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'Start by listening' Sherrod Brown discusses his path to winning Ohio again · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Well, but when I got to Ohio, I had a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: chance to sit down and have a discussion with the
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: with the Senate Democratic Senate candidate in this state, Sherrod Brown.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: He was out meeting with supporters and and other activists
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: on his campaign. So we caught up with him at
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: a local a local restaurant.
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  Speaker 2: Here's some of what we we talked about.
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  Speaker 3: I know over most of these people here and many
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: have been activists for years and love this country.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Many thought we can't stay on the sidelines. You've got
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  Speaker 2: to get involved to save the country, to save democracy.
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  Speaker 3: But also they understand how rigged this system is against.
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  Speaker 2: Workers, workers of all kinds.
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  Speaker 3: And the third group is they've never been involved and
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  Speaker 3: they know.
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  Speaker 2: They need to be. How many are in that group?
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  Speaker 1: How many people have not otherwise found themselves active in elections?
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  Speaker 2: Put up your hand. Thanks. Well, thank you for doing that.
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  Speaker 2: And there's some converts here. I know that.
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  Speaker 1: Oh.
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  Speaker 2: I won't mention names, but there's some converts. We're going
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  Speaker 2: to talk in a moment. We like the converts.
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  Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that, because if you look, and
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  Speaker 1: I know you're going to say that I say this.
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  Speaker 2: To all the Senate candidates. But the road to control
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  Speaker 2: of the Senate, as opposed.
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  Speaker 1: To the House, which is looking pretty strong for Democrats,
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  Speaker 1: the road to control for the Senate, there are many
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  Speaker 1: of them, but most of them go right through Ohio.
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  Speaker 1: And in order for you to get reelected to the Senate,
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  Speaker 1: there are going to need to be some converts and
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  Speaker 1: some independents. So how are you having that conversation with them?
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  Speaker 2: Well, you start by listening. And people.
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  Speaker 3: Particularly in places like rural Ohio where none of us
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: does well. Democrats just don't do well. And people, you know,
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  Speaker 3: people didn't vote. Farmers didn't vote for higher tariffs, didn't
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  Speaker 3: vote for higher diesel prices, didn't vote for their soybean
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  Speaker 3: crop to evaporate. People didn't vote for this war throughout
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  Speaker 3: the state. People didn't vote for the kind of inflation
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: they've seen with food and with transportation. And so you
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: listen and you hear people talk about that, and you
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: let them to come to their own conclusion.
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  Speaker 2: But they all know.
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  Speaker 3: John Husted's been on the wrong side, voted for the
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  Speaker 3: war 14 times, voted for tariffs a number of times,
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  Speaker 3: voted against putting a.
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  Speaker 2: Cap on health care prices.
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  Speaker 3: 160,000 Ohioans have lost their health care because of that
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  Speaker 3: one vote. So people don't need a lot of– they
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: don't need a picture painted.
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  Speaker 2: They understand that intuitively. Right. Now, everybody in this room
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  Speaker 2: knows you're the candidate.
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  Speaker 1: There's some weird polling that came out of Ohio the
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  Speaker 1: other day that indicated a whole lot of people are
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  Speaker 1: not clear that John Husted is actually the United States senator.
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  Speaker 1: And a number of them thought you actually were. Now,
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  Speaker 1: on one hand, that's good. But for a guy who's
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: trying to get votes, that's actually a problem, right? You
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  Speaker 1: need people to know you're the guy.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to be the United States senator. You got
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  Speaker 2: that right.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Well, I think that, I mean, what they.
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  Speaker 3: Do know is they're learning more and more that John
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  Speaker 3: Husted voted for this war over and over and over,
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  Speaker 3: could have played a role in stopping it. John Husted
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  Speaker 3: is very much at the center of the data centers here.
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  Speaker 2: He's the one that got $ 2 billion in.
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  Speaker 3: And essentially Ohio taxpayer gifts to these 200 data centers.
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  Speaker 3: He's the reason electricity prices are going up, as he
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  Speaker 3: is as the essentially unindicted co-conspirator on First Energy and
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  Speaker 3: the biggest scandal we've ever had in state government Ohio.
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  Speaker 3: So people are learning more and more that the rig
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  Speaker 3: system has got appreciably worse in the last decade. in
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  Speaker 3: the last two years, and people know that John Husted's
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  Speaker 3: the reason for that.
