One for 31.
That’s how many statewide races Democrats in Ohio have won in the past 10 years.
And that one was Sherrod Brown, the senior senator from Ohio, now in the final days of a re-election battle that could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate going forward.
Quite a burden for an Ohio Democrat to carry.
Especially in a state the political pundit world assumes will be won by Donald Trump for a third consecutive time.
That’s why, for many months now, Brown and his campaign allies have been reaching out to pull in as many MAGA Republicans as possible — skirting around Kamala Harris, and making sure they know how often he has differed with the Biden administration and how many times he has sided with Trump.
Odd behavior for a Democrat? One who has been running for office in Ohio as a Democrat for nearly half a century?
Not at all. Even Chuck Schumer, the majority leader of the Senate, is fine with it.
Do what it takes to win.
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“There's no percentage in running as a traditional Democrat in Ohio right now — or for some time really,” said David Niven, political science professor at the University of Cincinnati.
“Since 2014, Democrats with the party label running statewide in Ohio are 1-31. Sherrod Brown was the one because he alone can pull something like this off — running as who he is rather than relying on the party to be his greatest asset,” Niven said.
The Brown campaign’s formula is rather simple, really.
They paint Brown’s opponent, wealthy car dealer Bernie Moreno, as someone who has no experience in government and questionable ethics, who recently insulted women over 50 years of age by saying they have no reason to care about abortion rights or reproductive freedom.
Add to that a heaping helping of messaging telling MAGA voters that he’s been with their leader when he thought he was right, and he may have a recipe for re-election.
It’s like that TV ad you may have seen this summer that ran heavily in all of Ohio’s 12 media markets.
ANALYSIS: Why do so many campaign ads state outright lies?
The ad features a man named Scott, a Marine Corps veteran and retired police officer who lost his son to opioid addiction.
"He wrote a bill that Donald Trump signed to crack down on drugs at the border," Scott says. "Sherrod's work will prevent more families from having to go through what we did."
It tied Brown directly to Trump on an issue people care about.
And it was paid for by Duty & Honor, an independent expenditures PAC with ties to Schumer.
Brown held a Zoom press conference with Ohio reporters in which he was asked if his campaign is focusing on winning over Trump voters.
His answer, while not direct, made it clear he understands the importance of drawing in GOP voters.
"When I am campaigning, I don't ask people if they are Trump voters or Biden voters," Brown said. "I represent all working people. I campaign for all voters."
RELATED: Voters from Senator Sherrod Brown's hometown weigh in on his reelection bid
Earlier this month, a lit piece for Brown popped into the snail mail boxes of Republicans and independents across Ohio.
It’s a large and very slick piece of advertising. It folds out into a centerpiece with a smiling photo of Brown and this copy block: Sherrod Brown stood up to the Biden administration when it was right for Ohio and worked with Trump to save Ohio jobs.
Below is a list of four headlines from news stories about Brown bucking Joe Biden. On the other side — a list of four headlines from stories about Brown siding with Trump.
Can’t get much more clear than that.
All of this cozying up has clearly gotten under Trump’s skin.
At a rally for Moreno in Vandalia earlier this year, Trump made that clear.
"He pretends he's my best friend until he gets in and then he goes radical left all the time," Trump said. "You know, if you listen to his commercials, he sounds like he's running with Trump. He's not."
Everything that Brown has said about his support for a few, by no means all, of Trump’s ideas is true — in campaign lit pieces, in TV ads and in campaign stops around the state. He’s not making this stuff up.
Niven said Brown is likely the last hope for Democrats nationwide of electing a senator in a state where the other party wins the presidential vote.
ANALYSIS: Sherrod Brown, in a tough re-election race, makes a pitch to GOP voters
“But if this kind of campaign — reminding folks he's worker first, not party first on issues — can bring a few of those northeast Ohio counties back into the Democratic fold, that's viable path to staying in office,” Niven said.
Sherrod Brown knows what he is doing by reaching out to MAGA World. Chuck Schumer knows what Brown is doing, too.
They want to win. That’s the point of running in the first place.
