Election Day 2025 live updates: Mamdani, Cuomo battle for NYC mayor votes; N.J., Va. governors’ races heat up
Former Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has landed a key labor endorsement in his bid to return to Congress.
The Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents nearly 100,000 workers, announced today that it is backing Brown in next year’s special election to serve the remainder of Vice President JD Vance’s Senate term.
“The delegates of the Building Trades of Ohio are proud to endorse Sherrod Brown for U.S. Senate,” the organization’s president, Mark Douglas, said in a statement shared first with NBC News. “Sherrod Brown is a man of conviction who has always stood on the side of workers — even when that means standing up to the people in his own party. From standing on picket lines with us to fighting for our workers, veterans, and seniors, the Building Trades know we can count on Sherrod.”
Brown, a three-term senator who lost re-election last year to Republican Bernie Moreno, is likely to face Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine to fill the Vance vacancy. The construction group’s endorsement is notable as one of its member councils, the Northwest Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council in Toledo, endorsed Husted shortly after Brown launched his campaign in August.
Husted and Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, have landed some surprising early endorsements from unions in the Buckeye State, mirroring the state’s shift to the right under Trump.
“I’ve devoted my career fighting for the Building Trades — the people who build our country up — and I’ve fought against the special interests who try to tear workers down,” Brown said in a statement. “It’s an honor to have earned their endorsement today.”
“Ohioans know the system is rigged against them,” Brown added. “Everything costs more these days: groceries, health care, heating bills. All while corporate profits soar and politicians like Jon Husted deliver billionaires the biggest tax cut in American history. Ohio’s workers deserve better than that.”
