How Sherrod Brown is navigating Harris’ candidacy in GOP-leaning Ohio with Senate control at stake

Brooklyn, Ohio (CNN) — For more on the high-stakes battle for control of the Senate, watch “Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju” on Sunday at 8 a.m. ET and 11 a.m. ET.

Sen. Sherrod Brown doesn’t plan to campaign with Vice President Kamala Harris.

He plans to skip the Democratic National Convention. And the Democratic senator isn’t going to defend Harris’ record — or offer praise to President Joe Biden or to Harris over their handling of the U.S.-Mexico border.

Instead, Brown — now embroiled in a high-stakes reelection battle central to the fight for the next Senate majority — is making this calculation: finding a way to disqualify his opponent, Bernie Moreno, in the eyes of GOP-leaning voters and independents. And it starts with attacking Moreno’s character, past business practices and position on abortion — all as he tries to avoid being tied to the top of his ticket.

“It’s not left or right. It’s not who you vote for, for president,” Brown told CNN at a textile company just outside of Cleveland. “It’s who stands up for people in the state.”

For Brown to win, he’ll have to defy a trend that has sunk nearly every Senate candidate who has tried to convince voters to split their tickets in the Donald Trump era. Just one candidate in the 69 Senate races in 2016 and 2020 won when their state voted for a presidential candidate of the opposite party.

With Trump the heavy favorite to win Ohio, a state he carried by eight points in 2020, Brown will need to court a sizable chunk of Trump voters — a complicated task in a polarized environment, especially given the withering criticism he’s leveled at the former president in the past and as Moreno simply tries to ride Trump’s coattails.

Brown, 71, who has been in public life since 1975, is aiming to keep the race focused squarely on Moreno as he bets his own populist-tinged messaging and blue-collar brand in the Rust Belt state could appeal to enough swing voters — as long as he’s not lumped into the unpopular aspects of the Biden-Harris administration.

“I’ve got my own schedule,” Brown said when asked if he would campaign with Harris. “She’s got her own schedule. I will focus on my race. My strategy is perhaps different from hers … talking about the differences on abortion rights and on the minimum wage between Bernie Moreno and me and how I fight every day for the dignity of work.”

Ohio is a must-win for Democrats if they want to cling to their razor-thin Senate majority. They already are almost certain to lose in West Virginia, and in the other red state they’re defending  — Montana — Democratic Sen. Jon Tester is in a cliffhanger race against Republican challenger Tim Sheehy. Plus, Democrats are defending six other heavily contested states, including through several purple states, all as they have only two pickup opportunities — Texas and Florida — which are considered long shots.

Democrats say they are prepared to spend big to go after the characters of the GOP challengers.

“We’ll definitely be coming out against those opponents,” said Sen. Gary Peters, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “They are seriously flawed.”

But the GOP is banking the national environment will be enough to doom Democrats in Republican-heavy states.

“He doesn’t want to have Kamala Harris showing up in Ohio,” Montana Sen. Steve Daines, who chairs the Senate GOP campaign committee, said of Brown. “I’m happy to pay for her plane ticket as well to come into Ohio.”

In an interview with CNN at the state fair in Columbus, Moreno said Harris’ nomination will be a boon to his campaign.

“Oh, it helps me tremendously,” Moreno said of Harris at the top of the ticket. “So maybe Scranton Joe had a little bit of credibility here in Ohio. San Francisco Kamala absolutely does not.”

And while Moreno spoke at the Republican convention as he hopes to ride Trump’s coattails, Brown plans to skip his party’s convention in Chicago later this month.

“I often skip conventions,” Brown said.

Asked if he could defend Harris’ record, Brown said: “My job is to fight for Ohio workers. You can talk about the presidential race. That’s your job. … I know that what will matter is people vote for me because I stand up for workers and will continue to fight for workers.”

