Sherrod Brown Won’t Run for President in 2020

WASHINGTON — Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said on Thursday that he will not run for president in 2020, vowing to keep “calling out President Trump and his phony populism” from the vantage point of the U.S. Senate.

Brown had considered the race, and was viewed as a contender who could win over greater numbers of working-class Midwestern voters than Hillary Clinton did in states like Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. Trump won Ohio handily in 2016, but Brown also won reelection last year by a healthy margin.

Brown and his wife, Connie Schultz, have been on what he calls the “Dignity of Work” tour, in which they visited early primary states. They also met with potential donors in Los Angeles last month, and they raised money for his leadership PAC.

“Connie and I have spent the last few months traveling around the country to make dignity of work a centerpiece of Democrats’ 2020 campaign, and we are so grateful to everyone who has welcomed us into their communities and into their lives,” Brown said in a statement. “We’ve seen candidates take up the dignity of work fight, and we have seen voters across the country demanding it — because dignity of work is a value that unites all of us. It is how we beat Trump, and it is how we should govern. That’s why I’m confident it will continue to be a focus for Democrats in 2020, and I plan on making sure that happens.”

Brown would have been joining an ever-expanding field, but now he is among a handful of prominent Democrats to forgo a presidential run. Michael Bloomberg announced this week that he would not enter the race, as did Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon). Clinton also reiterated that she was not running for president.

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