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  Speaker 1: Now, when you peel away the outrageous stuff that's going on,
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  Speaker 1: the corruption, the war that nobody asked for, that, by
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  Speaker 1: the way, Ohio provides a lot of members of our military,
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  Speaker 1: so war matters in this state, the diesel prices, the fertilizer,
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  Speaker 1: the tariff war, if that were to go away, Ohio
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  Speaker 1: still has things that are priorities for this state, including
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  Speaker 1: the fact that it's got a strong manufacturing base. It
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  Speaker 1: is much stronger much smaller than it used to be,
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  Speaker 1: but you are still a key manufacturer in America, a
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  Speaker 1: key player in the auto industry.
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  Speaker 2: What if we had an industrial policy? What would that
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  Speaker 2: look like?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's not what Donald Trump's tariff war is actually
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  Speaker 1: resulting in.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you can't have, you really don't have the basis
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  Speaker 3: for industrial policy when you have health care prices.
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  Speaker 2: Going up and up and up, when wages have been flat.
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  Speaker 3: People, the average CEO in this country makes $ 17.
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  Speaker 2: Million a year.
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  Speaker 3: Worse than that, the average CEO is making... 300 times
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  Speaker 3: what the average worker makes. People, the average age for
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  Speaker 3: a first-time homebuyer 30 years ago was 29.
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  Speaker 2: Now it's 41.
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  Speaker 3: You can't have an economy with that big a discrepancy
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  Speaker 3: where the rich get richer and richer and richer and
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  Speaker 3: everybody else drifts.
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  Speaker 2: You just can't deal.
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  Speaker 3: So you start with that, with better health care policy,
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  Speaker 3: with getting rid of this war, with focus on workers.
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  Speaker 3: But the problem with the Trump industrial policy is such
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  Speaker 3: a thing, or the Husted industrial policy, is that they.
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  Speaker 2: Don't have workers at the table.
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  Speaker 3: I was one of the leading opponents of NAFTA and
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  Speaker 3: then PNTR and then the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The first thing
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  Speaker 3: you start with is you need workers at the table.
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  Speaker 3: negotiating those agreements and giving input. You need that community
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  Speaker 3: after community. If you don't have it, you really can't
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  Speaker 3: build the way we need to.
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  Speaker 1: So when I'm in Ohio and when I'm in Michigan,
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  Speaker 1: I meet a lot of people who say they don't.
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  Speaker 2: Really like what NAFTA did.
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  Speaker 1: They don't really like what the USMCA did. They didn't
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  Speaker 1: want America at the table for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. But
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  Speaker 1: what does success in trade and tariffs look like, right?
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  Speaker 1: Donald Trump says tariffs are the most beautiful word he knows.
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  Speaker 1: He just maybe doesn't know a lot of words because
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  Speaker 1: it's It's something, and there's not no use for it,
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  Speaker 1: but this ham-fisted approach can't even satisfy you and people
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  Speaker 1: who don't.
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  Speaker 3: Want all the trade. And it goes back to listening
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  Speaker 3: to workers or not. And when the CEOs make 300
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  Speaker 3: times what the workers make. It's clear they're not listening
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  Speaker 3: to workers and you can't you just can't build an
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  Speaker 3: economy on that. And they don't really have an interest
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  Speaker 3: in building. They have an interest in higher stock market prices,
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  Speaker 3: regardless of a declining, essentially declining middle minimum wage.
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  Speaker 2: In spite of the fact that workers that workers are
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  Speaker 2: working harder and know they know they'll never get ahead.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, they know in.
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  Speaker 3: This economy and then they see. these huge dollars coming in, uh,
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  Speaker 3: from the drug company. And I mean, there will be
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  Speaker 3: more money spent against me for the last time, more
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  Speaker 3: than any in the country.
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  Speaker 2: This may be the most, maybe, maybe.
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  Speaker 3: Texas, but, and you know, that's, that's why when I'm
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  Speaker 3: on your show and I've done it before, I asked
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  Speaker 3: people to come to Sharon brown.com and contribute.
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  Speaker 2: 10 or $ 15. Cause we, we, we can, we beat
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  Speaker 2: this back. We'll be outspent. I'm okay on that. We
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  Speaker 2: just need to have enough. And we're on track to
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  Speaker 2: do that. Who is it? It's been the drug companies
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  Speaker 2: in the past. You've had crypto money working against you. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: AI money. What are you up against?
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  Speaker 1: When you're asking people for small dollar donations, how do
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  Speaker 1: you express what you're up against?
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  Speaker 3: Well, now it's Elon Musk, too. I mean, he's saying
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  Speaker 3: that he's going to put millions. It doesn't really matter.
