President Donald Trump is complicating an already difficult campaign for Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
Husted, like many Republicans running this cycle, faces a delicate balancing act: addressing voters’ economic anxieties while being pushed to answer for the president’s disjointed national messaging. Trickier yet is doing so while Trump’s war with Iran rages on with no end in sight and his trade dispute with Canada — Ohio’s largest trading partner — escalates.
Six months into the war with Iran, Husted acknowledged voters’ exasperation without decisively breaking with a president who has already helped oust two incumbent Republican senators this election cycle after sensing disloyalty. In an interview Thursday with MS NOW, Husted acknowledged his constituents’ irritation with the conflict — and expressed his own — but he chose his words carefully.
“They’re right to be frustrated by it,” Husted told MS NOW. “The president promised there would be a brief war. Brief and successful is what I wanted to see. It’s dragged on.”
The stakes are high for Husted, who needs to hold onto his seat in November to help his party retain control of the Senate. MS NOW rates the race a toss-up. The race is also a symbolic one: Husted is running to retain the Senate seat he was appointed to by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine after JD Vance vacated it to become vice president in January 2025.
Republicans have defended Trump’s military action as necessary to counter Iran’s nuclear threat. They have tried redirecting attention toward issues that more directly affect voters, such as gas and grocery prices and the cost of housing.
Husted followed that playbook, telling MS NOW that Iran “cannot be trusted” and that the U.S. has been “in this war in one way or another with Iran for 47 years.” He also touted his state’s GOP lawmakers for passing legislation aimed at lowering electricity prices.
“That’s been a huge boom for Ohio and it’s helped keep energy prices reasonable,” Husted said.
Husted, 59, who has not run a stand-alone statewide race since his campaign for secretary of state in 2014, has been outraised by the Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown, 73, who served in the Senate from 2006 until he lost his re-election in 2024. He disclosed raising more than $38.5 million as of June 30. Husted’s campaign reported raising roughly $14.4 million this cycle on the same date.
Brown lost his bid for a fourth Senate term in 2024 to Republican Bernie Moreno in what was the most expensive nonpresidential contest on record for spending on ads, according to AdImpact. Republicans spent almost $300 million, while Democrats spent more than $246 million.
No Democrat currently holds statewide office in Ohio. But for decades, the Buckeye State was considered a presidential battleground. Ohio voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election from 1964 to 2016. Those days have faded, but a Brown win could put the state back into play in 2028.
In mid-July, Brown told MS NOW’s Lawrence O’Donnell that Husted was too focused on Trump’s agenda, including pushing controversial nominees through the Senate, to make meaningful change for his constituents who are facing cost-of-living problems.
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Chris Jansing is MS NOW’s Chief National Correspondent.