Annie Comes Home: 40 days out: State of the race

Thursday, September 24, 2026

40 days out: State of the race

Thanks for being here, folks. We’re 40 days out from the election, and a lot has happened in the past few weeks. Here’s what you need to know:

1. This week, a billionaire-backed crypto group began a $30 million ad blitz here in Ohio to try to stop us.

The Republican establishment was already spending $14 million each week against us. With crypto jumping in, that weekly amount is skyrocketing.

For reference, our campaign is currently spending about $2 million on TV ads each week.

Combined Republican spending is now at $238 million against me this cycle.

2. Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Peter Thiel are personally spending against me to bail out Jon Husted.

Musk aired his first TV ad of the midterms last week, and he hand selected Ohio as his first target.

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel spent $3.6 million against me for just one week of attack ads, and we’re bracing for a lot more spending. In 2022, he poured $15 million into JD Vance’s Senate campaign, and the Vice President has been doing his bidding ever since. Now, Thiel wants another senator in his pocket.

Even though we’re in the final stretch of this race, the attacks are just beginning. According to The New York Times, Musk is planning to put more than $100 million into buying Senate seats this cycle, and he’s coordinating with the Koch network and other dark-money groups to do it. All of these shady actors are teaming up to magnify the force of their millions because Ohio is the domino that decides Senate control.

3. Trump knows his Republican Senate majority is vulnerable, so he’s sending reinforcements directly to Ohio.

This month, Republicans gathered in Dallas for the RNC convention – the first time in more than four decades that a major party has held one outside a presidential election year. They know their Senate majority is at risk, and Trump can see it too.

That’s why we weren’t surprised when the event opened with Tim Scott personally coming after me by name, immediately spewing lies about my record of fighting for Ohioans.

Election experts say we have a strong shot at winning back the Senate. Trump’s answer is to make it a spectacle, and Jon Husted followed suit. Husted took to that stage too to smear me personally, instead of taking any accountability for raising costs for Ohioans, for ripping away their health care, and for voting 13 times to continue the Iran war.

Husted is losing ground in Ohio and now he’s got Trump’s money to bail him out. Trump has committed to spend over $12 million in Ohio to drag Husted across the finish line, which comes out to more than $1.3 million a week. We owe it to our country to prove that our democracy is not for sale – not to Donald Trump, not to the big tech billionaires fighting against us, and not to the special interests rigging the system in their favor.

4. Inside Elections just moved Ohio from "Tilt R" to "Toss-up".

Despite the GOP’s money machine working against us, Inside Elections has upgraded our race from “Tilt R” to “Toss-up.” That’s the most competitive rating there is, and it’s not a small thing to earn it while fending off that kind of massive spending.

Ratings like this don’t move because of a hunch. They move because analysts who study these races for a living look at the polling, the data, the spending, and the enthusiasm, and conclude that something big is happening here. A year ago, this seat looked safely Republican, but today, it’s a toss-up. And the fact that it’s happening while billionaires are throwing everything they have at us should tell you something about the strength of what we’ve built.

5. Where we go these last 40 days

I'm encouraged by the fact that it’s taking Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Donald Trump emptying their pockets all at once to keep this race close. But we can’t afford to get complacent. Their spending against us is going to take a toll. It buys a lot of airtime, and we’re about to be outspent massively by the wealthiest people on the planet, all at the same time.

This election shouldn’t be decided by billionaires. It should be decided by Ohioans.

So now, I’m asking you to help make this our biggest grassroots fundraising day of the whole campaign. We won’t be able to match their spending. We’re going to be outspent. But we need the resources to stay competitive enough in the money race that we can break through the noise.

If you can, please consider chipping in $5 or $10 to help us stay afloat.

If you've saved payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:

There’s much more to do, and we’re entering the most intense phase of this election. I’m glad to have you on this team.

See you out there,

Sherrod

Note: This email only reflects donations made online with this email address. If you've made a previous contribution via check or with a different email address/phone number, you may not see it here – but know that Sherrod and our entire team are deeply grateful for your support.

When you love your country, you fight for the people who make it work.

Hey there! It's Sherrod Brown.

There's nobody fighting for Ohioans in the U.S. Senate right now, and I won't sit on the sidelines while working people get screwed over by large corporations and wealthy political donors.

If you work hard, you should be able to afford a decent life. But the reality is, life is too expensive. Costs are going up. Wages are staying stagnant. Working people are working harder than ever before, and they're not getting their share of the profit.

This campaign is all about changing that – and election analysts say we have a strong shot at winning in November.

But I'll need your help to pull it off: My opponent is a Washington insider being propped up by the Republican establishment, and he's got virtually unlimited resources.

That's not how our campaign works. We're a grassroots movement, and that means we rely on ordinary people chipping in a couple bucks. If you're able, please make a donation of any amount today. It could be what helps us flip Ohio and the Senate.

If you'd like to receive exclusive updates from my team, you can text "OHIO" to 64054.

Thank you.