Bill Clinton, the former two-term president known for his popularity among Democrats, put his political muscle behind U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in Cleveland on Monday.
His presence reinforced how much is at stake for Democrats, who could lose control of the Senate if Brown loses.
“He has stood up for the dignity of work in the face of any forces that were against him,” Clinton said, echoing a key theme of Brown’s tenure and one that has helped him win over Buckeye voters in an increasingly red state.
Although he was speaking to a couple hundred die-hard Democrats at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland, Clinton also picked up the bipartisan theme of Brown’s campaign. He said that Brown, the three-term Democratic incumbent, has shown that he can work with Republicans and oppose Democrats at times – including Clinton himself.
The former president, who has crisscrossed the country on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris, said that this appearance was his last one of the campaign. Before his remarks, introductory speakers reminisced about Clinton’s visits to Cleveland during his presidential campaigns in the 1990s.
“I think it’s so fitting that I get to finish here in Cleveland,” Clinton said. “I came here for Sherrod Brown. I think it is profoundly important that he win this race.”
Clinton said that Brown was up against a “zillionaire” in Republican challenger Bernie Moreno, the multimillionaire former owner of a chain of luxury car dealerships.
The race is one of the country’s most closely watched Senate contests. Brown, who spoke before Clinton, noted that the race was also the most expensive one.
Calling himself an “88-county senator,” Brown said his campaign was active across the state. He encouraged the Cuyahoga County Democrats in attendance to spend the remaining hours of the race making sure friends and acquaintances vote.
“He can have the billionaires,” Brown said of political ad spending by Moreno allies. “I have all of you.”
Although Franklin County has surpassed Cuyahoga as Ohio’s vote powerhouse, the Cleveland area remains politically important for Democrats. Monday’s rally brought out a cohort of state and local Democratic officials, including Columbus-area U.S. Rep. Joyce Beatty, Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne, Cleveland Council President Blaine Griffin and other council members.
Speakers also used the rally to pump up local Democrats for the party’s Ohio Supreme Court candidates and for Issue 1, which would overhaul how legislative district lines are drawn. All three court candidates took the stage together.
Brown, who likely must outrun Harris in Ohio in order to win his race, typically avoids tying his own contest to the presidential one between the vice president and former President Donald Trump. Other speakers on Monday made the connection.
Holding out her arms and scrunching her face, U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown performed a mocking impression of Trump before accusing him of not being able to deliver on campaign promises. The country was “ready to move on” from Trump and elect Harris, she said.
“For four years, he talked about infrastructure week and he never got it done,” she said. “He talked about building a wall and having the Mexicans pay for it, and he never got it done. And he talked about repealing and replacing Obamacare, and he never got it done.”
Monday’s Cleveland event was the second example in recent days of Brown more openly affiliating with his fellow Democrats. In Columbus on Saturday, Brown appeared in Columbus at a prominent Black church at a Souls to the Polls event that Beatty hosted.
Brown delivered his stump speech in Columbus, although it was abbreviated after the event ran long, in part due to a series of pro-Palestinian protesters who disrupted most speakers.
An unscripted moment from Brown suggested his late-election calendar was beginning to blur together, as he accidentally introduced his wife, columnist Connie Schultz, to the audience as his “friend.”
He explained he’d mixed up how he’d introduced Schultz and his friend, actor and Ohio native Martin Sheen, at a spate of campaign events the past week.
“My friend? My wife!” Brown said to laughs. “I can’t believe myself. Let me start again. I’ve been campaigning too long.”
Insults for Democrats and old-guard Republicans
A Moreno event held the day before in the opposite corner of the state offered a sharp contrast in style and tone. A crowd of around 1,000 people filled a hotel ballroom off Interstate 71 in Wilmington, about an hour southwest of Columbus, to see Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host.
Carlson has maintained a post-Fox audience by moving his show to X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter that’s owned by Trump-supporting billionaire Elon Musk.
He also continues to have an outsized influence in Republican Ohio politics, having helped Vance get elected in 2022 by repeatedly hosting him on his show. Vance in turn endorsed Moreno in the 2024 election, helping pave the way for an ultimately decisive endorsement of Moreno from Trump.
Outside the Carlson/Moreno event on Sunday, the parking lot was full of cars, some decorated with homemade signs and flags, and vendors hawked Trump-theme shirts. Vest-clad Bikers for Trump worked security.
Inside, Carlson spoke for around an hour. He delivered a characteristic combination of caustic comedy and political invective to enthusiastic applause.
“I love Bernie,” Carlson said. “But I was motivated, deeply motivated, by a loathing for Sherrod Brown.”
Brown (“evil”) and the Biden administration (“illegitimate”) and Democrats more generally (“criminals”) were Carlson’s main targets.
But he also lobbed insults at a couple old-guard Republicans who have endorsed Moreno.
Carlson called Sen. Lindsay Graham, a South Carolina Republican who campaigned for Moreno in Ohio last week, a “liar” for praising Vance after lobbying against his pick “because he’s not as enthusiastic about wars as Lindsey Graham thinks you ought to be.”
He also criticized Republicans who went along with “forcing” people to receive the coronavirus vaccine in 2020 and 2021.
“And they went along with it. Including your governor. Midget!” Carlson said.
With Moreno’s election, Carlson said, the Republican Party would move closer to one that reflects its voters’ wishes on topics like transgender rights, illegal immigration and foreign policy.
“I sincerely believe that he’ll be representing Ohio, and that is part of the necessary transformation, not just of the country, but of the Republican Party, into a party that represents its voters and what they actually care about,” Carlson said.
After he got done speaking, Carlson ceded the floor to Moreno for a panel-style discussion between the two men moderated by Sen. Eric Schmitt, a Missouri Republican.
At the event’s conclusion, Moreno thanked Carlson, who promised to speak at Moreno’s inauguration.
“On Tuesday, there’s going to be a firing,” Moreno said. “All these people watching in Ohio, you get to fire Sherrod Brown.”
