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Candidate record

Sherrod Brown

Former U.S. senator for Ohio (2007 to 2025) and U.S. representative (1993 to 2007); holds no office now. Campaign affiliation: Democratic.

Voter guide

Background, stated goals, record, and money

Background comes from official records, and from the campaign's own biography where the bullet says so; goals are summarized from the campaign's own platform and stay attributed; the record lines are official actions with the government source attached; money is shown as filed, with the filing window and the reconciliation in the note under the table, and is not evidence of why any position was taken.

Sherrod Brown

Background

  • Represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate from 2007 to 2025 and in the House from 1993 to 2007; Congress.gov records both. Congress.gov
  • His campaign says he was born and raised in Mansfield and lives in Columbus with his wife, the columnist Connie Schultz. Friends of Sherrod Brown
  • Holds no office now; this race is for the rest of a Senate term ending January 3, 2029. Congress.gov, Cuyahoga County Board of Elections

What they say they want to do

What the official record shows

Campaign money from other committees, by type

Transfers and contributions from joint fundraising committees 12 committees$6,300,062
Leadership PACs 47 committees$396,500
Labor Organization PACs 30 committees$205,000
PAC - Qualified 14 committees$100,500
Membership Organization PACs 8 committees$38,626
Hybrid PAC (with Non-Contribution Account) - Qualified 7 committees$36,500
Corporation PACs 5 committees$22,000
Senate 5 committees$18,000
Committees the FEC records no type for 18 committees$10,896
PAC - Nonqualified 1 committee$10,000
Corporation w/o capital stock PACs 2 committees$10,000
Trade Association PACs 2 committees$7,500
House 2 committees$3,000
Party - Qualified 1 committee$2,500
Party committees 1 committee$200

Source: Federal Election Commission

Receipts from committees on lines 11B, 11C and 12 of his principal committee's filings for the 2025-2026 cycle through June 30, 2026, grouped by the FEC's recorded type of the contributing committee. Line 11B, party committees: one row totalling $200.00; Line 11C, other political committees: 222 rows totalling $861,022.72, leaving out 6 memo entries, which restate money counted elsewhere; Line 12, transfers from authorized committees: 27 rows totalling $6,300,061.93, leaving out 5,980 memo entries, which restate money counted elsewhere. The rows sum to $7,161,284.65. Each line's itemized sum matches the committee's own summary total for that line. Donations individuals made through ActBlue or WinRed are individual contributions and are not in the table, and neither is any other individual contribution. The rows sum to 7,161,284.65 dollars.

Words and record

Where statements meet the record

Each card is labeled narrowly, by rule, and states its own limit.

Sherrod Brown

Social Security: the Fairness Act

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign says that because of him, more than two million former teachers, bus drivers, police officers, firefighters and other workers now receive their full Social Security payments.

“because of Sherrod Brown, over 2 million former teachers, bus drivers, police officers, firefighters, and other workers are now receiving their full Social Security payments”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

He introduced the Social Security Fairness Act in five Congresses running: S. 1651 in 2015, S. 915 in 2017, S. 521 in 2019, S. 1302 in 2021 and S. 597 in 2023. The version enacted was the House bill of the same name, H.R. 82, sponsored by Representative Garret Graves; its operative sections, repealing the two provisions and setting the date the repeal applies from, are word for word those of his S. 597. In the Senate sitting of December 20, 2024, which ran into December 21, he voted Yea on the motion to waive the budget point of order raised against it, which carried 66 to 30 (Roll Call 337), and Yea on passage, which carried 76 to 20 (Roll Call 338). It became Public Law 118-273 on January 5, 2025, repealing the Government Pension Offset and the Windfall Elimination Provision. The Social Security Administration said on July 10, 2025 that when the law passed, about 2.8 million current beneficiaries had benefits reduced by the two provisions.

