First, thank you for reading this. These Substack posts are a bit longer than regular emails, but I appreciate that you care enough about Ohio and our country to spend time reading about what goes on behind the scenes of our campaign.
A lot is happening, and the stakes are high, so I promise this will be worth the read. Here are some important updates:
On August 18, the NRSC – the committee whose entire job is electing Republicans to the Senate – leaked a memo to interested parties titled “Ohio Data Center Risk.”
I could not have written a better case for this campaign if I tried.
They concede this race is a dead heat, and they call data centers “the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck.” They note that my campaign has been focusing on Husted’s commitment to data centers, and then they explain why, in their words, “Brown is using it because it works.”
Their own polling, they write, shows this message is significantly more effective than the usual attacks, because it puts new information in front of voters on an issue that actually touches their lives. They call it a sleeper issue for the entire election cycle.
The memo concludes that Republican campaigns and party committees cannot fix this problem themselves. So it turns to the data center industry directly and says the companies who want these projects built have to change how Ohioans see them, and fast. If perceptions aren’t repaired quickly, the memo warns, the campaign against data centers will spread far beyond Ohio.
Reporter Chuck Todd put it plainly when the memo surfaced: “[t]he NRSC isn’t beating around the bush … they are begging for big tech to bring in reinforcements pronto in Ohio.”
The headline is that National Republicans have publicly asked the wealthy corporations that raised Ohioans’ electric bills to come to Ohio, do damage control, and help them save Jon Husted’s Senate seat.
That’s not my characterization. That’s their memo. It shows you exactly who Husted is working for – and who is going to come to his rescue. Now, we’re expecting millions more dollars of outside spending to pour into Ohio to try and distract Ohioans from Jon Husted’s unpopular record.
We put TV ads on the air about Husted’s record of championing data centers during what the NRSC itself calls “one of the most critical times in the race.” They’re right about that.
Here’s what those ads say (you can also watch one of them here, if you’d like): Jon Husted has been called the face of data centers in Ohio. He spent years recruiting them here. He cut sweetheart tax deals and fast-tracked approvals. And while all of that was happening, ordinary Ohioans watched their utility bills climb.
Then, when people started asking questions about it, he told them to “look in the mirror.” He said if folks don’t like data centers, they can go back to using bunny ear antennas on their televisions. I’m not making this up.
Jon Husted might be trying to rewrite the narrative, but Ohioans know better. We know when we’re getting screwed.
Working families in Ohio didn’t need an ad from us to tell them their power bill went up. They’ve been staring at that number every month, wondering what happened. What they didn’t have was the explanation – a straight line from a decision made by Jon Husted to the bill on their kitchen table. It turns out that when working people find out whose side Husted is actually on, they don’t like the answer.
That’s why I made the call to double our ad spending, even before we had all the money for it. It’s why we’ve been hosting more and more events to talk to Ohioans in person and share our message. Because when you have the opportunity to stand up for working folks, you don’t go quiet. You tell the truth louder.
Yet another respected analyst has moved our battleground race into the most competitive category on the board.
These ratings from experts like Nate Silver don’t change randomly – his whole job is to provide independent judgment and analysis. So when the status of a race changes, it means people who study these races for a living have looked at the evidence and concluded that something real is happening here.
A little over a year ago, Ohio wasn’t even in play. Donald Trump and the entire Republican establishment were behind Husted, and the Senate seemed safely in the hands of the GOP. That was the consensus.
Not anymore.
Another Toss Up rating means either one of us can win this. The polls have been running neck and neck for months – some have me up, some have me down, and almost every one of them is inside the margin of error. The takeaway is that this is a razor-close race, and everything matters as we fight for an edge.
I’m on the road. My team and I are hitting all 88 counties in Ohio, as many diners and small businesses and county fairs as we can fit in a day, for as long as we’ve got left.
The other side has $133 million and, apparently, an open request for wealthy corporations to send more. Maybe that’s why Elon Musk recently said he’s targeting this seat in Ohio.
Fine.
They can have the billionaires. We have each other – hardworking people chipping in what they can and a movement that tells the unvarnished truth about Jon Husted.
I like our side of that trade. But it only works if we can keep the ads on the air and keep me on the road between now and November. So thank you for being part of this with me.
Subscribe to get more information directly from me and my campaign and if you can, please consider kicking $5 or $10 our way to help us keep our momentum going. And if you live in Ohio or know someone who does, please share this post with somebody whose electric bill went up. They’ll want to know why.
There’s so much more to do, and this fight is just getting started. I’m glad you’re on this team.
I’ll see you out there,
Sherrod
A personal note from Sherrod 👋
There's nobody fighting for Ohioans in the U.S. Senate right now, and I won't sit on the sidelines while hardworking families get screwed over by Washington politicians serving themselves.
If you work hard, you should be able to afford a decent life. But the reality is, life is too expensive. Costs are going up. Wages are staying stagnant. Working people are working harder than ever before, and they’re not getting their share of the profit.
This campaign is all about changing that – and election analysts say we have a strong shot at winning in November.
But I'll need your help to pull it off. My opponent is a Washington insider being propped up by the Republican establishment, and he's got virtually unlimited resources.
That's not how our campaign works. We're a grassroots movement, and that means we rely on ordinary people chipping in a couple bucks - not billionaires or corporate special interests. If you're able, please make a donation of any amount today. It could be what helps us flip Ohio and the Senate.
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