‘Moderate’ Democrat Ohio Senate Candidate Sherrod Brown Too Cozy With Anti-Cop Left, Law Enforcement Says
Former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown’s apparent shift in messaging to the left on policing could come back to haunt his bid to return to Congress’ upper chamber in November, state law enforcement officials told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Brown served in the Senate for three terms before losing re-election in 2024, but he is trying to win his state’s other House seat by unseating Republican Sen. Jon Husted. Husted was appointed by Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine to replace Vice President-elect J.D. Vance in January 2025. Ohio law enforcement officials have said that while Brown may present himself as a moderate, his recent comments could indicate he is seeking support from Democrats’ far left, particularly on the issue of crime. (RELATED: GOP senator’s campaign gets massive cash infusion as high-stakes race heats up)
“Law and order should be at the forefront of everyone’s minds in this election. It’s what drives society. It’s what makes people feel safe. It’s something that affects everyone,” Eric Delbert, a sergeant for 32 years in a central Ohio suburb, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Delbert claimed that while Brown’s centrist, pro-worker persona “sounded good initially,” the Democrat “failed in law enforcement” in the years following the Black Lives Matter riots of summer 2020.
The sergeant pointed to an April 2021 post that Brown posted on Twitter claiming that Columbus police “shot and killed a sixteen year old girl.” However, at the time Brown sent the message, publicly released body camera footage showed the girl, Ma’Khia Bryant, apparently lunging at two women with a knife and resisting multiple calls to “get off,” prompting Columbus police officer Nicholas Reardon to shoot her.
Additionally, the senator’s tweet linked to a Columbus Dispatch article showing a body camera still image of Bryant brandishing a knife at one of the women, who was against the hood of a car.
A Brown campaign spokesperson told DCNF, “Sherrod is proud to support Ohio’s law enforcement and will always fight to ensure Ohio’s law enforcement officers have the resources and benefits they deserve and have earned.” »
As the verdict was being read in the Derek Chauvin trial, Columbus police shot and killed a sixteen-year-old girl.
Her name was Ma’Khia Bryant. She should be alive right now. #MaKhiaBryanthttps://t.co/8SBdK4mxlE
– Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) April 21, 2021
Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Capital City Lodge #9 President Brian Steel told the DCNF that his organization’s members “are very upset that [Brown] would make this tweet, especially without knowing the facts and blaming the police officer.
The Columbus-based police chief noted that Brown “has been asked to answer this question several times,” adding “we never expect a formal apology.”
“I think he knows that maybe it was caught in the moment. And the important thing is that since then he hasn’t done anything like that,” Steel added.
The Ohio FOP did not endorse a candidate in the 2024 Ohio Senate race, after supporting Brown during his successful 2012 re-election bid.
A spokesperson for the state FOP attributed the Order’s lack of support in this election to Brown’s message, telling the New York Post at the time: “It came down to one tweet. There was a shooting here, and Sherrod, instead of taking the time to listen to us, talk to us, and understand the situation, did what all these people do now and made a call.”
Likewise, the Ohio FOP has yet to endorse a candidate in the 2026 Senate contest.
Senate Democrats, including Senator (LR) Tim Kaine (D-VA), Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), kneel as they participate in a moment of silence in honor of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement in Emancipation Hall of the United States Capitol on June 4, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)
“He [Brown] could have said, in these circumstances, “Hey, look, this is a tragic event. You have to let it happen and let the investigation unfold,” Delbert told the DCNF. “But no, he got on the bandwagon with a lot of these politicians, and he made some really hurtful statements from a politician of his nature towards these officers.” (RELATED: Democratic senator’s campaign manager touts TikTok strategy after boss votes to ban it)
“It’s crazy how anyone, regardless of their political affiliation, regardless of their preconceived notion of law enforcement, could watch that video and say, ‘Oh, my God, that officer just saved someone’s life,'” the sergeant added, referring to the body camera footage of the incident. “It was another black person’s life.”
Delbert also said he noticed Brown changed his tone toward police around the time of George Floyd’s death in May 2020. In December, the senator posted a similar tweet about Casey Goodson Jr., a Black man fatally shot by an Ohio police officer. The officer’s lawyer contends that Goodson pointed a gun at his client and failed to drop it when asked to do so.
Brown notably reacted to Floyd’s death by kneeling on the floor of the Capitol with several fellow Democrats. He also gave a speech on the Senate floor about “systems of oppression affecting our Black and Brown communities.”
Steel also told the DCNF that the “overwhelming majority” of Ohio residents “support their law enforcement.”
“And I think a lot of public officials turned their backs on us in 2020 as a result of the civil unrest. And I think they saw how wrong it was, and a lot of them really took a hit on the chin,” he added. “So it’s almost like the Democratic Party is coming back, trying to regain our support and our trust.”
It was a pleasure to meet with the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police this morning. http://t.co/FQFzpINzq3 pic.twitter.com/OYfNWm9znd
– Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) February 10, 2015
FOP National President Patrick Yoes honored Brown with an award at the Ohio FOP annual conference in Cincinnati in July 2025 – the month before Brown enters the 2026 Senate race against Husted. Yoes singled out Brown for co-sponsoring the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act, which removed some limits on Social Security benefits for law enforcement officers.
“As a union leader, we try to explain to my members that, look, when a relationship is broken, it’s going to take some time to repair those relationships,” Steel told DCNF. He also noted that his order has also had frustrations with the GOP in the past, including in 2011, when Republicans in the state Legislature passed and then the governor. John Kasich signed Senate Bill 5. The law sought to suppress the collective bargaining rights of state public employees, including police officers.
“My members are mostly right-wing conservatives, but we have very Democratic needs, like the unions, so we’re kind of like a little cut off from the rest, almost – the police and fire unions from the rest.”
Ottawa County Sheriff Steve Levorchick told DCNF that Husted, who has been in the upper house for just over a year, “championed bills that set the course for law enforcement in the future” as well as bills that “ensured the safety and security of law enforcement to return home to their families.”
The incumbent Republican “is not just submitting a bill or joining in on a bill that he thinks will help law enforcement,” the sheriff added, emphasizing the word “he.” “Before he [Husted] does all of that, he talks to us in law enforcement and asks our opinions, and he makes sure that he’s doing what’s right for law enforcement as a whole. And he does it by contacting us, by talking to us, by meeting us.
U.S. Senator Jon Husted (R-OH), as his wife Tina Husted looks on, is ceremonially sworn in by Vice President JD Vance in the Old Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol January 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Husted “makes sure he always does what’s best for us, not what he thinks is best, but really what’s best,” Levorchick continued.
The sheriff serves a small lakefront county of 40,000 residents that voted for President Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024, but also supported Democrat Barack Obama for president in 2008 and 2012. Brown carried the county, a popular vacation destination, during his three successful Senate bids. However, he lost to now-Republican Senator Bernie Moreno in the 2024 election cycle.
“So everyone comes here to the lake during the summer for getaways…and even being a moderate-sized agency, a moderate-sized community, we are very involved in these conversations just because of our relationships with our senators, both Senator Husted and Senator Moreno,” Levorchick told DCNF. “They include both of us. One thing I will say is that Senator Husted does not hesitate to contact me if he has a thought, question or concern regarding law enforcement and law enforcement representation in the United States Senate.”
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report calls the race between Brown and Husted a “toss-up.” If Democrats fail to flip the Ohio seat in November, the party’s path to regaining control of the upper chamber will become much more difficult. Brown, who was first elected to public office in 1975 and has already won three Senate elections in the red-leaning state, was widely considered a star Democratic recruit when he entered the race.
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