Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said Sunday that he has “no real timetable” for deciding whether to run for president in 2020, but argued the core message that won him reelection to the Senate could resonate with voters on a national level.
“I won my election because I talk about the dignity of work,” Brown said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“Whether I run or not, I’m hopeful that narrative, that message begins to be part of the narrative among my colleagues who want to be president, who have dreamed of it, frankly, for longer than I have,” he added.
{mosads}Brown expressed confidence that message could allow more progressive firebrands like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to win Ohio in a presidential election, despite the state voting for President Trump in 2016 and electing another Republican governor earlier this month.
“I think that if people carry this message of the dignity of work, of honoring people and respecting work, make the contrast between the phony populism of Donald Trump … and the real populism where populism is not racist, it’s not anti-Semitic, it doesn’t push some people down to lift others up, I think any one of them can win my state,” he said.
Brown emerged as a potential presidential candidate in the wake of his midterm victory over Republican Jim Renacci, who had Trump’s backing. The Democrat earned a third term even as state offices have increasingly gone Republican.
The senator, who has said he’s mulling a bid, told NBC’s Chuck Todd that he needs to discuss the matter with his family before coming to a decision.