Opinion | Can Sherrod Brown Survive in a State Thats Turning Against Him?

Twelve years ago, Senator Sherrod Brown, the Ohio Democrat, took the stage at his election night party in Columbus to celebrate winning a second term.Barack Obama had just carried Ohio for the second time, after emphasizing his administration’s rescue of the auto industry.

Mr.Brown wanted to proclaim that success onstage, but he was losing his voice, so his wife, the writer Connie Schultz, took over for him.As she got to Jeep expanding its Toledo operations and General Motors building the Chevy Cruze at its rejuvenated plant near Youngstown, Mr.

Brown started interjecting croaks to make sure she got the details right.“The aluminum is made in Cleveland … the transmission is made in Toledo … the engine is made in Defiance … the airbag is made in Brunswick.”I thought about that moment often while on the campaign trail in Ohio this month.

Mr.Brown is running for re-election again.

But the political landscape is much changed.Ohio is no longer a presidential battleground.

G.M.no longer makes the Cruze — the Lordstown plant where it was assembled closed in 2019.

And Mr.Brown, who won his last two races by five and seven points, is in a tight race against a car dealership magnate named Bernie Moreno.Mr.

Brown and a dwindling band of Democrats in Ohio are still making the case for a certain kind of Democratic Party — one that cares about the working class, that invests in their towns and factories and values the manufacturing jobs that power the nation.That case should have become easier to make of late.

Over the past four years, the Biden administration has championed huge investments in renewable energy and computer chip production; two new Intel plants are under construction near Columbus.Yet the political landscape is tougher than ever for Mr.

Brown and the last remaining Ohio Democrats.There are several possible explanations.Sixty percent of Ohio residents have only a high school diploma, an associate degree or a few years of college — a rela...