CINCINNATI — In a few weeks, Ohioans will choose their next junior U.S. senator. Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Jon Husted are on the ballot. Both have spent much or most of their adult lives in politics.
I talked with both candidates and asked them the same questions about who they are, why they're running and also their stances on several issues.
WATCH: Sherrod Brown, Jon Husted talk about who they are, why they're running for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat
Who are they?
When asked to define himself, Husted described himself in personal and civic terms.
"Husband, father, grandfather, uh, public servant, and, uh, somebody who just loves Ohio and loves my family," Husted said.
Brown focused on his career and the people he says he has fought for.
"Somebody that spent my career fighting for middle class, fighting for people struggling," Brown said.
Why public service?
Brown pointed to economic inequality as his driving motivation.
"The system is, is rigged more than ever, where people are working harder than ever before. CEOs are making more money, profits are up. The average CEO makes 300 times what the average worker makes, and they don't have workers in this state, citizens in this state don't have a voice, and I want to go back and be that voice," Brown said.
Husted described service as a core value rooted in faith and family.
"We serve the Lord, we serve the public. That's, we serve, we get, we get, um, our joy out of serving other people and making their lives better," Husted said.
He also addressed his relationship with Washington.
"I don't like the Washington culture, but I kind of view it as service. Like I'm going to go there every week. I get on the airplane, I fly there. I go to work, try to get the job done and then fly back home," Husted said.
What do they still want to accomplish?
Brown, who served in the Senate for 32 years, was asked what he did not get to accomplish and wants to return to finish.
"There is no real voice for regular people. I, when I was there, we, we passed the PAC Act that I wrote, named after an Ohioan that, um, made sure that people exposed to burn pits in, in Iraq and Afghanistan, that soldiers, uh, got the healthcare they earned. Uh, we passed the Butch Lewis Act named for a Cincinnatian who lost his, who was about to lose his pension, restoring 100,000 pensions. I mean, there are always those challenges, but people don't have a voice in the system," Brown said.
"We don't have anybody that will fight back," Brown said.
Husted cited fiscal responsibility and a specific piece of legislation as top priorities.
"I want to restore fiscal sanity for my children, grandchildren, for your children, grandchildren, for all the, the families of Ohio. We, we need to have, we need to preserve this great nation that we have," Husted said.
He also highlighted what he called the Upward Mobility Act.
"Right now, we've created a poverty trap in America created by the federal government. I want to end it. That issue alone is worth me going through any inconvenience of running for office and going through all this because that's going to help millions of people get out of poverty," Husted said.
WATCH: Husted and Brown discuss data centers and the national budget
The national budget
On the question of balancing the federal budget, Brown pointed to military spending and tax policy as the core problems.
"We should quit spending money to go to war. Ohioans alone are spending at least $50 million a day to pay for this war, not to mention the cost of higher energy, the cost of higher food, higher costs for food," he said.
"So yes, of course we should do better moving towards a balanced budget, but when you give tax breaks to billionaires, and you start a war, and John Husted has been the center of much of that, you, you're never able to bring, bring the national debt down," Brown said.
Husted said Washington fails to balance the budget because lawmakers face no requirement to do so, and he is pushing for a constitutional fix.
"Washington does not balance the budget because they don't have to, and we've got to restore that discipline through a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget," Husted said.
Husted said he has already introduced that legislation and has secured co-sponsors, adding that he is prepared to fight for it even if passage is uncertain.
"I mean, I know people well. You gotta fight. You never know if something's gonna happen until you fight for it," Husted said.
Data centers
On data centers, Husted said the decision should rest entirely with local communities, not the federal government, and that data centers should bear the full cost of their infrastructure and utilities.
"The federal government should have no involvement in telling you whether you should have a data center in your community or not. Local decision, and they should also pay for all of their utilities and the infrastructure that they need, not pass that on to local ratepayers in any way, shape or form," Husted said.
Husted also criticized Brown's record on the issue.
