Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ rise after President Biden dropped out of the 2024 race shifts the focus in the Ohio Senate race to a comparison between her record and the record of one of the most vulnerable incumbents in a key swing state.
Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who appeared to distance himself from Harris when recently pressed on whether he would campaign with her, has been criticized by his GOP opponent Bernie Moreno for his record of voting with the Biden-Harris administration nearly 100% of the time over the last 3.5 years, which shows the two are in “lockstep,” according to the Moreno campaign.
“Sherrod Brown and Kamala Harris conspired to pass the most liberal agenda in American history. Brown is in complete lockstep with Harris in her radical views and will help usher in the Green New Deal, Medicare for illegals, and tax hikes on the middle class,” Reagan McCarthy, the Moreno campaign’s communications director, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
Brown, who endorsed Harris for president the day after Biden dropped out, served with Harris in the Senate from 2017 to 2021, where the two worked together and complemented each other often as they seemingly developed a close professional relationship.
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Brown voted with Harris 84% of the time on average between the two sessions of Congress they served together as Harris was rated the most “liberal” member of the Senate by GovTrack before that rating was scrubbed from its website following Harris’ entry into the 2024 race.
While working together over those four years, Brown and Harris co-sponsored almost 500 bills and resolutions.
Some of those bills included the Justice in Policing Act of 2020, which limited legal protections for police officers; Senate Bill 2233, which would have nullified an executive order that directs federal agencies to share citizenship information with the Department of Commerce; and the No Ban Act, which would have imposed restrictions on the president’s authority to stop certain immigrants from entering the United States; legislation to set up a committee exploring reparation payments for black Americans, and legislation to ban oil operations on more than 1.5 million acres of federal land.
The two senators also worked together cosponsoring the SECURE Act which would have granted permanent residency to certain illegal immigrants.
“San Francisco socialist Kamala Harris was the most liberal member of the Senate and Sherrod Brown was right by her side on everything from mass amnesty to reparations to eliminating private health insurance,” National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Philip Letsou told Fox News Digital.
“Brown was happy to campaign with Harris in 2018 and even wanted to be her vice president, so it is surprising that he is now refusing to commit to campaigning with her at the top of the ticket.”
Harris has called Brown her “friend” on multiple occasions and adopted his often used phrase “dignity of work” as a motto when she ran for president in 2019, which Brown thanked her for using on social media.
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“And if I didn’t already love Kamala Harris, I did after that discussion, just that what we were talking about dignity of work and Dr. King always said all labor has dignity, no job is menial if it pays an adequate wage and that’s so much of what she’s fought for in her career and what has so mattered to her and so mattered to the people whom she serves,” Brown said about VP Harris after a 2021 roundtable. “So, Sen. Harris, excuse me, Vice President Harris, good to see you.”
The two have been friendly with each other on the campaign trail over the years, including during the 2018 election cycle when Brown took $10,000 from Harris’ Fearless for the People leadership PAC.
“Couldn’t be more grateful to have @KamalaHarris’ support this fall, as we fight to make this a country where everyone – no matter your background – has a fair shot to get ahead,” Brown posted online.
Harris was in attendance for an October canvass kickoff and rally for Brown during his 2018 campaign, which Brown thanked her for on social media.
“My friend and colleague @SherrodBrown is one of the most fearless fighters I know,” Harris posted in 2019. “I know he’ll continue to stand up for the workers of Ohio and the country in the Senate.”
Despite the deep ties between the records of Harris and Brown, some experts believe that her entrance into the race provides a better path for Brown to win re-election in Ohio, a state that Trump comfortably won by eight points in 2020.
“Having Harris take over is a huge benefit to the Sherrod Brown campaign,” University of Akron political science professor Dave Cohen told Spectrum News 1.
“He really needs to drive his base out to the polls. And, frankly, Democrats were not enthusiastic about, Biden as the nominee. Kamala Harris, you know, there’s this newfound enthusiasm,” Cohen said. “I firmly believe that Sherrod Brown is going to campaign together with Kamala Harris.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Brown campaign spokesperson Eliza Green did not say whether Brown would campaign for Harris but said, “Sherrod works for Ohio, which is why he’s stood up to his own party to block bad trade deals and worked with Republicans to make sure Border Patrol agents and law enforcement officers have the resources they need.”
“Bernie Moreno is trying to distract Ohioans from his record, shredding evidence he was legally required to keep, to get out of paying his employees and opposing the strongest border security bill in decades.”
The campaign also pointed to instances of Brown bucking the policies of the Biden administration, including opposing the Green New Deal, “Medicare-for-all,” working to fix energy regulations, supporting tariffs on China, and supporting “the most conservative border bill in decades.”
