No ones ever said politics had to be subtle.
We know Ohio workers are the best in the world.
They can make steel as long as the rules are fair.
“He loves the work, the retail politics,” says Brown’s wife, Connie Schultz.Jack Crosbie
Everyone knows Ohio steelworkers and Cleveland-Cliffs steelworkers are the best in the world.
They can compete you’ve got the option to compete with anyone.
You just need that fair playing field.
These are his people, this is his state, these are his issues.
Brown doesnt mention Joe Bidens name once during his speech, referring to the president or the administration.
This turf is Browns chosen ground, and hell take on all comers.
The Democratic Party is not, to put it gently, in good shape in Ohio.
After passing the reins to Vice President Kamala Harris, things look a little better, but not much.
If anyone can survive this year and the national Senate map, it would be [him].
Anyone who writes the obituary for Sherrod Brown is dumb.
He recovered and announced Ohios junior senator, J.D.
Vance, as his vice presidential running mate.
Then, Biden dropped out.
AFTER THE STEEL STOP, Brown hits the union hall.
A smattering of steelworkers and USW staff tuck into a spread of cold-cut sandwiches and deli sides.
He just shows up, says Christine Dempsey, a member of the USWs grievance committee.
You get the sincerity from Sherrod, says steelworker Michelle Miller.
Brown grew up in Mansfield, Ohio, where his father was a doctor.
It was around then when he started his political career, too.
Rather than lick his wounds, he ran for Congress in 1992 and won.
He served there until he jumped to the Senate in 2006.
Today, Brown is on the tail end of 50 years of almost-unbroken political service.
And yet, hes never run for president.
The closest hes come was a short exploratory trip called the Dignity of Work Tour in 2019.
Ive heard people say, I wish you would run, but I have zero interest, Brown says.
I came to terms Im very satisfied with the decision I made back in 19 not to run.
Brown and Schultz have been married for 20 years.
They each have two children from previous marriages.
He loves what he does.
Public service has been his career.
She refuses to tell me what the jobs were, but says hes certainly got more books in him.
(So far, hes written three.)
He doesnt want them, she says about the other jobs.
He loves the work, the retail politics….
The extroversion is infectious.
Hes obsessed with high school mascots, often remembering specific people by their school and mascot.
Number one: Do not lie about your level of baseball knowledge.
On page one: a blurb raving about the book, signed by Brown.
Number two: Do not use the term Rust Belt.
(Brown thinks the term is demeaning to workers and portrays manufacturing jobs as outdated.)
Number three, from Schultz: Never be rude to wait staff or service workers.
If you mistreat an hourly-wage earner, it will permanently affect his opinion of you.
She beams and says shes going to be a carpenter when she grows up, just like her dad.
In the hands of another candidate, this kind of thing could look forced.
The janitor story, in particular, always hits.
I hear Brown tell it no fewer than four times.
Browns campaign, I find, is an exercise in extreme message discipline.
Pick your battles, and fight them with everything youve got.
Moreno is an anti-abortion hardliner.
But this message discipline can cut the other way.
Take the Six-County Democratic Party Picnic in Defiance, Ohio, this June.
The first inspires some back and forth with Brown, who insists the booing crowd let her speak.
Brown calls for a negotiated settlement, and to get the hostages out.
Amid boos, Brown responds.
I dont think its genocide, he says.
I think that Netanyahu has not conducted this war right….
I dont think its genocide.
Genocide is what happened in Rwanda.
Genocide is what the Nazis did.
This is not genocide.
The woman has her answer, and sits down.
The next heckler is less subtle: a young man in a baseball cap.
Youre a full-time imperialist!
Youre a and hes drowned out by the crowd.
One goateed man screams, others chant Boo, boo, and Lock him up!
The campaign decides, shortly after, that its time to go.
We pull out of the UAW park past a cluster of protesters waving Palestinian flags.
Brown doesnt appear particularly flustered.
He wasnt dismissive of the protests, but its clear there are other topics hed rather talk about.
Oh, thats fun!
Inside, Brown is back to work and back on message.
How many of your guys went for Trump?
I hear him ask one trade-union boss at a campaign stop.
About 30 to 40 percent, the man replies, and Brown grimaces.
We confirm theyre educated.
This is another thing Brown doesnt like to talk about.
Ive never heard Donald Trump talk about dignity of work, Brown grumbles.
Trump, of course, also loves to rail on corporate America on the trail.
The difference is that while in office, he served its interests.
One of the biggest challenges has been the step up in partisanship, Schultz tells me.
Weve had a Republican-dominated Statehouse the whole time.
That is a difference now in this country.
AFTER MY TRIP TO OHIO, I go to D.C. to interview Brown in his Senate offices.
His offices are covered in photos and memorabilia of famous Ohioans: athletes, musicians, activists, astronauts.
Were in a relatively unique election cycle, I say delicately.
Brown looks at his staff.
What, dont go there?
One does a nervous kind of groan-laugh, which gets a chuckle from me and Brown.
Ill participate in the question, which I shouldnt do, Brown says.
I care a lot about who the president is, of course.
But my job, in many ways, its different: Its to represent Ohio.
Its to fight for workers who are ignored and overlooked.
Its about helping my state to be more prosperous.
Its about looking out for seniors and people who get screwed by the system.
So fundamentally that doesnt change.
I assume with the right president Ill have more success with those things.
Ten days later, on July 19, Brown calls for Biden to drop out of the race.
Two days after that, Biden is out.
If theyre working for Ohios workers, hell help them.
If theyre working against Ohios workers, hell get in the way.
She thinks it would be a great inscription on their joint tombstone.
Before then, of course, theres at least one more election to win.
Brown, and those around him, seem sure that they can pull it off.
Win or lose, Sherrod Brown will keep fighting until hes all used up.
