Ohio Senate Race 2026: Husted vs. Brown in a Special Election

Status as of 12:45 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 1. Candidate names come from the official Ohio ballot certification, and voting rules come from the Ohio Revised Code and county boards of elections. No votes have been counted.

The Ohio Senate race 2026 is a special election that pits appointed Republican Sen. Jon Husted against Democrat Sherrod Brown, who represented Ohio in the Senate for three terms. The winner will serve the final two years of the term, which ends Jan. 3, 2029. This guide covers who is on the ballot, how to vote on Tuesday, and how Ohio counts, reports and certifies its results.

What happened

Vance left the Senate to become vice president, and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the seat in 2025, The Associated Press reported. Husted had been Ohio’s lieutenant governor until that appointment, according to the AP. Brown held Ohio’s other Senate seat for three terms until 2025, after losing to Republican Bernie Moreno, the AP reported.

Ohio has moved sharply toward Republicans over the last decade. President Donald Trump carried the state in the last three presidential elections, and Republicans have controlled both the governor’s office and the Legislature for more than a decade, according to the AP. Polls nonetheless suggest a competitive Senate race this year, the AP reported.

Who is on the ballot

The office appears on the ballot as U.S. Senator for the unexpired term ending Jan. 3, 2029. The Secretary of State certified four candidates for the office in its Aug. 25 ballot directive to county boards, and the Franklin County Board of Elections candidate list, revised Oct. 16, shows the same names:

• Sherrod Brown, Democratic Party
• Jon Husted, Republican Party
• Greg Levy, other-party candidate
• William B. Redpath, Libertarian Party

The Franklin County list also names three certified write-in candidates for the seat: Stephen Faris, Anthony Holliman and Timothy Telymonde. Write-in names do not appear on the ballot, but votes for them can be counted.

The Senate contest is not the only statewide race on Ohio ballots. Voters are also choosing a governor and lieutenant governor, attorney general, auditor, secretary of state, treasurer and two Ohio Supreme Court justices, along with all 15 U.S. House seats and state legislative seats, according to the county list and the AP. DeWine cannot run again because of term limits, the AP reported, and the governor’s race on the certified list is led by Democrat Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, with Libertarian Don Kissick also on the ballot.

Latest development

The campaign is in its final weekend. Trump has endorsed Husted, the AP reported. The cost of living has been a central issue, and Brown has tied Trump’s war in Iran to rising gas prices and criticized Husted’s votes against war powers resolutions, according to the AP. In September, Husted said the war “needs to come to an end as quickly as possible so that we can lower gas prices,” the AP reported.

Brown has also called Husted “the face of data centers,” a reference to Husted’s support for data center projects as lieutenant governor, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee warned in an August memo that data centers could cost Husted the race, according to the AP.

The race has been one of the most expensive in the country. Brown had raised more than $68.4 million as of mid-October, compared with $19.9 million for Husted, and outside groups have spent hundreds of millions of dollars more against both candidates, the AP reported.

What the polls show

Polls are snapshots, not forecasts, and LiveNewsWorld reports only surveys with published methods. A Suffolk University/USA TODAY Network Ohio survey found Brown at 47% and Husted at 44% among likely voters, with 3% for other candidates and 4% undecided. The survey of 500 likely Ohio general election voters was conducted Oct. 21 to 26, 2026, using live telephone interviews, and the margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points at a 95% level of confidence, according to Suffolk’s published release.

The 3-point gap is within that margin of error. Suffolk said the margin had not changed since its September poll, which also had Brown at 47% and Husted at 44%. Other surveys may show different results. Our 2026 midterm election polls tracker explains how to read surveys like this one.

Why it matters

The 2026 midterms will decide control of Congress, where Republicans hold slim majorities in both chambers, NBC News reported. Ohio may be crucial to the Democratic bid to retake Congress, the AP reported. A Brown win would flip a Republican-held seat in a state Trump has carried three times, while a Husted win would keep the seat in Republican hands through January 2029.

