Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown is projected to defeat Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio, returning to the U.S. Senate two years after losing his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno, according to the Fox News Decision Desk.
The win is a striking comeback for Brown, who represented Ohio in the Senate from 2007 to 2025. Moreno defeated him in one of the most closely watched contests of the 2024 election.
Brown won a special election for the remainder of the term first won by Vice President JD Vance. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the seat in January 2025, after Vance left the Senate to become President Donald Trump’s vice president.
Before serving in the Senate, Brown represented Ohio in the U.S. House, served as the state’s secretary of state and was a member of the Ohio House.
When Brown takes his seat will depend on the state’s election certification and the timing of his swearing-in. He could join the Senate during its lame-duck session, which may affect the chamber’s vote count before the next Congress begins.
The contest was a major battleground. Democrats saw it as one of their strongest chances to cut into the Republicans’ narrow Senate majority, while Republicans viewed Husted’s seat as important to keeping control.
Brown’s victory comes after his 2024 defeat, as Ohio has continued to trend Republican in presidential elections. Trump won the state by 11 percentage points that year. Republicans portrayed Brown’s return as a revival of the Democratic establishment that Ohio voters had rejected.
To counter that argument, Brown highlighted his record on manufacturing, organized labor, trade, consumer protections and the economy. His campaign also focused on living costs, fuel prices, health care and how Republican policies might affect working-class Ohioans.
The candidates disagreed over data centers and energy costs. Brown argued that Ohio taxpayers and consumers could end up paying for the infrastructure and power needed by large facilities, and criticized Husted’s support for economic development projects involving data centers.
Husted said those projects would bring jobs and investment to Ohio. He also pointed to legislation intended to keep taxpayers from covering data centers’ operating costs, which Democrats blocked in the Senate.
A longtime figure in Ohio Republican politics, Husted campaigned on his experience as lieutenant governor, secretary of state and speaker of the state House. He argued that Brown would return to Washington as a dependable vote for Senate Democrats and national party leaders.
Brown’s win gives Democrats a significant lift as they seek to regain control of the Senate.
