Brown faces a tough reelection battle in his home state that has gone to the GOP presidential candidate since 2016.
Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is skipping the Democratic National Convention (DNC) for the first time in his 31-year congressional career as he faces a tough reelection battle in his home state.
As an elected Democrat member of Congress, Brown is considered a superdelegate. Superdelegates do not vote in the first roll call at the convention, which will be merely symbolic since Vice President Kamala Harris is already the Democratic Party’s nominee after a virtual roll call concluded earlier this week.
A roll call to nominate Harris will occur at the DNC, but it will be nonbinding and ceremonial.
Additionally, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is a senator from Ohio.
In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won Ohio by almost 447,000, or 8.07 percentage points. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) won reelection that year, though it was by 20.87 percentage points.
In his interview with CNN, Brown implied that he won’t be tethered to Harris and suggested that he won’t be campaigning alongside her.
“I’ve got my own schedule,” he said. “She’s got her own schedule. I will focus on my race. My strategy is perhaps different from hers.”
Brown said his “job is to fight for Ohio workers.”
Moreno told CNN that he benefits from Brown being on the same ticket as Harris.
Moreno has been loyal to Trump, who endorsed him in the GOP primary in March.
“President Trump is a transformational leader for America and we are so excited to rally with him ahead of Tuesday’s crucial election,” Moreno said in a statement ahead of the primary election, according to local media reports.
“President Trump knows just how important this election is—it’s a contest between the America-First Republican Party and the broken down RINO establishment,” he said, using the acronym for Republicans in Name Only.
Brown has a huge campaign cash advantage over Moreno, according to the Federal election Commission.
During his three-term tenure in the Senate, Brown has been known as a working-class progressive, advocating for measures to protect American workers.
He was last reelected in 2018, defeating former Rep. Jim Renacci (R-Ohio) by 300,949 votes, or 6.82 percentage points.
Brown was first elected to Congress in 1992, serving in the House between 1993 and 2007.
He spoke at the DNC in 2016, where former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.
