Cost of living drives battleground Senate race in Ohio
By Caroline Boda
The Center Square
As inflation concerns dominate the midterm landscape, the candidates in Ohio’s U.S. Senate race are offering competing solutions to bring costs down.
Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, is challenging incumbent Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, in a race the Cook Political Report rates a toss-up.
Republicans hold a slim 53-45 majority in the Senate, with two independents caucusing with Democrats. To take control of the chamber after the midterms, Democrats would need to flip four seats while maintaining all of their current ones.
Ohio’s race will be central to determining the partisan makeup of the Senate during the last two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
Husted is defending a seat he has held since January 2025, when Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him to replace newly elected Vice President JD Vance.
Brown, who previously represented Ohio in the Senate from 2007 to 2025, lost his bid for reelection to Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in 2024.
Both Husted and Brown have built their campaigns around inflation, the issue voters rank as their top concern going into the midterms, according to new polling by The Center Square.
Where they differ is on how to bring costs down.
Husted sees tax cuts as the quickest way to lower costs for consumers. Since his appointment to the Senate, he has voted in line with the GOP’s economic agenda, including for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he touted as “the largest tax cut in American history for middle-class families” in a campaign ad.
Brown argues Republican tax policy has driven costs up rather than down. As a senator, he voted against the 2017 Trump tax cuts, which he said benefited wealthy taxpayers and large corporations while leaving the middle class behind.
“All they've done is made things worse for Ohioans, handing over your hard-earned money to corporations and to billionaires,” Brown said.
Husted has campaigned on returning manufacturing jobs to the U.S., drawing on his father’s layoff from a machine tool factory in Ohio.
"After 25 years of clocking in every day, he got laid off and the factory closed," Husted said. "It closed because Ohio and America were losing their competitive edge. America's leaders have let China and other countries steal our technology and our jobs."
While Husted has defended the Trump administration’s sweeping tariffs as an “important tool for protecting American workers and confronting unfair trade practices,” Brown says the tariffs hinder small businesses rather than protect them.
Brown leads in fundraising with $38.6 million raised and $16.2 million in cash on hand, according to the Federal Election Commission. Husted has raised $14.4 million with $9.4 million still on hand.
Also running for Senate in Ohio are Libertarian candidate Bill Redpath and independent candidate Gregory Levy.
Ohio voters will choose their next senator at the polls Nov. 3, with early voting beginning Oct. 6.
Husted vs. Brown Opinion
Husted's ad about his father losing his job. Cry me a river Jon. Eleven years in Workforce Services and personal experiences taught me "transferable skills" create the next employment opportunity. Certainly your part of career as a political has rewarded you well paid for by Ohio taxpayers. Don't say Ohio and America lost its competitive edge. During your years in office. Ohio and America has thrived thru the efforts of new small business startups. Your comment demeans the individual efforts of entrepreneurs. Your father could have taken a "job Americans won't do". Did he even try? Now for Sherrod Brown. Most of my working years and six years into retirement, my income places me in the middle class. The 2017 tax law changes benefited me. First off by contributing to mandatory retirement contributions as a State of California employee, my taxable income was reduced. And if I contributed to an IRA in any given year, my taxable income was further reduced. The standard deduction was doubled. Even with the elimination of the personal exemption, my taxable income was lowered. My capital gains not in tax free retirement accounts were taxed at 0%. And every year to date subject to 2017 changes, I still incurr tax liabilities to the federal government and the states of California and Ohio. The tax brackets grow each year. So Brown is wrong the middle class didn't benefit. Surely I am not only middle income taxpayer that benefited from 2017 changes. So this is my brief overview of Brown vs. Husted. Sadly these are the two choices we have. The two other candidates only serve thier egos in this election. Neither one can beat Brown and Husted.