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Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

U.S. Senator (since January 2007)

(Richard A. Lipski/TWP)

Why He Matters

Brown, Ohio's junior senator, has held elected office for more than half his life. He won his first office, in Ohio's state House of Representatives, the same year he graduated from college. Since then, Brown has been Ohio's secretary of state, a member of the U.S. House for 14 years and now a senator.

In Congress, the affable and indefatigable Brown carved a niche for himself by attacking free trade agreements such as NAFTA and CAFTA, pushing for ever-expanded health care, and opposing the Iraq war from the start. He is considered one of the Senate's populist progressives.

More on: Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

At a Glance
Path to Power
The Issues
The Network
Additional Resources

Background

At a Glance

Career History: U.S. Representative (1992 to 2006); Ohio Secretary of State (1982 to 1990); Ohio House of Representatives (1974 to 1982)
Birthday: Nov. 9, 1952
Hometown: Mansfield, Ohio
Alma Mater: Yale University, B.A., 1974; Ohio State University, M.A., 1979, 1981
Spouse: Connie Schultz
Religion: Lutheran
DC Office: D455 Russell Senate Office Bldg.Washington, DC 20510(202) 224-2315
State Offices: 1301 East Ninth St., Ste. 1710, Cleveland, Ohio 44114(216) 522-7272; 425 Walnut Street, Ste. 2310Cincinnati, Ohio 45202(513) 684-1021; 200 N High St. Room 614Columbus, Ohio 43215, (614) 469-2083;205 West 20th St. Ste. M280Lorain, Ohio 44052(440) 242-4100

Path to Power

Brown was born on Nov. 9, 1952, in Mansfield, Ohio, the youngest of three sons of a Republican physician father and a politically-active mother. He took to politics as a teenager. For the first Earth Day, Brown and some friends organized a march in their town. "We did this really cool march and we had a really big crowd," Brown recalls. "But we get down to the square and none of us had thought about what you do when you get down there. We didn't have any speakers, and it was like, 'Oh, [expletive].' So we just disbanded."

The Eagle Scout graduated from Yale in 1974 with a degree in Russian studies and was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives later that year after knocking on 20,000 doors. At the time, he was the youngest state legislator in Ohio's history. Brown went on to earn masters' degrees from Ohio State University in education and public administration. In 1982, at age 29, Brown won the first of his two terms as Ohio's secretary of state, where he focused on voter registration efforts, including getting McDonald's to print voter registration forms on its tray liners. He lost his bid for a third term in 1990 to future Gov. Bob Taft (R).

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U.S. House

Brown won the open U.S. House seat from Ohio's 13th Congressional District in 1992 against Republican millionaire Margaret Mueller. Campaigning against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and for universal health care, Brown earned labor support and won by almost 20 points.

Brown served in the House for the next 14 years, and made a name for himself with fights against NAFTA, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), and American trade relations with China. He hasn't faced a tough reelection bid since the year of the Republican takeover in 1994, when he beat a Republican and two independents with 49 percent of the vote.

Brown voted against the resolution allowing the president to use force in Iraq and co-sponsored legislation that would have required troop withdrawals as early as 2006. Brown often read letters from anti-war constituents on the House floor.

In 2005 Brown announced that he would not run for governor of Ohio, a long-time flirtation. That same year, he first said he would not challenge incumbent Republican Sen. Mike DeWine. Months later he changed his mind. The other key Democratic candidate, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, eventually dropped out and accused Brown of reneging on a promised endorsement. The two later reconciled.

Brown won the primary easily and positioned himself as a populist progressive. DeWine was damaged by the waning popularity of President George W. Bush, scandals in the state Republican party, and his own votes to tighten gun restrictions. Carrying the urban centers and the coal and steel counties, Brown won 56 to 44 percent, despite spending $10.5 million to DeWine's $14 million.

In the Senate, Brown sits on five committees: Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry; Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs; Select Committee on Ethics; Health, Education, Labor & Pensions; and Veterans' Affairs.

Brown married Pulitzer Prize-winning Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist Connie Schultz in 2004. His first marriage ended in divorce in 1987. He has two adult children and two adult stepchildren.

He is the author of "Myths of Free Trade: Why American Trade Policy Has Failed" and "Congress from the Inside: Observations from the Majority and the Minority."

The Issues

Brown voted with the majority of Democrats 96.4 percent of the time in the 110th Congress.

The Economy

Brown voted for President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package in February 2009, calling it "a significant jumpstart that our economy needs." It passed the Senate 60 to 38.

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The Network

Brown stayed neutral throughout the 2008 presidential primaries and endorsed Barack Obama in June 2008. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) had won Ohio's Democratic primary.

His Senate campaign manager in 2006 was John Ryan, the executive secretary of the Cleveland AFL-CIO and a recognized labor leader in Ohio.

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Additional Resources