Washington
TheSpiderNews
—
Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio said Sunday that “obviously” the Buckeye State is still a swing state, dismissing concerns about a 2024 re-election bid after Republican JD Vance won the state’s second Senate seat last month.
“I’m not worried. … I know it’s always a challenge, but I’m going to do my job,” Brown told TheSpiderNews’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union.”
Vance’s Senate victory over Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan continued a long streak of Republican victories in a state that has tilted toward the party in recent years. Other than Brown, no Democrat has won a non-judicial office in the state since 2008, and former President Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win the state, doing so in 2012.
But Brown, a liberal populist, found success in Ohio with a progressive message. In 2019, he explored a presidential bid through a “listening tour” that included stops in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, the four key early voting states in the 2020 primaries, before deciding against a run. He is expected to register a fourth term next year.
“Not many people are thinking about the 2024 election. I’ll do my job,” Brown said Sunday. “We’ll see how it goes.”
Brown, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee, also said he believes the U.S. is on the “right track” to lower inflation, and he defended Congress’ role in protecting Americans investing in cryptocurrencies following the collapse of FTX, the billion-dollar crypto-to-dollar exchange.
Shortly after the FTX crash, crypto companies were flooded with requests from customers wanting their money back – the equivalent of a run on the bank. Some companies have had to suspend withdrawals while they sort out their liquidity problems.
“To say that Congress has done nothing is not really accurate. We’ve had a series of hearings that have exposed the problems with crypto, the problems for consumers, the problems for our economy here and the international problems for their national security,” Brown said. “We’ll continue it.”
“I would love to do something legislatively. I don’t know that Congress is capable of that because of crypto’s grip on one political party in the Senate and the House,” he added, referring to the GOP.
“But we try every day.”
