Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said Saturday that he believes the U.S. is ready for a liberal leader, predicting he would prevail over President Trump in their respective home states should he seek the White House in 2020.
“I would say that I will beat Trump in Ohio, where they know me best. I’ll beat him in my home state and I’ll beat him in his home state of New York, where they know him best,” Brown told CNN’s “The Van Jones Show” in an interview that aired this weekend.
Brown won re-election in 2018 to serve the state of Ohio for a third term by almost 7 percentage points. Trump thumped 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Ohio by 8 percentage points. Trump lost in deep blue New York by more than 20 points.
Brown, who said he and his family were still debating whether he would officially run for the White House, used his cable news appearance to tout his voting record against the Iraq War, his decadeslong support of marriage equality, and his lifetime “F” rating from the National Rifle Association for his positions on gun rights. He’s set to embark on a listening tour, dubbed the “Dignity of Work” tour, during the first week of February to visit the four early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada.
“I like the diversity. I like the energy,” Brown said, referring to the already crowded Democratic primary field. “But you know, too many national Democrats think we either speak to the progressive base or you speak to workers, when in fact it’s not an either/or — you have to do both. You don’t win my part of the country unless you do both. If you love your country, you fight for the people who make it work.”
Brown said the only way a Democrat will lose in 2020 is if they focus solely on Trump.
[Read more: 45 Democrats jostling to challenge Trump in 2020]
