COLUMBUS, Ohio — Democrat Sherrod Brown has won Ohio’s special election for the U.S. Senate, defeating Republican Sen. Jon Husted in a race called by the Associated Press on Tuesday night, November 3. The Columbus Dispatch reported that NBC News, CNN and the Associated Press all called the race for Brown, and Reuters also reported Brown’s victory on Tuesday night.
In the Associated Press results, Brown had 2,024,960 votes to Husted’s 1,938,300, with 87.6 percent of precincts reporting — 7,739 of 8,834 precincts. The Dispatch, in its election-night coverage, put Brown’s margin at about 49 percent to 47 percent for Husted with most votes counted across the state. The results are unofficial until they are certified.
The seat was the one previously held by JD Vance, who left the Senate to become vice president in January 2025, according to the Dispatch and Reuters. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the seat in January 2025, and Tuesday’s special election decided who serves the remainder of Vance’s term, which runs through January 2029, the Dispatch reported.
Brown’s win is a return to the Senate two years after he lost his previous seat. Reuters reported that Brown’s 2024 loss to Republican Bernie Moreno ended an 18-year tenure in the Senate, and that Tuesday’s victory marked a comeback that showed Democrats could still win statewide in Ohio. Signal Ohio, reporting the Associated Press call, said the AP called the race just after 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
Husted, a Republican from Upper Arlington, was seeking to keep the appointed seat in his first statewide election for it, after serving as Ohio’s lieutenant governor before his appointment, according to campaign coverage by the Dispatch. President Donald Trump had endorsed Husted and campaigned with him in the closing weeks of the race, Reuters reported.
Brown will serve as Ohio’s junior senator alongside Sen. Bernie Moreno, according to Signal Ohio’s election-night reporting. Because the term he won is the remainder of the term originally won by Vance, it lasts about two years, and the seat will be on the ballot again in 2028.
What happens next: county boards of elections will complete their counts and the results will be certified in the coming weeks. Brown’s victory was one of several statewide results decided on a high-turnout Election Day in Ohio, including the governor’s race, which the Associated Press called for Democrat Amy Acton earlier on Tuesday night.
Photo: Sherrod Brown, official U.S. Senate photo by Rebecca Hammel, public domain via Wikimedia Commons.