COLUMBUS, Ohio — For the first time since the start of his Senate career, Sen. Sherrod Brown has failed to secure reelection support from the Ohio Brotherhood of Police — with the union citing the Democrat’s controversial tweets about a shooting.
In 2006, the Ohio FOP endorsed Republican Mike DeWine, then a senator and now governor, but he lost his seat to Brown in a major upset.
Since then, Brown has won over police and navigated the Democratic politics of an increasingly Republican state. But this year is different.
“It all came down to a tweet,” said Mike Weinman, a spokesman for the Ohio FOP and a former officer who was paralyzed in the line of duty. “We had a shooting here, and instead of Mr. Sherrod taking the time to listen to us and understand the situation, he did what everyone does now: he pulled out his cell phone. Mr. Brown made the comment. It’s unfortunate.”
The incident Weinman is referring to dates back to 2021, when Columbus Police Officer Nicholas Reardon 16 year old shot dead Reardon was helping her foster daughter, Makia Bryant, after responding to a domestic violence call and when she arrived on scene she found Bryant brandishing a knife at the woman, who continued to do so even after Reardon repeatedly yelled, “Stay down!”
“When he arrived it was complete chaos,” Weinman told The Post. “She was using a weapon on an unarmed person and unfortunately he was forced to use his own weapon to neutralize the scene. I’ll be honest with you, nobody in that home, including the officers, was happy that that happened. But Mr. Brown immediately spoke out against the officers and I think that was remembered by a lot of people during the vote.”
The senator tweeted the day after the April 21, 2021, shooting, linking it to another event that day: the conviction of a former Minneapolis police officer for killing George Floyd.
“While the verdict was being read in the Derek Chauvin trial, Columbus Police shot and killed a 16 year old girl. Her name was Makia Bryant. She should be alive by now,” Brown wrote.
Bryant’s death also sparked the Black Lives Matter movement. She was black and Reardon was white.
However, a grand jury retrial found the shooting justified, cleared the officers of any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges.
Weinman also said further “rhetoric” from senators about police could have led to further vote losses.
“People here have no idea where he stands on issues like George Floyd and qualified immunity. Voters know very well where he stands and he just hasn’t made his position clear enough. Brown has done a great job so far with providing supplies and vests and helping to get resources, but now I think our people aren’t sure they can trust him,” he told The Post.
Weinman explained the nomination process: “An FOP committee reviews a small number of candidates. Approved candidates are then put to a vote on the floor.”
“They called his name, and the time came,” Weinman said. “He missed it by four votes.”
Brown’s Republican opponent, Bernie Moreno, also will not receive the FOP’s endorsement this year, but Weinman said that’s more a procedural issue than politics.
“Previously, if a candidate didn’t get any votes on the floor, a council member could make a motion to propose a new name and have an immediate, direct vote,” Weinman said. “This year, we changed that. Only names chosen by the selection committee could be voted on, and only Brown passed.”
The committee did not select Moreno because of his lack of political experience.
“He’s still a rookie,” Weinman said, “a great businessman and he definitely has a future, but he has to prove it, just like Vance did.”
Weinman is referring to a similar vote in 2018, when then-Senator candidate J.D. Vance won valuable support over more experienced competitors.
“Vance really tried, he really campaigned. Moreno didn’t have the time,” Weinman said.
He also confirmed that the Ohio FOP will not be making any additional statewide endorsements for 2024.
Brown is the only major Democrat remaining in Ohio, a soon-to-be Republican state, and his race against Moreno is one of the most expensive and highly-watched in the country.
Brown holds a 6.5-point lead over Moreno, but experts expect endorsements like this one, along with Vance’s emergence as a national campaigner, to have a big impact in Ohio.
In Ohio polls conducted before Biden dropped out of the race, former President Donald Trump had a lead of as much as 10 points over Biden.
