Brown faces tough reelection in Ohio Senate race: poll

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is facing a difficult challenge in his 2024 reelection bid, as a new poll shows him within the margin of error of losing his seat to any of his three potential Republican challengers.

The Emerson College poll released Tuesday shows that Brown is falling in support behind state Sen. Matt Dolan by 2 points and Secretary of State Frank LaRose by 1 point. He is still leading Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno by 2 points, according to the survey.

Brown’s seat is expected to be one of the closest, and most important, races in 2024 as Democrats hope to retain their razor-thin Senate majority.

A significant number of respondents in the poll were undecided, however, showing some room for improvement for Brown, Emerson College Polling Director Spencer Kimball noted.

“With just over a year until the 2024 Ohio U.S. Senate election, many established Democratic demographics, like voters under 30 and Black voters, are demonstrating a lower level of enthusiasm toward Brown,” Kimball said. 

“It is not that these voters are supporting the Republican candidate over Brown, they are choosing to select someone else or note they are undecided at this point,” he continued. “About a third of voters under 30 indicate they would vote for someone else or are undecided in a Brown-Dolan match-up; 38% of Black voters indicate the same.”

Kimball called it “an encouraging sign.”

The same poll showed former President Trump with a 12 point lead in a hypothetical rematch against President Biden. That’s larger than Trump’s 2016 and 2020 margins of victory in the Buckeye State.

The Emerson College poll surveyed a little more than 400 registered voters over three days last week. The margin of error was 4.5 percentage points.