Sherrod Brown Projected to Beat Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio Senate Special Election

Sherrod Brown is going back to the U.S. Senate.

The Democrat beat Republican Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio's special election on Tuesday, Nov. 3. CNN, NBC News, CBS News and Decision Desk HQ all projected the result shortly after 11 p.m. ET. With about 88% of the estimated vote counted, Brown led 48.5% to 46.6%.

Brown, 73, lost his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024 by roughly four points. Two years later he takes back a seat in a state Donald Trump carried by 11.2 points.

What the seat is

The contest was a special election to fill the remainder of the six-year term JD Vance won in 2022. Vance resigned to become vice president. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted, then Ohio's lieutenant governor, to the seat in January 2025.

Brown will serve through January 2029. He is up for re-election in 2028. Ohio now has a split delegation, with Brown alongside Moreno, the man who beat him.

CBS News noted that no senator since 1988 has staged a successful comeback after losing a re-election bid.

Brown's message

Brown, 73, ran on the cost of living. He also went after Trump's war with Iran, the administration's tariffs and the build-out of AI data centers.

He branded Husted "the face of data centers." Husted had championed the industry as lieutenant governor. The National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in an August memo that the issue could doom his candidacy, according to NBC News.

"You sent an undeniable message tonight: Ohio is not for sale," Brown said in his victory speech. He also said: "Corporations and billionaires tried to buy this election but it turns out there's a whole lot more of us than them."

He said the first thing he will push as a senator is a ban on members of Congress trading stocks.

The Republican case

Husted and GOP-aligned groups ran on a different pitch. They hammered Brown with anti-socialism messaging and cast him as a career politician with little to show for 32 years in Washington. Trump visited the state multiple times before Election Day.

The party also spent heavily. The Senate Leadership Fund committed $79 million to Ohio, its largest investment of the cycle. Total ad spending in the race topped $400 million, the most of any Senate contest this year. Brown outraised Husted for five straight quarters.

In his concession, Husted said: "We ran a great campaign, we gave it all we could. Thank you for believing in me and fighting for me. I'll be forever grateful."

Why the race tightened

Brown had trailed in no major poll average heading in. He led Husted in the RealClearPolitics average for about two weeks before the vote, by around three points. Husted had trailed in that average since June.

David Niven, a University of Cincinnati political scientist, told Newsweek before the election that Trump's falling popularity was the biggest factor. "He has given away the Republican advantage that they otherwise have here," Niven said. He added that if Ohioans vote on the economy, the state is "very competitive."

NBC News reported Husted also carried baggage of his own making. The Senate was not his first choice. He had been preparing to run for governor when the Vance vacancy opened, and he kept a $6 million gubernatorial war chest intact after accepting the appointment. "I'm, like, an Ohio guy. D.C. is not my place," Husted said at an August county GOP picnic.

Ohio's governor's race, between Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton, was on the same ballot. NBC News reported that Ramaswamy's campaign spent $4 million on an attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother, and that the ad raised concerns that backlash could hurt Husted. No source ties Husted's result to that ad.

The bigger map

Republicans entered the night with a 53-47 Senate majority, so Democrats needed a net gain of four seats.

The Washington Post's results tracker shows Democrats projected to flip seats in Texas (James Talarico), Iowa (Josh Turek), Kansas (Adam Hamilton) and Maine (Troy Jackson), along with Ohio. CBS News called Ohio the easiest pickup of the Trump-won states, with smaller margins than Iowa, Kansas or Alaska.

Schumer, at 12:36 a.m. ET, hailed Democrats retaking the Senate "against all odds."

Only about 88% of Ohio's estimated vote was counted when the race was called, so final margins will move. What Democrats do with a Senate majority is the open question. Brown has put the congressional stock-trading ban first on his own list.

Husted, 59, now faces what NBC News described as an uncertain future after a long run in elected office.