80 Facts About Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Campbell Brown is an American politician serving as the senior United States senator from Ohio, a seat which he has held since 2007.

Sherrod Brown started his political career in 1975 as an Ohio state representative.

At the start of the 114th Congress in January 2015, Sherrod Brown became the ranking Democratic member on the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

In January 2021, Sherrod Brown became chair of the committee and initiated an inquiry into the implosion of Archegos Capital Management, an investment firm that was accused of fraud and insider trading and lost billions of dollars.

Sherrod Brown became the state's senior US senator after the retirement of George Voinovich in 2011.

Since then, Sherrod Brown has been the only Democratic statewide elected official in Ohio, with the exception of some Democratic-affiliated Ohio Supreme Court justices elected in nonpartisan races.

Sherrod Brown is widely considered a liberal, progressive and populist Democrat.

Sherrod Brown has Scottish, Irish, German, and English ancestry, and was named after his maternal grandfather.

Sherrod Brown became an Eagle Scout in 1967, and his badge was presented by John Glenn.

In 1974, Sherrod Brown received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Russian studies from Yale University.

Sherrod Brown went on to receive a Master of Arts degree in education and a Master of Public Administration degree from the Ohio State University at Columbus in 1979 and 1981, respectively.

Sherrod Brown taught at the Mansfield branch campus of the Ohio State University from 1979 to 1981.

Sherrod Brown served as a state representative in Ohio from 1974 to 1982.

In 1982 Brown ran for Ohio Secretary of State to succeed Anthony J Celebrezze Jr.

Sherrod Brown won a four-way Democratic primary that included Dennis Kucinich, then defeated Republican Virgil Brown in the general election.

In 1992, Sherrod Brown moved from Mansfield to Lorain, Ohio, and won a heavily contested Democratic primary for the open seat for Ohio's 13th district, in the western and southern suburbs of Cleveland, after eight-term incumbent Don Pease announced his retirement.

In 2005, Sherrod Brown led the Democratic effort to block the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

For many months, Sherrod Brown worked as whip on the issue, securing Democratic "nay" votes and seeking Republican allies.

Sherrod Brown opposed an amendment to Ohio's constitution that banned same-sex marriage.

Sherrod Brown was one of the few US Representatives to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act in 1996.

Sherrod Brown was the ranking minority member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Health Subcommittee.

Sherrod Brown served on the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet and the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection.

Sherrod Brown's announcement came shortly after Democrat Paul Hackett stated that he would soon announce his candidacy.

Sherrod Brown ran for reelection in 2012, facing opponent Josh Mandel, who in 2010 had defeated the incumbent state treasurer by 14 points.

In May 2012 Sherrod Brown campaigned with West Wing actor Martin Sheen.

In 2018 Sherrod Brown was reelected to a third Senate term, defeating Republican US Representative Jim Renacci by 6.8 points.

In March 2018, Sherrod Brown was appointed co-chair of the newly formed Joint Multiemployer Pension Solvency Committee.

On March 11,2020, the day the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Sherrod Brown proposed a bill that would let workers immediately receive paid sick days, allowing them to stay home and self-quarantine if feeling sick or in the event of any public health emergency.

Sherrod Brown noted it could slow infection spread to coworkers and criticized Republicans for blocking the proposal, although he said he believed the House would pass similar legislation.

In January 2020, Sherrod Brown called on his Senate colleagues to approve legislation that would improve the EPA's regulation of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

In February 2020, Sherrod Brown and other Democrats in the House voted to block two pieces of anti-abortion legislation: the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act and the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.

One of Bernie Sanders's closest allies in the US Senate, Sherrod Brown nevertheless endorsed Hillary Clinton and campaigned for her in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary in Ohio.

Sherrod Brown was vetted as a potential vice-presidential running mate for Clinton.

Sherrod Brown had the distinct disadvantage that had Clinton won, Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich would have chosen Sherrod Brown's replacement in the Senate, whereas Kaine's replacement would be chosen by Democrat and Clinton ally Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe.

In May 2017 Washington Monthly suggested that Sherrod Brown could unite the establishment and progressive wings of the Democratic Party as a presidential candidate in 2020.

Sherrod Brown has sponsored legislation to require corporate political action committees to disclose their donors.

In 2019, when Sherrod Brown was considering running for president, he pledged not to take donations from corporate PACs.

Sherrod Brown had accepted more than $10.4 million in PAC money from 1997 to 2018.

Since Sherrod Brown declined to seek the presidency in 2019, his Senate campaign committee and leadership PAC have accepted over $1 million in corporate PAC donations.

In 2018, Sherrod Brown was one of several Democrats to claim that Republicans "stole" the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election.

Sherrod Brown's claims mirrored those made by Stacey Abrams, the election's Democratic nominee, that voter suppression allowed Republican nominee Brian Kemp to win the election.

Sherrod Brown opposed the Iraq War and voted against the Iraq Resolution as a House Representative.

Sherrod Brown voted against the $87 billion war budgetary supplement.

Sherrod Brown voted for redeploying US troops out of Iraq by March 2008.

Sherrod Brown voted for the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008, which appropriated $250 billion for ongoing military operations and domestic programs.