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  Speaker 3: We know it's the crypto companies. We know it's the
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  Speaker 3: data center money. We know it's the drug companies. We
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  Speaker 3: know it's Wall Street. And it doesn't matter because they
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  Speaker 3: know John Husted's their guy.
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  Speaker 2: And they know I'll take them on. So dark money
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  Speaker 2: is dark money.
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  Speaker 3: It's going to be 250, 300 million for sure. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, and they're going to run ads that simply
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  Speaker 3: aren't true, that provably aren't true. And they're going to
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  Speaker 3: run so many of them and they're going to do
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  Speaker 3: so much direct mail that. But we just again, we
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  Speaker 3: need to have enough to get my message across. And
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  Speaker 3: my message is pretty simple. I'll take on these guys.
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  Speaker 2: That John Husted works for.
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  Speaker 1: Can you do enough as a United States senator? I
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  Speaker 1: think a lot will depend on what else happens on
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  Speaker 1: November 3rd in the House and the Senate. But can
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  Speaker 1: you start to help righting this ship? You can't do
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  Speaker 1: all of it while Donald Trump is still president. But
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  Speaker 1: what of the things that you've just articulated, all of
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  Speaker 1: these concerns that these people in.
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  Speaker 2: The room have, what can you do if you get elected? Well, you...
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  Speaker 2: You stop the bleeding, first of all.
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  Speaker 3: One thing that I don't lobby my colleagues. I talk
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  Speaker 3: to them from time to time if they call me,
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  Speaker 3: my former colleagues and future colleagues. But one of the
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  Speaker 3: things I say is we should, right from the start,
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  Speaker 3: we don't go on a revenge tour. Right from the start,
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  Speaker 3: we've got to do something that improves people's lives. I
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  Speaker 3: was the author five years ago of the Child Tax Credit.
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  Speaker 3: The Child Tax Credit dropped the poverty rate among children
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  Speaker 3: by 40%.
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  Speaker 2: It benefited the families.
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  Speaker 3: Of two and a half million children in my state alone,
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  Speaker 3: a state of 12 million. It's a broad, it's a $ 4, 000
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  Speaker 3: average tax reduction or break or whatever, basically tax break.
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  Speaker 3: that goes to a huge number of Ohio families, because
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  Speaker 3: we've got to show that we're hearing you about, we're
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  Speaker 3: hearing the public about what's happening with the cost of living.
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  Speaker 2: We've got to do it.
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  Speaker 3: We have to make it simple. We have to talk
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  Speaker 3: about it. And we know Trump may veto, but he
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: might not. We've got to be on the side of, yeah,
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  Speaker 3: we hear you about the cost of living. Our number
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  Speaker 3: one priority is to make sure that we fight, that
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  Speaker 3: we work to shrink that gap to lower those rates
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  Speaker 3: and to give people hope for the future.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, we hold them accountable.
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  Speaker 3: We're not going to, you know, we're not obviously confirming
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  Speaker 3: judges that are Trump judges, but there's much we can
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  Speaker 3: do to help people in their daily lives.
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  Speaker 2: Is there any danger.
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  Speaker 1: That because the administration will still work to stymie your
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: efforts in the next two years, is there some danger
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: that you promise a lot? I don't mean you specifically,
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  Speaker 1: but the Democrats promise a lot. The voters deliver on
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  Speaker 1: November 3rd. And it's harder to fix these things than
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  Speaker 1: it looks.
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  Speaker 3: Well, of course it's hard to fix because you have
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  Speaker 3: a president. One, we don't know what Trump's going to
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  Speaker 3: act like after the election. We also don't know what
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: the spineless Republican senators and House members are going to
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  Speaker 3: do when they lose their gavels, lose their majority.
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  Speaker 2: They're going to finally say, you know.
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  Speaker 3: This wasn't working for the country and it's not working,
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  Speaker 3: they may say, for their political future.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a roll of the dice.
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  Speaker 3: But I know enough of these people to think that
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  Speaker 3: maybe some of them will have have gotten some courage
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  Speaker 3: because of this election. I don't know that, but I
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  Speaker 3: know we have to be fighting for people getting the opportunity.
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  Speaker 3: What do we do to help them buy a house?
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  Speaker 3: What do we do to give them a little more money?
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  Speaker 3: What do we do to bring down gas? I mean,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: one of the things, when I say, what are you
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: going to do? First thing we've got to do is
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: end the war.
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  Speaker 2: Then we've got to end the tariffs.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: Then we've got to, frankly, say no to stock trading
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: and these members of Congress getting richer because they know
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: inside stocks.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Hey, it's Rachel.
• 10:36
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• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Thanks.