Even after enduring a brutal election defeat, former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) remains in denial. He spent this Sunday blaming his loss on everything else but his own inability to resonate with voters. According to him, his failure to secure reelection was due to ‘dishonest’ campaigns and ‘negative’ advertisements spearheaded by Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno (R-OH).
Brown’s defeat by Moreno in Ohio wasn’t insignificant either. He spiraled downwards by over three full percentage points, or around 200,000 votes, to lose 50.2% to his 46.4% score. Brown’s inability to secure a position he’d managed to hold since 2007 exposes his disconnectedness with the voters he claimed to serve.
Despite clearly losing, Brown attempted to paint a picture of unfazed expectation. Pulling from the magical well of ‘enthusiasm’ he somehow thought existed from voters and at his rallies, Brown felt certain of his win. Unfortunately for him, things turned out differently.
Like a puppet on strings, he pointed the blame for his loss squarely onto Vice President Kamala Harris. Brown’s rhetoric echoes a now familiar trend among losing Democrats – if all else fails, blame Harris. To quote Brown’s poor attempt at reasoning, ‘And when the leader of your ticket runs 12 points behind almost, you can’t overcome that.’
In an act of desperation, Brown concurred with the rumor that Trump had managed to influence his Senate race. Seizing every opportunity to blame others, he emphasized the funding and ‘distasteful negative ads’ prevalent during the electoral cycle. His divisive discourse further alienates voters who are seeking solutions rather than blame games.
His contrived explanation of ‘a lot of things’ making a difference in his race raises an eyebrow. He quickly diverts the blame to money, Trump, and ‘nasty negative ads’. To hear Brown tell it, the Republicans engaged in nothing else but falsities in their race.
Brown’s account of the elections paints a desperate picture: ‘I guess that’s how you win a race. You lie, and you spend a lot of money.’ However, his narrative fails to acknowledge that an election is won by securing the trust of the voters–something which he clearly failed to do.
Harris’s campaign, being the poorly managed operation that it was, faced widespread criticism for its wasteful spendings. Between July 22 to November 5, Harris and her teams frivolously spent over $654 million, outdoing even Trump’s $378 million expenditure during the same period.
Not only did Harris waste an astronomical amount of donor money on advertisements, her campaign also made the reckless decision to freeze payments to its senior staffers. This decision exhibits a clear lack of leadership and financial responsibility, typical of the way she has run her office from day one.
Refusing to acknowledge the strength of his opponent’s campaign, Brown dismissively commented on the notion of Moreno running a ‘clean’ race. In accordance with his previously noted habit of laying blame, he pointed towards the advertisements aired during the campaign as evidence of foul play.
Brown’s accusations of ‘lies’ in winning campaign ads simply reek of a sore loser. Instead of congratulating the Republicans for their victorious outing, Brown chooses to sulk and blame everyone else but himself for his poor performance.
This election cycle, the former blue seat’s flip to red was a clear win for the Republicans. The victory not only cemented their control over the Senate but also marked the first time they had the majority in almost four years.
For those observing, the lesson of the Ohio Senate race is clear. No amount of deflection, blame, or ineffective leadership can substitute for tangible results and responsible governance. Despite Brown and Harris’s narratives, the election result was not a consequence of lies or deceit, but rather, of the people’s voice.