Sources: Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Social Security Administration

Limit: The record shows him as the Senate sponsor of this measure across five Congresses and voting for it at both Senate votes that carried it. The law was enacted under the House bill's number with his bill's operative text; this desk treats a bill enacted under its companion's number as enacted, for every candidate. "Because of Sherrod Brown" is a claim about cause, which no roll call settles on its own: the House bill had its own sponsor, and 76 senators voted for it. SSA's count of about 2.8 million backs "over 2 million", though it counts people whose benefits were cut, not people now paid in full. Its figure of over 3.1 million counts payments, not people.

Sherrod Brown

Insulin and drug prices for seniors

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign says he successfully fought to cap the cost of insulin and to reduce the price of other prescription drugs for Ohio seniors.

“Brown successfully fought to cap the cost of insulin and reduce the price of other prescription drugs for Ohio seniors”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

He voted Yea on Senate passage of H.R. 5376, the Inflation Reduction Act, in the sitting of August 6, 2022, which ran into August 7; the Senate divided 50 to 50 and the Vice President's vote carried it (Roll Call 325). It became Public Law 117-169. Section 11406 sets cost-sharing for insulin under Medicare Part D, and section 11001 begins Medicare negotiation of prices for certain high-priced drugs. In the same sitting he voted Yea to keep a wider $35 insulin cap, which Senator Murray said would help "not just seniors but workers and students"; it got 57 votes, short of the 60 needed, and the language was struck (Roll Call 314). In 2022 he also cosponsored Senator Raphael Warnock's Affordable Insulin Now Act, S. 3700, which would have limited what patients pay for insulin in private health plans as well as Medicare; it did not pass.

Sources: Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov

Limit: The cap that became law applies to Medicare, which is what "for Ohio seniors" says; the wider cap he also voted for failed. The bill passed on an evenly divided vote, so each of the fifty votes for it was needed. What a senator did beyond voting, which "fought" implies, is not something a roll call records.

Sherrod Brown

Burn pits: veterans exposed to toxic smoke

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign says that when veterans exposed to toxic burn pits were being turned away by the VA, he worked with Republicans to get them the care they deserved.

“Sherrod worked with Republicans to get them the care they deserved.”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

In April 2021 he introduced S. 1188, the SFC Heath Robinson Burn Pit Transparency Act, with Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, a Republican, as its original cosponsor; he had first filed it with Portman in June 2020, as S. 3885. It did not pass on its own. Its registry provisions, that a VA medical professional must tell a veteran about the burn pit registry when the veteran seeks treatment related to exposure, and that registry numbers be published by state and congressional district, appear almost word for word in section 808(b) of Public Law 117-168, the Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022. In February 2022 he was one of the original cosponsors, nine of them Republicans, of Senator Jon Tester's Health Care for Burn Pit Veterans Act, S. 3541, which passed the Senate by voice vote on February 16, 2022. Its sections extending VA health-care eligibility for combat veterans from five to ten years after discharge, and adding a toxic-exposure screening to VA health care, are in the same law almost word for word, as sections 111 and 603. In 2019 he was an original cosponsor, with Republicans including Dan Sullivan and Jerry Moran, of the Burn Pits Accountability Act, S. 191, whose requirement that military health assessments ask about burn pit exposure became section 704 of the defense authorization act for fiscal year 2020. He voted Yea on Senate passage of H.R. 3967 on June 16, 2022 (Roll Call 230, 84 to 14) and Yea on the final Senate vote on S. 3373 on August 2, 2022 (Roll Call 280, 86 to 11). It was signed on August 10, 2022.

Sources: Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, U.S. Government Publishing Office, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office

Limit: The record shows him on three bipartisan burn pit bills whose text became law, one his own, and voting for the law that extended care. The care provisions came from a bill led by another senator that he cosponsored with Republicans; a cosponsorship shows he signed on, not what else he did. "Get them the care they deserved" describes the law as a whole, which passed the Senate 86 to 11.