"Sherrod Brown was in Washington for 32 years. He used to celebrate data centers, and he never picked up, did a single thing to try to stop this from happening. I've introduced legislation to require data centers to build their own power, but if you make it a local decision and they have to build their own power, the local community can decide whether they want to do it, but the federal government shouldn't be telling people whether to do that or not," Husted said.
Brown said data centers should not receive large tax breaks and that local communities must have a voice in whether they are built.
"They shouldn't get these huge, over-the-top tax breaks, $2.5 billion in tax breaks to build these. So far, about more than 200 data centers in Ohio. Local communities should have a say, and instead, these data centers came in. Local communities didn't know it. They eat up the land, they suck up the water and then on top of that, it means higher electricity prices," Brown said.
"So local communities need to have a say in this, and there has to be a law that data centers, out of state corporations, out of state investors come to Ohio and we subsidize their electricity rates. That should simply not happen," Brown said.
Why vote for them?
Brown made his case to Ohio voters by pointing to his record of taking on powerful industries.
"Ohio should vote for me because I have a record of standing up to the drug companies, the utility companies, standing up against a rigged system that's made it so difficult for people, no matter how hard they work to get ahead, and I'm running against a guy, John Husted, who has been part of that rigged system taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the drug companies, the insurance companies, Wall Street, an Epstein Co-conspirator, the electric companies," Brown said.
Husted contrasted his 18 months in Washington with Brown's longer tenure and pointed to legislation he said he passed.
"Sherrod Brown has been in politics for 50 years, the last 32 in Washington. I've been there for 18 months. In the short period of time that I was there, I passed tax cuts for working families, passed the Road to Housing bill to help make housing prices lower. There's still a lot of work to be done, but if you elect me the job, you give me time to do more. I'm going to lower prices. I'm going to improve the culture in Washington, make life better for working families. I've done that in Ohio from the time," Husted said.
WATCH: Brown, Husted accuse each other of accepting money from Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirators
Epstein-linked donor accusations
Ads from both campaigns allege the opposing candidate accepted contributions from people connected to the late Jeffrey Epstein.
When I spoke at length with Husted, I asked him about the charges.
"Well, I voted to open up the Epstein files. He did not. He was in Congress. He did nothing with it. He took money from 12 Epstein co-conspirators and is literally running ads with the money he took from Epstein folks. The person he's suggesting I took money from, I returned that to charity and gave it to a charity helping victims of human trafficking. That's the hypocrisy," Husted said.
The "co-conspirator" Husted referenced is Les Wexner of Columbus, who once employed Epstein. The FBI called Wexner a "secondary co-conspirator," but he has never been charged with a crime.
I met with Brown just outside Cincinnati recently and asked him the same question.
I asked Brown if he had ever taken money from Epstein or any of his co-conspirators.
"No, of course not. The co-conspirator term is the FBI term, not mine. Yeah, that's the FBI's term for a co-conspirator or not. We just simply adopted the term from the FBI report," Brown said.
When I asked if the answer was still the same, Brown said, "Right."
Brown did not take money from a named co-conspirator, but a check of his campaign contribution filings shows he did take money from people closely associated with Epstein, including Les Wexner's wife and son.
I asked his campaign what Brown did with that money. The campaign did not respond to that question, but sent this statement from campaign manager Patrick Eisenhauer:
"Jon Husted took over $116,000 directly from Jeffrey Epstein's close friend and co-conspirator — that's ten times more than any other sitting U.S. Senator. Just last year, Husted took a maximum donation from Epstein's co-conspirator and weeks later voted to block the release of the Epstein files," Eisenhauer said.
Husted's campaign responded with this statement:
"Jon Husted voted YES on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Thanks to Jon Husted, we now have access to the contents of the files. Why didn't Sherrod Brown open the Epstein files while he was in Washington, especially since he was chairman of the Senate Banking Committee?" Husted's campaign said.
The general election occurs Tuesday, Nov. 3. You can click here to view your full sample ballot.
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