- Brown, 66, is unabashedly progressive but with a Midwestern, populist bent that could appeal to Democratic voters who found Trump’s message — which is fairly aligned with Brown’s own beliefs on issues like trade — not just appealing, but animating. Brown outran 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton by 15 points and bested Richard Cordray, the Democratic nominee for governor who lost his race, by nearly 300,000 votes.
- He will carry a message into the early primary states on his tour that has resonated in three consecutive statewide election wins in a crucial battleground state — a message that helped him ride to victory in 2018, a year nearly all of Ohio’s other statewide elections went squarely into Republican hands.
- The state, which then-candidate Donald Trump won by eight points in 2016, has trended so firmly red in recent years that some Democratic operatives have questioned whether it remains firmly in the top tier of presidential battlegrounds for Democrats. States like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin also fell out of Democratic column — creating the road map to Trump’s stunning electoral victory.
- Brown’s re-election immediately drew attention from Democrats eying that path and the Democratic collapse in the Midwest — and he has said he has been fielding calls from supporters and allies urging him to run ever since.