On August 18, 2025, Sherrod Brown announced his comeback campaign for U.S. Senate. He’s not running for his old seat, which he lost to Republican Bernie Moreno by 3.5 points in 2024. Instead, he’s challenging Jon Husted for the seat vacated by JD Vance when he became Vice President. Husted was appointed by Governor Mike DeWine to fill Vance’s term, and the race will determine control of one of Ohio’s two Senate seats through 2028.

But here’s the problem Democrats refuse to face: Brown is 73 years old, running in a state where Donald Trump won by 11 percentage points in 2024. Even if Brown pulls off another upset (and recent polls show him with a narrow lead), what happens in 2028 when he’s 76? What about 2030? Ohio Democrats have no succession plan, no veteran bench, and no strategy for competing in a state that has become deeply red.

The last Democrat to win a statewide executive office in Ohio was Ted Strickland in 2006. Brown is the only Democrat who has consistently won statewide races in the past two decades, and his margins have been shrinking with every cycle. In 2024, he lost by 3.5 points while Harris lost by 11. Brown overperformed by 7.5 points, but it wasn’t enough. Now he’s trying again. Early polling from Emerson College in August showed him down 50-44% to Husted, but recent surveys from September and October show the race has tightened dramatically. Brown now leads by 1-3 points in multiple polls, making this a true toss-up despite having to overcome an 11-point Trump margin.

Let’s be brutally honest about Ohio’s political landscape. Trump didn’t just win Ohio in 2024. He dominated it by 11 percentage points. That’s not a swing state. That’s a red state. And while Brown has managed to survive by appealing to working-class voters and union households, his margins have been steadily declining:

In 2012, Brown won reelection by 6 points. In 2018, he won by 7 points. In 2024, he lost by 3.5 points. That’s a 10.5-point swing toward Republicans in just six years. Now, at 73, he’s trying to win back a Senate seat in a special election against a well-funded Republican incumbent who has Trump’s endorsement and the full backing of Ohio’s Republican establishment.

But here’s where it gets interesting: the race has tightened significantly since August. A Hart Research poll in September showed Brown ahead 48-45%. A Bowling Green State University poll in October found Brown leading 49-48%. The race went from a 6-point Husted lead to a dead heat in just two months. Brown leads independents by 25 points and has higher favorability ratings. The momentum has shifted, but the question remains whether it’s enough to overcome Trump’s 11-point margin in a special election.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: traditional Democratic candidates cannot win in Ohio anymore. The state’s political realignment is complete. Working-class white voters have shifted decisively toward Republicans. Rural counties that once voted Democratic are now Trump country. Even union households, Brown’s most reliable base, voted for Trump in 2024.

The only type of Democratic candidate who can compete in this environment is a military veteran. Veterans have standing with exactly the voters Democrats have lost: working-class men, rural voters, independents, and moderate Republicans who respect military service above partisan politics. Ohio has a massive military footprint. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base alone employs 38,000 people and generates $16 billion in economic impact. Yet Democrats have no veteran candidates in their pipeline.

Consider this: In 2018, the last truly competitive statewide race Brown won, he benefited from a national environment where veteran Democrats helped flip 41 House seats. Veteran candidates outperformed non-veteran Democrats by 3-8 points with independent voters. That same playbook needs to be applied to Ohio statewide races, but Democrats have no one waiting in the wings.

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton is one of the most important military installations in the United States. It’s the largest, most diverse, and organizationally complex Air Force base in the world. It’s also the largest single-site employer in Ohio, with 38,000 military, civilian, and contractor employees generating $16 billion in annual economic impact.

Add the Springfield Air National Guard Base and the Dayton VA Medical Center, and Southwest Ohio’s federal installations account for over $19 billion in regional economic activity and employ more than 103,000 people. The Dayton region is home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of defense-related workers, aerospace engineers, and military families.

Yet Ohio Democrats have made virtually no effort to recruit veteran candidates from this community. No Democratic state legislators from the Dayton area have military backgrounds. No statewide candidates have emerged from the Wright-Patterson ecosystem. Democrats are sitting on a goldmine of centrist, service-oriented candidates and doing absolutely nothing to cultivate them.

In Arizona (another state Trump won in 2024), Ruben Gallego defeated Republican Kari Lake by 2.4 points in the Senate race. Gallego is a Marine and Iraq War veteran. He outperformed Kamala Harris by 8 points, winning exactly the type of crossover voters Democrats need in Ohio. His military service gave him standing with Latino men, independent voters, and even some Republican veterans who couldn’t stomach Lake’s culture war politics.

Ohio has the same opportunity, but only if Democrats start recruiting veterans now. The 2026 Senate race may be Sherrod Brown’s last stand, but it should also be the launching pad for the next generation of Ohio Democratic leaders. That means identifying military veterans in the State House, State Senate, and local offices. It means recruiting Iraq and Afghanistan veterans from Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Dayton. It means building relationships with Wright-Patterson Air Force Base communities and veteran service organizations.

The Democratic bench in Ohio is shockingly thin when it comes to veterans. Unlike states like Arizona (Ruben Gallego), Michigan (Elissa Slotkin), or Pennsylvania (Chrissy Houlahan), Ohio has not cultivated a deep roster of veteran candidates at the state or federal level. This is political malpractice in a state with over 600,000 veterans and the nation’s most important Air Force base.

Here’s what Ohio Democrats should be doing right now: identifying every veteran currently serving in the Ohio General Assembly, recruiting Afghanistan and Iraq War veterans to run for State House and State Senate seats, and building relationships with veteran organizations in Dayton, Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Toledo. The talent exists. Democrats just aren’t looking for it.

In particular, Democrats should focus on veterans from Wright-Patterson AFB communities, Coast Guard veterans from the Lake Erie region, and Army National Guard members who have served in Ohio’s disaster response efforts. These are exactly the kind of candidates who can win back suburban and rural voters who have abandoned the Democratic Party.

The 2026 Ohio Senate race is not just about whether Sherrod Brown can pull off one more upset. It’s about whether Ohio Democrats have any future at all. If Brown loses, Democrats will hold zero statewide offices: no governor, no attorney general, no secretary of state, no auditor, no treasurer, and no senators. Complete political irrelevance in a state that was considered a swing state just a decade ago.

But there’s a path forward, and it runs through military veterans. Veterans are the only type of Democratic candidate who can compete in Trump-era Ohio. They have crossover appeal with independents, standing with working-class voters, and respect from moderate Republicans. Ohio has 600,000 veterans, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and a rich military tradition. Democrats just need to start recruiting from this community instead of running the same losing playbook over and over again.

The question isn’t whether veteran Democrats can win in Ohio. The question is whether Ohio Democrats are smart enough to recruit them before it’s too late.

Sherrod Brown’s 2026 campaign is admirable. A 73-year-old statesman unwilling to let Ohio Democrats go down without a fight. But courage isn’t a strategy, and nostalgia isn’t a path to victory. Brown has momentum in recent polls, but even if he wins, he’ll be 76 in 2028. Ohio Democrats need a succession plan, and that plan must include veteran candidates.

The infrastructure is already there. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Over 600,000 veterans statewide. A military culture that respects service and sacrifice. What’s missing is the political will to recruit, train, and support veteran candidates at every level, from State House races to statewide offices. VoteVets has committed to recruiting 100 veteran candidates nationally by 2026. Ohio should be getting 10 of those recruits.

The choice is simple: start building a veteran bench now, or watch Ohio Democrats become permanently irrelevant in a state they used to dominate.