Democrats outpace GOP early on Ohio TV

To hang on to the seat, Brown and his Democratic allies have been pummeling the airwaves, spending $48.4 million in ads since March — compared with about $29.5 million on the GOP side. Moreno’s campaign itself has spent less than $1 million in ads in that timeframe, compared with a whopping $25 million by the Brown campaign.

In the interview, Moreno acknowledged Brown seemed to have a narrow lead, but he argued the ads have barely changed the dynamics of the race. Republicans believe the onslaught of ads coming after Labor Day — in large part attacking Brown over immigration — will turn the race in Moreno’s direction. Both campaigns and outside groups have reserved roughly $91 million each between August and through Election Day.

“He loves to waste money,” Moreno said of Brown. “We’re going to spend the right amount of resources at the right time, which is when people are really paying attention.”

Yet Brown sees it differently. His campaign has launched a barrage of attack ads over Moreno’s legal issues stemming from his business. Moreno was ordered by a jury in 2023 to pay two employees more than $400,000 for overtime they say they earned, and he was reprimanded by a judge for shredding documents that could have been reviewed at trial — issues Brown is now seizing on. Moreno settled 14 other cases for undisclosed amounts before jumping into the race last year.

“And that’s what this election is going to be about,” Brown said. “It’s going to be making the contrast with my fight for dignity of work, and my opponent’s background where he had to pay $400,000 in back wages to his employees.”

In the interview, Moreno said he “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

“I’m extraordinarily proud of the company I built. I started with nothing to buy that little dealership I put every cent that I had in my life, to buy one tiny little dealership risked it all and created a billion-dollar company in the retail automotive business,” Moreno said.  “I’m not going to attack (Brown) personally because I don’t believe in the politics of personal destruction. I’m going to attack his policies.”

Asked if he had done anything wrong, given that he was ordered by a jury to pay a sizable sum to his former employees, Moreno said: “Well, that’s what that jury decided. I disagree with the verdict. We paid it. I disagree with it.”

Brown has been faced with his own barrage of GOP attacks, particularly over immigration.

He has tried to rebut those attacks in part by pointing to Republicans’ vote to kill a bipartisan border security bill he backed, plus legislation he’s pursued dealing with the spread of fentanyl. Yet Republicans are hoping voters’ deep disapproval of the Biden administration’s handling of the border – plus votes to provide legal status to undocumented immigrants – will sink down-ticket candidates like Brown.

Asked if he thought Biden and Harris were doing a good job at the border, Brown said:  “I think presidents of both parties have failed at the border. That’s why we had our bipartisan bill that my opponent opposed that would have fixed a lot of the border problems.”

Meanwhile, Democrats are preparing for the fall campaign with an onslaught of attacks on Moreno’s support for restricting abortion at 15 weeks.

Moreno told CNN he’d vote for “common-sense restrictions” on abortions after 15 weeks, even though he said he doesn’t support a total ban.

“What I say is that after 15 weeks is aspirationally something we can get to as a country at some point,” Moreno said, while attacking Brown’s opposition to restrictions.

“Sherrod Brown makes this an issue of me not caring about women,” Moreno said. “Look at him.”

‘Legitimate president?’

Moreno, 57, who was born in Colombia and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of 5 before becoming a citizen at 18, emerged from a crowded March primary thanks in large part to Trump’s endorsement. And he has aligned himself closely with Trump and fellow Ohioan JD Vance, the party’s vice presidential nominee, who Moreno called a “huge plus” to have on the ticket.

“People want to vote for the hometown guy,” Moreno said, predicting a boost in turnout.

Moreno has been so aligned with Trump, he even cut an ad in 2022 — when he lost a Senate bid — saying Trump was “right” that the election was “stolen,” accusing big technology companies of rigging the election.

Asked twice if he believed Biden was legitimately elected, Moreno wouldn’t say.

“He’s legitimately the worst president of the United States? Absolutely,” he told CNN.

CNN’s David Wright and Owen Dahlkamp contributed to this report.

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