Because this is a special election for an unexpired term, the seat will be on the ballot again in 2028. LiveNewsWorld does not publish predictions or win probabilities for this race.

What happens next

How to vote on Election Day

• Hours: Polls open at 6:30 a.m. and close at 7:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Nov. 3, under Ohio Revised Code section 3501.32. Voters who are in line at 7:30 p.m. are allowed to vote.
• Photo ID: In-person voters must announce their full name and current address and provide photo identification, under section 3505.18. The Cuyahoga County Board of Elections lists the accepted IDs as an unexpired Ohio driver’s license or state ID card, a Bureau of Motor Vehicles interim ID form, a U.S. passport or passport card, or a U.S. military, Ohio National Guard or Veterans Affairs ID card with the voter’s name and photo.
• Digital IDs: A digital ID, such as a driver’s license stored in a phone wallet, is not an acceptable form of photo ID for voting, according to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections Election Day page.
• No ID: A voter who does not have an accepted photo ID may cast a provisional ballot. Those voters have four days after Election Day to show an acceptable ID at their county board of elections, according to the Cuyahoga board.
• Absentee ballots: Under section 3509.05, envelopes with marked absentee ballots must be delivered to the board of elections office no later than the close of the polls on Election Day, and ballots that arrive later are not counted. The voter or a listed close relative may return the ballot in person, and a board drop box, where one is provided, stays open until 7:30 p.m. on Election Day. Separate rules apply to military and overseas voters.
• Changed plans: A voter who requested an absentee ballot but goes to the polls on Election Day instead is given a provisional ballot, according to the Cuyahoga board.

How results are reported

All Ohio polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET. Our guide to poll closing times on Election Day 2026 lists the times for every state.

All 88 Ohio counties tend to release all or almost all of their early and absentee results in the first update of the night, in most cases before any in-person Election Day results, the AP reported. About 4.1 million votes were cast in Ohio’s 2022 U.S. Senate race, and about 35% of them were cast early or by absentee ballot, according to the AP. In the 2024 election, the first results were reported at 7:36 p.m. ET, the state reached 50% of votes reporting at 9:01 p.m. ET and 90% at 11:03 p.m. ET, the AP reported.

The AP does not make projections and declares a winner only when there is no scenario in which a trailing candidate could close the gap. For the national picture, see our guide to when 2026 midterm results will be known.

Certification and recounts

Election night totals are unofficial. Under section 3505.32, each county board of elections begins its official canvass no earlier than the fifth day and no later than the 15th day after the election, and must complete it no later than the 21st day after the election. The board first opens and counts envelopes with uncounted ballots, which include provisional ballots that are found valid.

Ohio orders recounts automatically in close races. Under section 3515.011, the Secretary of State must order a recount in a statewide race when the winner’s margin is less than one-fourth of 1%, or 0.25%, of the total vote. The AP may still declare a winner in a race eligible for a recount if it determines the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome, the AP reported.

LiveNewsWorld will report Ohio returns as they are posted and will name the outlet behind any race call. No winner will be reported before one is declared by a named source.

Related live coverage

Follow every contested seat on our US Senate elections 2026 results page, find every guide in the US Midterm Elections 2026 hub, and get the latest Washington news on US Politics Live.

Sources

• Ohio Secretary of State: Directive 2026-45 (Aug. 25, 2026), form of the official ballot and candidates certified for the Nov. 3 general election; Franklin County Board of Elections 2026 general election candidate list (revised Oct. 16, 2026)
• Ohio Revised Code: sections 3501.32 (polling hours), 3505.18 (photo identification), 3509.05 (absentee returns), 3505.32 (official canvass) and 3515.011 (automatic recounts)
• Cuyahoga County Board of Elections: Vote on Election Day page (accepted photo IDs and provisional ballots)
• The Associated Press: What to expect in Ohio on Election Day (Oct. 30, 2026); NBC News national poll report (Nov. 1, 2026)
• Suffolk University/USA TODAY Network Ohio: survey of 500 likely Ohio voters, conducted Oct. 21 to 26, 2026. Sources last updated 12:45 p.m. ET Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026.