[[link removed]]

SHERROD BROWN SHOULD ABSOLUTELY RUN AGAIN TO REPRESENT THE WORKING
CLASS IN THE SENATE  
[[link removed]]


 

John Nichols
December 19, 2024
The Nation
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ The outgoing senator recognizes—to a greater extent than any
other Democrat—the need to renew the party’s commitment to a
politics of economic populism. _

"Sherrod Brown", by marcn (CC BY 2.0)

 

Long before the political setbacks of 2024 forced Democrats to
recognize that they had lost touch with working-class voters, Sherrod
Brown was warning the party that it had a problem. As a progressive
with a long history of standing on the right side of history when it
came to fights over economic, social, and racial justice, and matters
of war and peace, the senator from Ohio kept telling Democrats they
were failing to focus seriously enough—let alone sufficiently
enough—on “the dignity of work.”

Brown briefly considered making a 2020 presidential bid
[[link removed]] because
he believed a realignment toward working-class issues was essential
for the party and the country. He argued then, as he does now, that
the Democrats must turn the volume way up on raising the minimum wage,
expanding union rights, saving the pensions of workers who were
getting screwed over by multinational corporations, and reordering
trade policy to favor working Americans rather than Wall Street
speculators.

Brown decided against seeking the presidency. Instead, he stood his
ground in Ohio, a once competitive state that after the 2016 election
flipped hard to the Republicans and embraced the MAGA politics of not
just Donald Trump but also Trump toadies such as Ohio Senator and now
Vice President–elect JD Vance. Of all the Democrats running in
competitive Senate races in the United States in 2024, Brown and
Montana Senator Jon Tester faced the toughest tests, because they were
campaigning in states where Trump was all but certain to win by a wide
margin.

In a movie like _Mr. Smith Goes to Washington_
[[link removed]], perhaps,
a story like this might have ended with principled senators overcoming
electoral adversity and winning reelection. But 2024 was a disaster
pic for the Democrats.

Both Tester and Brown lost.

Brown has accepted that loss as a function of the dystopian 2024
election season. But he refuses to accept that this is the end of his
long fight on behalf of economic democracy. He’s already being
encouraged to run again for the Senate in 2026, when the reaction
against the cynical politics of Trump and Trumpism could make Ohio
voters dramatically more receptive to Brown’s brand of progressive
populism.

It’s a run that Brown should make. His voice is needed now more than
ever, in his party and in the Senate. The energetic 72-year-old has
plenty of fight left in him, as was evidenced by the against-the-odds
campaign he waged in 2024.

Brown made a serious race of it in Ohio. While Trump was winning the
state by a 55–44 margin, Brown came within 3.6 points of retaining
his seat.

Noting
[[link removed]] with
a measure of pride, but a greater measure of determination, that he
“ran 7.5 points ahead of the national ticket,” Brown has been
speaking bluntly about how the party needs to get back to basics when
it comes to addressing the economic anxiety of working families.

Brown has led epic battles during his three decades in the US House
and Senate
[[link removed]], against
the North American Free Trade Agreement, against the granting of
most-favored-nation trading status to China, and against the other
failed trade agreements that hollowed out communities across Ohio,
Indiana, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And in all of his
years of service, he has never been afraid to call out his own party
for its growing reliance on corporate campaign cash—and the
compromises that extend from that reliance. Now, Brown, as not just an
outgoing senator but also the author of a highly regarded book on
trade policy, is amplifying the message.

“I’ve seen that erosion of American jobs and I’ve seen the
middle class shrink,” explains Brown
[[link removed]].
“People have to blame someone. And it’s been Democrats. We are
more to blame for it because we have historically been the party of
[workers]. They expect Republicans to sell out to their corporate
friends and to support the rich. But we don’t expect that from my
party—and that’s my future in this party—to focus on helping the
Democratic Party and my colleagues understand how important it is that
we talk to workers and we make decisions with workers at the table.”

Brown did just that with his last address to the Senate. It was a
passionate statement [[link removed]] in
which he spoke bluntly about his congressional record of opposing the
corporate agenda, whether it was advanced by Republicans, or
Democrats: “I remember when I helped lead the opposition to NAFTA in
my first year in Congress, Bill Richardson—the pro-NAFTA Democrat
from New Mexico—lamented Congressional recess to me. He said,
‘Every time members of Congress go home, my side loses votes.’

“There was a reason for that. We’re supposed to listen to our
constituents.

“Almost every week, I spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Ohio.

“I’ve crisscrossed the state—from Ashtabula to Athens to Akron
to Warren to Steubenville; from Zanesville to Marietta to Portsmouth
to Middletown; from Springfield to Bryan to Delaware to Defiance to
Mansfield—holding roundtables and walking picket lines and touring
plants. Talking to workers in break rooms and on worksites and behind
checkout counters.

“On Monday afternoons, I return to Washington, carrying a satchel of
good ideas, drawn from Ohioans. My job, in both the House and Senate,
has been to represent those workers—to listen to them, to speak out
for them, to fight for them.

“Not Wall Street. Not the drug companies. Not the big railroads. To
fight for the people who make this country work.”

Brown made it clear, throughout the address, that he is not done
fighting. Indeed, he closed by declaring, “This is my last speech on
the floor this year. But it is not—I promise you—the last time you
will hear from me.”

That is one of the most hopeful promises voiced in the post-election
season.

To take back the Senate in 2026, Democrats will need to recruit
exceptional candidates. They should begin in Ohio, where they have in
Sherrod Brown a prospective contender who has consistently run ahead
of the party’s national tickets, and who doesn’t need to be told
that Democrats will only win back the Congress—and upend the Trump
agenda—as a genuinely, and aggressively, populist party of the
working class.

_John Nichols is a national affairs correspondent for The Nation. He
has written, cowritten, or edited over a dozen books on topics ranging
from histories of American socialism and the Democratic Party to
analyses of US and global media systems. His latest, cowritten with
Senator Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller It's OK to
Be Angry About Capitalism
[[link removed]]._

_Copyright c 2024 The Nation. Reprinted with permission. May not be
reprinted without permission
[[link removed]].
Distributed by PARS International Corp
[[link removed]]. Please
support  progressive journalism. Get a digital subscription
[[link removed]]
to The Nation for just $24.95!    _

* Sherrod Brown
[[link removed]]
* U.S. Senate
[[link removed]]
* Ohio
[[link removed]]
* elections
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]