Sherrod Brown has stormed back into the Senate, unseating Republican Senator Jon Husted in Ohio’s special election for the seat JD Vance gave up to become vice president.
The Democrat won 48.5 percent to Husted’s 46.5 percent with 90 percent of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press.
The win is a major prize in Democrats’ push to retake the Senate.
They needed to gain four seats to take control of the chamber, and Ohio was among the GOP-held seats in the crosshairs.
Brown served three terms before losing to Republican Bernie Moreno by about 3.5 points in 2024.
He now takes back the seat Governor Mike DeWine handed to Husted, then his lieutenant governor, after JD Vance left the Senate to become vice president. Brown will serve out the final two years of Vance’s term.
Trump, who carried Ohio by about 11 points in 2024, endorsed Husted and held three rallies in October.
The race was the costliest of the 2026 general election, with more than $500 million spent or reserved on ads.
JD Vance’s successor Senator John Husted has been unseated by challenger Democrat Sherrod Brown. Husted replaced Vance when he became vice president
Incumbent Jon Husted speaks to supporters during a campaign stop on the Ohio Republican Bus Tour at Lorain County Republican Headquarters
Democrat Sherrod Brown will return to the Senate after running a ruthless campaign against datacenters and AI
Crypto super PAC Fairshake alone spent more than $45 million to stop Brown, a move widely seen as vengeful.
In 2024, Fairshake’s network spent roughly $40 million helping Moreno beat Brown, who then chaired the Senate Banking Committee and was one of the industry’s most prominent critics
Brown and his allies hammered Husted for months over the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, the $61 million scheme that sent former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to prison.
Brown’s most memorable attack branded Husted ‘the face of data centers in Ohio,’ accusing him of handing $2.5 billion in tax incentives to the facilities.
Trump defended the industry at his Vandalia rally and praised Husted for a failed attempt to pass data-center legislation.
Brown went into Election Day narrowly ahead in the polls, with a 3.3-point edge in the RealClearPolitics average.
He ran as the challenger against a sitting senator, but many voters saw it the other way round.
A Bowling Green State University poll in early October found one in four Ohio voters wrongly believed Brown was the incumbent.
Brown will need to run and defend the seat in two years.
