Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly.COLUMBUS, PAINESVILLE AND AKRON, Ohio — It was a raucous homecoming for Sherrod Brown.AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" blared from ballroom speakers.Union stalwarts representing steelworkers, utility workers, construction workers and others greeted the 73-year-old Democrat with resounding cheers and endless handshakes.This was the biennial gathering of the Ohio AFL-CIO, a crowd Brown has kept at the forefront of his agenda throughout his 50 years in public office, including 32 years in the U.S.
Congress.And these are the people Brown is counting on to send him back to Washington after suffering defeat at the polls two years ago."I want you to talk to people, because people will listen to you," he implored."I want you to share information — how I spent my whole career fighting for workers."If you're a pipefitter, he told the room, other pipefitters will listen to you, as will your friends at church and school and in your neighborhood."Tell them how important this election is, and how important it is that they get out and vote," he said.Brown's appeal to labor unions comes two years after the three-term U.S.
senator was unseated by GOP businessman Bernie Moreno, losing in a year when President Trump won the most votes of any presidential candidate in Ohio history.Now, Brown is hoping to regain a U.S.Senate seat by defeating incumbent Republican Sen.
Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill JD Vance's seat early last year.The race remains a toss-up, one that could determine control of the Senate for Trump's final two years in office.With early voting set to begin Oct.
6, union members are knocking on doors, phone banking and showing up at rallies for Brown.They're hoping to drum up enough support to overcome a shift that took hold in Ohio in 2016, when Trump ran on a promise to revitalize factories and put people back to work.
That year, Trump won 54% of union households in the state, while Hillary Clinton won just...