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HAMILTON, OH – Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted is fighting for his political future in a tight race in reliably red Ohio, and he spoke to Fox News Digital with other local Republicans about what to expect in the few weeks leading up to the critical midterm elections.
“Look, he’s been here for 50 years and everywhere I go, no one can name a single thing that he’s done for them,” Husted said of his Democratic opponent Sherrod Brown, who is trying to return to the U.S. Senate after being defeated by Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, in 2024.
“And think about it, you can’t keep sending the same old Sherrod Brown back to Washington and expect different results. The place is in shambles. He’s the one who broke it. He created the system. If you want to see a better, brighter future, you can’t send the same old Sherrod Brown back.”
Husted, speaking to Fox News Digital at a Butler County GOP event Saturday, pointed to recent visits to Ohio by President Trump, Vice President Vance and Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., as a sign that momentum is on his side in a race that some polls show him trailing.
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Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, told Fox News Digital that Ohio voters have already rejected former Sen. Sherrod Brown once and will reject him again in this year’s high-stakes Senate race. (Fox News Digital; Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We’ve seen a ton of energy and literally over the last month you can just feel it changing…we’ve just seen people all over the state come together and the crowds have been bigger and more enthusiastic than I expected at the midterms. So that gives us a lot of hope.”
Despite Ohio’s Republican leaning, Husted faces an uphill battle in a race that has tightened considerably and Republicans are also grappling with the traditional midterm headwinds facing the ruling party, making voter turnout and enthusiasm particularly critical in the weeks ahead.
Republicans also face concerns about gasoline prices and affordability as voters focus on the cost of basic necessities as the midterm elections approach. Fox News Digital asked Husted about these concerns and asked if part of his message to voters was that returning the Democratic Party to power would not solve these problems.
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Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, during a campaign event at the Steubenville Municipal Building in Steubenville, Ohio, Friday, October 11, 2024. (Justin Merriman/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Yeah, look, it’s common sense rather than crazy,” Husted explained. “Look, we’ve done some good things. We have more jobs in Ohio than we’ve ever had in our history, the unemployment rate is the lowest. Now we just have to fight to bring prices down. The Democrats are blocking us at every turn trying to do that.”
Senate Democrats recently blocked Husted’s legislation to force large data centers to pay for electricity generation and the infrastructure needed to serve their facilities rather than shifting that burden to taxpayers, as the data center issue becomes one of the top issues in Ohio’s election campaign.
“They blocked my taxpayer protection pledge, which would have required data centers to pay their own fees. Why? Because they just wanted to use it as a political issue rather than actually solving people’s problems,” Husted said.
Husted continued: “We are the party of drilling, baby drilling. They are helping to shut down pipelines, refineries and power plants. We will create the energy supply to meet demand and help drive prices down. Democrats don’t believe in any of that. They believe in command and control of government. They want to take more of your money out of your paycheck and send it to Washington. If you want your freedom and your fortune, then you need to vote Republican.”
If Husted is to succeed in November, Ohio attorney and political strategist Mahek Cooke says the key will be to strongly address the issue of affordability.
“I think Senator Houston needs to close this deal every day by talking about his plan to protect taxpayer data, where he promised to lower costs for every American by saying data centers won’t use our resources, taxpayers won’t pay these bills, data centers will and every Democrat voted against that,” Cooke said, adding that the vote against Husted’s bill shows that Democrats “don’t care about data centers.”
“You know what they’re interested in? The money the data centers give them,” Cooke said, referring to reports from Fox News Digital that Brown took money from companies that operate data centers.
“Jekyll and Hyde, I said this about Sherrod,” Cooke said. “He’s a different man in Ohio. He’s an asshole, I’m disheveled, I don’t know where I am, what day it is? You love me, I love you. And then he comes to Washington and he turns his back on us. So we worry about the data centers. We don’t want to pay their bills. And guess what? John Husted will make sure we never do. He’s pushing for affordability including Sherrod Brown could never have dreamed of while pocketing their bills.”
Brown campaign spokeswoman Lauren Chou countered in a statement to Fox News Digital, accusing Husted of supporting the war in Iran that “drove gasoline and diesel costs to record highs” and saying he “led the charge to bring 226 data centers to Ohio.”
“Jon Husted puts corporations and billionaires first every time, and we all pay for it,” Chou said.
Butler, Clermont and Warren counties form a key reservoir of Republican votes in southwest Ohio, collectively producing hundreds of thousands of votes and some of the largest Republican margins in the state. Their importance was highlighted in 2004, when George W. Bush’s combined margin of victory in the three counties exceeded his statewide margin of victory.
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Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, spoke to Fox News Digital about Republican efforts to keep Ohio red in a tough political landscape. (Fox News Digital/Andrew Mark Miller)
Several Republican candidates on stage Saturday night stressed the importance of these counties, and Art Sauerwein, chairman of the Butler County GOP Executive Committee, told Fox News Digital that the “biggest concern” he hears from Republicans is that if Democrats win the governorship, the Senate seat and contest the House election, “our state is going to be in big trouble.”
“The consciousness-raising that has happened under Democratic leadership has really hurt Ohio in the past and we have our agenda as Republicans to cut taxes, cut spending, eliminate fraud and waste and we want to work on our schools and get the consciousness that is happening in our schools,” Sauerwein said, adding that Republicans are “energized and motivated.”
Billionaire entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy also appears to be neck and neck with his Democratic opponent, former Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton. Sauerwein expressed optimism about this race, calling Ramaswamy “the hardest-working guy I’ve seen.”
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“Almost on the level of President Trump,” Sauerwein said. “But I’m really impressed with how hard he works. He’s been all over the state. His message is spectacular as to what we need in Ohio. If he only delivers half of what he says, Ohio will be in great shape.”
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