Sen. Rob Portman’s (R-OH) surprise retirement announcement in January sent reverberations through the political world. A safe Republican hold suddenly became a potentially competitive race.
Brown comes across as authentic. He looks and sounds like a ‘regular guy,’ and that is a big part of his appeal.
Brown is one of my favorites. He is like Bernie and Elizabeth - tune in once every 2 years and you will hear him saying the same things he has always said, and they are good things. I like old style progressives just fine.
I am one.
giving up on blue collar white people would be a disaster.”
Hillary! Calling Hillary! Can you and Bill help with this? < /s >
Teacher, I know! (raises hand).
Um, he’s a fairly liberal Democrat who can win statewide in a midwestern state that has politically transformed into Alabama with lake-effect snow?
I have a feeling Brown would be history if he started talking like Bernie and Warren on every subject:
Brown is the only one who hasn’t signed onto the Green New Deal, which was released last week.
Brown’s decision to keep his name off of the Green New Deal and single-payer health care, two popular litmus tests for those who want the Democratic Party to embrace sweeping progressive ideas in 2020, gives him a unique lane in the presidential primary should he decide to formally join the campaign.
He knows his constituents.
Tim Ryan best fits the Sherrod Brown mold. He’s a blue collar, son of Youngstown. He can speak to progressive values without scaring white males. He’s an accomplished former high school quarterback (big in Ohio) and had the support of outside activists like the Rev. Al Sharpton in his brief run for President. He can win.
His disarming disheveledness?
I agree that Brown’s appeal is that he is authentic and a regular guy. He doesn’t speak in political code and is really progressive on many issues. As @birdford says, he is an old style progressive. People trust him to keep his word.
He is a union guy and campaigned against trade deals that help steel and manufacturing and farmers which the blue collar and rural republicans like. I don’t always agree with him on the trade deals but I respect his approach, he protects blue collar workers and farmers first, last and foremost.
He’s also the banking committee guy that wants to go after the .1% which makes him very popular.
Tim Ryan fits that niche, generally, though he may need to tone down his progressive ideas just a little to keep the rural vote here.
I really want Nan Whaley to run against whatever t**** GQP asshole they put up to run for governor against DeWine. DeWine is starting to campaign like he’s t**** by threatening school teachers that want vaccinated. (What a bastard. He’s yelling at teachers for not opening schools in Cleveland and Cincy because HE didn’t deliver on his promise to vaccinate them.)
I don’t think Emilia Sykes has a chance. No name recognition yet.
I don’t trust Amy Acton to hold up under the strain (since she walked away a health director). This campaign is going to get MUCH more difficult than that.
Mandel and Timken are the worst possible GQP/t**** candidates. They are just slamming each other out of the way to get closer to t****.
And a voice that sounds like Patti and/or Selma.
Sherrod Brown is the real deal…and people see that. He BELIEVES all the stuff he learned in school. He walks the talk. He gets OUT there…and he knows his state. He’s one of my favorites along with Sheldon Whitehouse.
Planets all lined up, from closest to farthest from the sun
About as often as the times Sherrod Brown does not mention the people and institutions of Ohio in any interview with the Press
I’d like to hang out with him and have a beer!
BTW, OT, but note how Mr. Rugged Individualist, the champion of the private sector Greg Abbott turns on a dime when private power companies underperform in a blizzard. Ironic, no? –
Any minute now, we can expect Pat Robertson to say that Texas is being punished by God for its iniquities.
I’d like to hang out with Connie Schultz.
Maybe a better question (as a resident of this state tired of outrage as I see it run into the ground by a Statehouse unable to manage this pandemic, corrupted by energy lobbyists and scraping to the Wingnut religious right) is figuring out what delusions we need to undermine and destroy that allows the kind of split ticket voting allowing yet another fake moderate like DeWine to get elected governor while getting Brown elected Senator?
That is one helluva long sentence.
Faulkner would almost be proud.
He seems “authentic” because he is authentic…without the quotes.
Word.