In December 2010, Sherrod Brown voted for the ratification of New START, a nuclear arms reduction treaty between the United States and the Russian Federation obliging both countries to have no more than 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 launchers deployed during the next seven years, and providing for a continuation of on-site inspections that halted when START I expired the previous year.

Sherrod Brown was a co-sponsor of reaffirmations of the Taiwan Relations Act and the Six Assurances in regards to United States-Taiwan relations.

In September 2016, in advance of UN Security Council resolution 2334 condemning Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, Sherrod Brown signed an AIPAC-sponsored letter urging President Obama to veto "one-sided" resolutions against Israel.

In February 2019, Sherrod Brown voted against a controversial Israel Anti-Boycott Act initiated by Republicans that would allow states to prohibit government agencies from contracting with organizations involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

In October 2018, Sherrod Brown condemned the genocide of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and called for a stronger response to the crisis.

In November 2018, Sherrod Brown joined Senators Chris Coons, Elizabeth Warren and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in sending the Trump administration a letter raising concerns about the People's Republic of China's undue influence on media outlets and academic institutions in the United States.

In January 2019, after Juan Guaido declared himself interim President of Venezuela, Sherrod Brown said that the United States should "work with our allies and use economic, political and diplomatic leverage to help bring about free and fair elections, limit escalating tension, and ensure the safety of Americans on the ground", and called the Trump administration's suggestions of military intervention "reckless and irresponsible".

Sherrod Brown was one of 67 members of Congress who voted against the 2001 USA PATRIOT Act.

In December 2015, Sherrod Brown co-sponsored a bill in Congress that would restrict ISIS's financing by authorizing new sanctions on foreign financial institutions that knowingly facilitate financial transactions with ISIS.

Sherrod Brown called for banning those on the no fly list from purchasing assault weapons.

Sherrod Brown had argued the bill overwhelmingly benefited wealthy individuals and corporations with a much smaller impact to the middle class.

In 2012, Sherrod Brown co-sponsored the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act, a bill that would prohibit the export of some electronics for environmental reasons.

Sherrod Brown called the Republican legislature in Ohio "lunatics" for introducing a concealed carry bill that would allow individuals to carry guns into airplane terminals, police buildings, private airplanes, and day care facilities.

In 2009, Sherrod Brown voted for the $787-billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Sherrod Brown cast the 60th and final vote upon returning to Washington, DC, after his mother's funeral service.

Sherrod Brown supported the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, voting for it in December 2009, and he voted for the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010.

In 2006, Sherrod Brown co-sponsored the single-payer Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act.

Sherrod Brown did not co-sponsor Senator Bernie Sanders's single-payer health plan, despite saying he has "always been supportive" of such a system.

Sherrod Brown said he was supporting his own plan, which would allow people 55 and older to buy into Medicare.

In January 2019, Sherrod Brown was one of six Democratic senators to introduce the American Miners Act of 2019, a bill that would amend the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to swap funds in excess of the amount needed to meet existing obligations under the Abandoned Mine Land fund to the 1974 Pension Plan as part of an effort to prevent its insolvency as a result of coal company bankruptcies and the 2008 financial crisis.

In September 2019, amid discussions to prevent a government shutdown, Sherrod Brown was one of six Democratic senators to sign a letter to congressional leadership advocating the passage of legislation that would permanently fund health care and pension benefits for retired coal miners as "families in West Virginia, Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, Colorado, North Dakota and New Mexico" would start to receive notifications of health care termination by the end of the following month.

In 2015, Sherrod Brown introduced the Charter School Accountability Act of 2015, which would seek to curb "fraud, abuse, waste, mismanagement and misconduct" in charter schools.

In June 2019, Sherrod Brown was one of ten senators to cosponsor the Safe Freight Act, a bill that would require freight trains to have one or more certified conductors and a certified engineer on board who can collaborate on how to protect the train and people living near the tracks.

Sherrod Brown has criticized free trade with China and other countries.

Sherrod Brown was the co-author and sponsor of a bill that would officially declare China a currency manipulator and require the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties on Chinese imports.

In May 2016, Sherrod Brown called for tariffs to be imposed on imports from China and praised Hillary Clinton's plan to enforce rules and trade laws and triple the enforcement budgets at the United States Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission.

Sherrod Brown opposes NAFTA, which he argues should be renegotiated to aid Ohio workers.

In January 2018, Sherrod Brown expressed support for President Trump's decision to impose tariffs on washing machine imports.

Sherrod Brown supported his first trade agreement in 2019, after never having previously supported one while in Congress.

In 2012, Sherrod Brown wrote a letter to the United States Department of Defense requesting that it comply with a rule requiring members of the military to wear clothes made in the US.

Sherrod Brown was married to Larke Recchie from 1979 to 1987, and they had two children.

Sherrod Brown resigned from her job in 2011, because being a politician's spouse presented a conflict of interest.

Sherrod Brown's brother, Charlie, is a former West Virginia attorney general.

On May 5,2007, Sherrod Brown was awarded an honorary doctorate from Capital University.

On May 18,2014, Sherrod Brown was awarded an honorary doctor of public service degree from Otterbein University.