Sherrod Brown

Pensions: the Butch Lewis Act and the rescue plan

Matches stated direction

What they say

His campaign says that when Wall Street banks gambled away workers' pensions, he led the charge to make sure more than 100,000 Ohioans got the retirement they were owed.

“Sherrod led the charge to make sure over 100,000 Ohioans got the retirement they were owed.”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

He introduced the Butch Lewis Act three times: S. 2147 in 2017, S. 2254 in 2019 and S. 547, the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Plan Relief Act, on March 2, 2021. None passed under its own number. In 2018 he co-chaired, with Senator Orrin Hatch, Congress's joint select committee on the solvency of multiemployer pension plans. He voted Yea on Senate passage of H.R. 1319, the American Rescue Plan Act, in the sitting of March 5, 2021, which ran into March 6 (Roll Call 110, 50 to 49); it became Public Law 117-2 on March 11, 2021. Three sections of S. 547 are in that law's pension provisions almost word for word and under the same headings: a temporary delay of critical and declining status (section 9701), longer funding improvement and rehabilitation periods (section 9702) and adjusted funding standard account rules (section 9703). His bill's central relief paid for partitions of troubled plans from a new eighth fund under section 4005 of ERISA; section 9704 sets up that eighth fund in the same words but pays special financial assistance to plans directly, rather than through partitions. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's list of approved plans, updated September 18, 2026, has 17 plans located in Ohio, with 26,348 participants between them.

Sources: Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Limit: Three Congresses of sponsorship, a vote for the law that funded troubled pension plans, and his own bill's text in that law go the way the claim does; the law passed 50 to 49. What holds the label to the claim's direction is the number, over 100,000 Ohioans. PBGC's list counts where plans are based, not where members live, so it leaves out Ohioans in plans based elsewhere, such as Central States in Chicago. It neither proves nor disproves the number.

Sherrod Brown

Trade deals: his votes

Matches stated direction

What they say

His campaign says he has always opposed unfair trade deals that hurt Ohio workers.

“he’s always opposed unfair trade deals that hurt Ohio workers”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

On the nineteen votes read here, on trade agreements, fast-track negotiating authority and permanent normal trade relations, he voted against seventeen and for two. Trade agreements, in the House: No on the implementing bills for NAFTA on November 17, 1993 (Roll Call 575, passed 234 to 200), the Uruguay Round in 1994, Chile and Singapore in 2003, Australia and Morocco in 2004, the Central America agreement on July 28, 2005 (Roll Call 443, passed 217 to 215), Bahrain in 2005 and Oman in 2006. In the Senate: Nay on Peru in 2007 and on Korea, Panama and Colombia in 2011, and Yea on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement Implementation Act, which replaced NAFTA, on January 16, 2020 (Roll Call 14, 89 to 10). Fast-track authority: No on the Trade Act of 2002, which carried it, and Nay on Trade Promotion Authority on June 24, 2015 (Senate Roll Call 219, agreed to 60 to 38). Permanent normal trade relations: No for China on May 24, 2000 (House Roll Call 228, passed 237 to 197) and for Vietnam in 2006 (House Roll Call 519, a motion to pass it that failed), and Yea for Russia and Moldova in 2012 (Senate Roll Call 223, 92 to 4).

Sources: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Government Publishing Office

Limit: "Unfair" is the campaign's word, and no roll call can say which agreements were unfair. His two votes for were the agreement that replaced the NAFTA he had voted against, and normal trade relations for Russia and Moldova. These nineteen are the passage votes this desk read in those three groups, not every trade vote of a thirty-two-year congressional career; the 2001 agreement with Jordan passed both chambers by voice vote, so it has no recorded vote. Vietnam's trade status became law later that year inside a tax bill, H.R. 6111. He voted for that bill before the trade text was added, then against the rule that added it and against the trade bill itself (House Roll Calls 533, 536 and 539).

Sherrod Brown

Congressional stock trading

Matches stated direction

What they say

His campaign says no member of Congress, and no member's spouse, should be able to trade stocks, and that members should not be able to become lobbyists after leaving office.

