20 years—with the help of demographics and redistricting commissions—moved the state from a 10-8 Democratic split in 2009 when Obama moved into the White House to the current 10-5 GOP advantage. (Population loss in Ohio and growth in other states accounts for the loss of three House districts.) If Ohio is suddenly in play, that spells big problems for a GOP majority. While Republicans are defending seats in Maine, Texas, Iowa, and Alaska against charismatic candidates that are also drawing huge FEC numbers, their hopes of flipping seats in Georgia, New Hampshire, and Minnesota seem less sure than when the year started. 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