Former Sen. Sherrod Brown kicks off his bid for Vance's old Senate seat in Ohio

Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, launched a comeback campaign Monday, setting the stage for a 2026 special election that could decide control of the Senate.

CLEVELAND — Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, launched a comeback campaign Monday, setting the stage for a 2026 special election that could decide partisan control of the Senate.

Brown will challenge Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican whom Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appointed this year to fill the vacancy created by JD Vance’s election as vice president.

“We had no intention, really, of running again,” Brown, speaking of himself and his wife, journalist Connie Schultz, said in an interview with NBC News. “We just heard from more and more people and saw how much worse it was getting. I spent my career, as you know, taking on interest groups and taking on this rigged system. And the system has been rigged for as long as I remember, but it’s clearly gotten worse.”

In a video accompanying his campaign launch, Brown lays out three principles important to him: “standing up for workers, treating everyone with dignity and respect, working as hard as possible.”

“I didn’t plan to run for office again, but when I see what’s going on, I know I can do something about it for Ohio,” Brown says in the video. “That’s why I’m running for Senate.”