“No one – NO ONE – who serves in Congress, or their spouse, should be able to trade stocks.”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown, Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

In the Senate he was an original cosponsor of the ETHICS Act, S. 1171, in 2023, which would have barred members of Congress and their spouses and dependent children from trading or owning stocks; it was placed on the Senate calendar and never voted on. He cosponsored Senator Jeff Merkley's Ban Conflicted Trading Act in three Congresses: S. 3718 in 2018, S. 1393 in 2019 and S. 564 in 2021. None passed. Earlier he cosponsored the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, S. 1903, in 2011, and on February 2, 2012 voted Yea when the Senate passed the STOCK Act, S. 2038, 96 to 3 (Roll Call 14); it became Public Law 112-105 on April 4, 2012. That law says members of Congress are not exempt from the insider-trading laws and requires them to report their trades; it does not ban trading.

Sources: Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congress.gov, Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office, Congress.gov

Limit: Cosponsoring is not enacting, and none of the bills that would ban trading passed. The one law he voted for, the STOCK Act, is about insider trading and disclosure, which goes the way of his position without being the ban he now calls for. These answer the stock-trading half of the position; this desk did not search his record on the lobbying ban.

Sherrod Brown

Fundraising: the second quarter of 2026

Matches stated record claim

What they say

His campaign says he raised $14.1 million for his campaign committee in the second quarter of 2026, within a total of over $17.1 million that also counts $3 million raised for affiliated fundraising committees.

“including $14.1 million to the Friends of Sherrod Brown campaign committee and $3 million to affiliated fundraising committees”

Source: Friends of Sherrod Brown

What the record shows ·

His committee's two reports for April 1 to June 30, 2026 show receipts of $1,508,560.39 for April 1 to 15 and $12,586,265.62 for April 16 to June 30, a total of $14,094,826.01. The Ohio Grassroots Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee whose members are his campaign committee, the Ohio Democratic Party, his leadership PAC and the DSCC, reported $3,022,347.64 in receipts for the quarter. Together that is $17,117,173.65.

Sources: Federal Election Commission, Federal Election Commission, Federal Election Commission, Federal Election Commission

Limit: The fund passed $1,936,000 to his campaign committee in the quarter, so that money is in both figures; counted once, his committees raised about $15.18 million. The fund's name does not include his; its registration lists his committee as a member. No filing shows how the fund splits money among its members.

Issues in this record

Follow the evidence by issue.

Electricity bills and data centersHealth insurance and drug costsCongressional stock trading, lobbying and money in politicsSocial Security and pensionsTaxes and the 2025 tax lawTrade and tariffsElections and voting

Evidence timeline

Dated records, with sources attached.

  1. race event

    Second-quarter reports filed

    The four principal campaign committees reported on the quarter ending June 30: Redpath's on July 11, and Brown's, Husted's and Levy's on July 15.

    Federal Election Commission Federal Election Commission Federal Election Commission Federal Election Commission

  2. finance

    FEC filing snapshot

    July Quarterly 2026, principal campaign committee FRIENDS OF SHERROD BROWN.

    Federal Election Commission

  3. race event

    Greg Levy files

    The same list records Greg Levy as filing on May 5, 2026, with a nonpartisan designation. All four were valid when the list was read on September 23, 2026; three write-in candidates filed on August 24.

    Cuyahoga County Board of Elections

  4. race event

    Three candidates file

    Cuyahoga County's candidate list records Sherrod Brown, Jon Husted and William B. Redpath as filing for the United States Senate seat on February 4, 2026, for the unexpired term ending January 3, 2029.

    Cuyahoga County Board of Elections

  5. race event

    The 2025 tax and spending law is enacted

    H.R. 1 of the 119th Congress became Public Law 119-21. Husted voted Yea on Senate passage; Brown had left the Senate in January.

    U.S. Government Publishing Office Congressional Record, U.S. Government Publishing Office

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