MANSFIELD — Sherrod Brown’s long political career apparently came to an end Tuesday night when the Mansfield native lost his bid for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate.
Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno defeated Brown, 71, according to final, unofficial vote totals from various Ohio county boards of election.
The Associated Press called the election for Moreno, a former luxury car dealer who was endorsed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website, as of midnight, Moreno had received 50.29 percent of the vote, compared to 46.32 for Brown — 2,729,310 votes to 2,513,804.
Moreno, a Colombian immigrant, will be the first person of color to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate.
Moreno’s victory also ends, at least for now, the 50-year political career of Brown, a Mansfield Senior High School graduate first elected as a state representative in the post-Watergate era.
For decades Brown fashioned himself as an unapologetic liberal and progressive tightly aligned with organized labor.
His staunch opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, blamed for accelerating the decline of U.S. manufacturing, long ago established populist credentials that had come in handy during the Trump era.
Brown was born and raised in Mansfield, where he earned his Eagle Scout award and spent summers working on his family’s farm. He is married to author and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz.
Also on Tuesday, Rep. Jim Jordan won another term representing Ohio’s 4th District, which includes Richland and Ashland counties.
The Republican from Champaign County again easily bested Democratic challenger Tammie Wilson, winning every county in the district. According to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, as of midnight, Jordan had received 68 percent of the district’s votes.
Jordan was first elected to Congress in 2007.