Columbus, Ohio: Sherrod Brown Returns to the U.S. Senate, Defeats Jon Husted in Special Election

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Orbit Post) Sherrod Brown is going back to the U.S. Senate. The Associated Press called Ohio's special Senate election for the Democrat on Tuesday night, a win that flips the seat held by Republican Sen. Jon Husted and returns Brown to the chamber two years after he lost his own reelection bid.

In the AP results feed, the race stood called with 87.14 percent of precincts reporting, 7,698 of 8,834 precincts in. Brown had 2,013,992 votes to 1,925,259 for Husted.

A seat that opened when Vance rose

The special election decided who fills the seat JD Vance gave up when he became vice president. Husted, 59, was appointed to the seat last year and was asking Ohio voters to keep him in it for the first time. Brown beat him in a state that has moved steadily away from Democrats in statewide races.

Brown, 73, represented Ohio in the U.S. House for seven terms and then served in the Senate from 2007 to 2025. In November 2024 he lost reelection to Republican Bernie Moreno by four points, in a state President Donald Trump carried by more than 10 points the same year. His win on Tuesday makes him a senator again, this time in the seat next to Moreno's.

A lead that narrowed, then held

Early returns put Brown far ahead. With 27 percent of the vote counted, he led Husted 62 percent to 34.8 percent in the count tracked by the Cincinnati Enquirer. The margin thinned as more of the state reported. At 10 p.m. Eastern time, with 74 percent of the vote counted, Brown led 48.5 percent to 46.8 percent, and the New York Times rated him very likely to win because many of the votes still to be counted came from blue parts of the state.

Decision Desk HQ's results page showed the same shape late in the night. In its 10:45 p.m. Eastern snapshot, Brown had 1,936,813 votes, 48.57 percent, to 1,858,229, 46.60 percent, for Husted. The AP call followed as the count passed 87 percent of precincts.

What it means for the Senate

Republicans went into Tuesday holding the Senate 53 to 47, and Democrats needed a net gain of four seats to take control. Brown's win flips a Republican seat on a night when Democrats also flipped Senate seats in North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas and won back control of the House.

Brown ran on affordability, the same economic argument that carried him through three Senate terms in Ohio. Ohio Democrats had a full night in Columbus: Amy Acton was elected governor the same evening, beating Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, and Brown and Acton were both expected at the state party's election night event in the capital.

Results remain unofficial until they are certified under Ohio law.