Former Sen. Sherrod Brown has won the Democratic nomination in Ohio’s special Senate election, NBC News projects, paving the way for a nationally watched general election matchup against Republican incumbent Jon Husted.

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Husted, who was appointed to the seat last year, was unopposed in his primary.

For Brown, 73, the primary victory over software consultant Ron Kincaid, a political newcomer, was the first step in a comeback effort after a re-election loss in 2024, when Republican car dealer Bernie Moreno beat him by 4 points. Moreno was boosted by Donald Trump, who had endorsed him and who was on the top of the ballot that year.

Brown was aggressively recruited to run again by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who sees Ohio as a top pickup opportunity in the Democrats’ fight to regain control of the Senate. Maine, North Carolina, Alaska and Iowa are among the other states the party has hopes of flipping this fall, with Michigan and Georgia among the battlegrounds where it is playing defense.

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted, 58, to the Senate when JD Vance left the seat after he won the vice presidency. Husted, like Brown, is a mainstay in Ohio politics, having been DeWine’s lieutenant governor and, before that, Ohio’s secretary of state and speaker of the state House. Trump endorsed Husted, helping spare him a primary challenger.

The Ohio race is expected to be among the most expensive in the country. Brown’s campaign had $17 million in the bank as of mid-April — more than double Husted’s $8.1 million, according to the Federal Election Commission. But outside money is likely to pour into the state and give Husted cover, much like it did Moreno in 2024.

Both candidates debuted their first TV ads last week.

Husted’s 30-second spot opened on a biographical note and asserted his commitment to job growth.

“I started my life in a foster home,” Husted, who has shared his adoption story publicly, says in the ad. “I tell young people, where you start in life doesn’t limit your future. Work hard, believe in yourself and never lose hope.”

Brown does not appear in his ad, which focuses on money Husted’s campaigns received over the years from associates of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender. Husted this year contributed a total of $34,300 — a figure that encompasses donations from former Epstein business partner Leslie Wexner and his wife — to an Ohio charity that works with human trafficking victims.

“Jon Husted — who’s he really working for?” a narrator asks in the ad.

Brown is the only Democrat with a sustained track record of statewide success in Ohio over the last three decades, having won three Senate terms after a stint as secretary of state in the 1980s. The only other Democrat since 1996 who has won more than one statewide election for a nonjudicial office is former President Barack Obama.

After his 2018 re-election victory, Brown contemplated running for president in 2020 by offering a blueprint for how Democrats could win back Midwest states that Trump carried. Brown decided against a White House bid but continued to advance his “dignity of work” message aimed at blue-collar workers.