Beyond the Yard Signs: Ohio Senate Candidates

Piece by Govi Chadalavada

The 2024 Ohio senate race is likely to be the closest of this cycle, so it is important to know the policies and backgrounds of both candidates before making a decision on who to vote for. Both major candidates in the election offer completely different things to Ohio and the overall senate. 

Sherrod Brown

The Democratic candidate in the 2024 Ohio Senate race is Sherrod Brown. He is an incumbent, first being elected to the senate in 2006. Brown has had a very strong electoral history, being the only nonjudicial Democrat in Ohio to win a statewide election in over a decade. The core of his campaign has always revolved around helping the middle class and blue-collar workers across the state. 

Brown voted with Joe Biden 98% of the time during the first two years of the Biden administration, and he is often called one of the most left-wing senators. This creates an odd phenomenon, as Ohio has been a rapidly right trending state, but it still does not seem afraid to vote for Sherrod Brown, likely due to his focus on economic populism rather than left-wing social issues. 

Brown is widely known for introducing the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act in 2020, in an aim to increase affordable housing across the country. He is also vehemently opposed to many aspects of free trade, and has pushed Democrats to take a more populist approach on the issue. This is largely due to his beliefs that bringing back jobs to the American middle class not only helps the United States’ economy, but it also can mitigate harsh working conditions and a lack of labor restrictions in other nations. 

The most common criticism of Sherrod Brown is that he tries too hard to appeal to both the far-left and right-wingers. He comes off as a candidate that is both progressive and centrist, diluting any real message that he may be trying to convey about his policy initiatives. 

Bernie Moreno

The Republican candidate in the election, Bernie Moreno, is a businessman who was born in Bogota, Columbia. He moved to Florida, where he was raised, when he was 5, and he earned a business degree from University of Michigan. His political career began in April 2021, when he ran to become the Republican candidate for Rob Portman’s senate seat, before eventually dropping out in February of 2022. 

Rather than focusing his campaign on a small set of issues, Moreno has campaigned on a wide variety of policies. He supports building a wall on the southern border, and he supports both Israel and Ukraine in their respective ongoing wars. One of Moreno’s top priorities is energy, and he supports extracting natural gas and creating more nuclear plants. Additionally, he is vociferously against abortion in all cases, except for rape, incest, and when the life of the woman is at risk. Moreno is also a strong supporter of the LGBTQ+ community, citing that his eldest son is gay. Finally, Moreno believes that reparations should be paid to the descendants of Union soldiers in the Civil War who helped free slaves.  

One of the common criticisms that Moreno receives is that he has switched many of his positions solely for the purpose of his senate run. For example, in a 2019 interview, he stated, “there’s no scenario in which I would support Trump.” Later, in 2024, he said, “I wear with honor my endorsement from Donald Trump.” Also, Moreno was originally quick to criticize those who didn’t trust the 2020 election, but later called the election “stolen” in 2021.