So how are people feeling, talking about Republicans, independents, how are they feeling about the president right now?

Oh, well, they, they didn't vote for this, and I, I spend a lot of time in rural Ohio.

I, um, I'm in the cities, I'm in metro areas, I'm in small towns like the industrial city I grew up in.

It's, it's really hurting.

And voters, you almost can't tell which party or what their philosophy is 'cause they say, "I didn't vote for this war." They understand Jon Husted voted for it 14 times.

They didn't vote for, um, for the markets, for...

Soybean farmers didn't vote for the markets to essentially evaporate, um, where there's no place to sell their soybeans like there used to be.

Uh, what is the sense of what it is like in that town for those people?

How did you end up sort of ahead of the curve on this? And why are data centers such a potent issue in Ohio in particular?

Well, I listen to people.

You go, particularly in rural, kind of more Trump country, but even suburban areas and cities, you hear about it all the time.

And you hear about it because it's an example of a rigged system that John Husted is the guy, as I said, he's the face of data centers, not my words, called that by the media.

He got $2.5 billion in tax giveaways from the state, from state taxpayers.

They come in, there are 225 data centers, either built or in the process of being built in Ohio.

They're gobbling up farmland, they're drinking up water.

How's that? How's it different this time than when you were running in 2014?

Why were, you know, so how did you end up sort of ahead of the curve on this? And why are data centers such a potent issue in Ohio in particular?

Well, I listen to people.

You go, particularly in rural, kind of more Trump country, but even suburban areas of cities, you hear about it all the time.

And you hear about it 'cause it's an example of a rigged system, that, uh, Jon Husted is the guy.

As I said, he's the face of data centers.

Not my words.

Called that by the media.

Um, what does he sort of bring to the table? What do you hope to get from that event with him over the next couple days here?

Uh huh.

Right from the start, we gotta do something that improves people's lives.

I was the author of five years ago, the child tax credit.

The child tax credit dropped the, the, um, poverty rate among children by, by 40%.

It benefited the families of two and a half million children in my state alone, a state of 12 million.

It, it's a broad, it's, it's a $4,000 average tax reduction or break or, um, s- whatever, uh, so basically a tax break that goes to, um, a huge number of Ohio families because we've gotta show that we're hearing you about, that we're hearing the public about what's happening with, um, the cost of living.

We've gotta do, we have to make it simple.

But the Democrats promise a lot, the voters deliver on November 3rd, and it's harder to fix these things than it looks.

much smaller than it used to be but you are still a key manufacturer in america a key player in the auto industry what if we had an industrial policy what would that look like because that's not what donald trump's tariff war is actually resulting in

when you can't have you really don't have the basis for industrial policy when you have health care prices going up and up and up right When wages have been flat, people, the average CEO in this country makes $17 million a year.

Worse than that, the average CEO is making 300 times what the average worker makes.

People, the average age for a first-time homebuyer 30 years ago was 29.

Now it's 41.

You can't have an economy with that big a discrepancy where the rich get richer and richer and richer and everybody else drifts.

You just can't do it.

But what of the things that you've just articulated, all of these concerns that these people in the room have, what can you do if you get elected?

What would you do to make sure people have access to healthcare following these changes?

Well, the, the reason 160,000 lost their health insurance at the beginning of this year was that Jon Husted was a swing vote on, um, against putting a cap on premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

Uh, people, a lot of, a lot of small business people, a lot of people that work with...

A lot of farmers were using the Affordable Care Act.

To give you one example, a guy, a, a, an exterminator, single business, a, uh, single-owning business, he's this, this whole company, dealing, you know, exposed to chemicals that most of us in the workplace aren't exposed to.

Um, he...

I talked to him in November.

What do you think about this concern, and how will you address it?

What would you do to make sure people have access to healthcare following these changes?

Well, the, the reason 160,000 lost their health insurance at the beginning of this year was that Jon Husted was a swing vote on, um, against putting a cap on premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

Uh, people, a lot of, a lot of small business people, a lot of people that work with, a lot of farmers were using the Affordable Care Act.

To give you one example, a guy, a, a, an exterminator, single business, a, uh, single-owned business.

He's his, his whole company, dealing, you know, exposed to chemicals that most of us in the workplace aren't exposed to.

Um, he- I talked to him in November.

He said he thought his insurance was gonna double, and he didn't know what he'd do.

What do you think about this concern, and how will you address it?

Uh, uh, Senator Brown, what is your response to what you heard Donald Trump say about you tonight?

tonight?Well, I, I've, I've heard it before.

Um, he do- he doesn't want to...

He knows that John Husted is getting bailed.

John Husted's asked to be bailed out, uh, by the techno crowd.

He's asked for tens of millions of dollars to come in and, and, and bail him out, to rescue him from the data center crowd, and Wall Street, and, and big oil, and big pharma, and they wanna change the subject.

And he knows that this war is, that John Husted's voted for this war 14 times.

Uh, w- what is your reaction to that?

And so what is John Husted trying to do now to offer the optics, at the very least, that he is an independent voice in the U.S. Senate?

Well, he says he wants to end the war, it needs to end, and then he votes for it for the 14th time.

So the optics, I guess, are what they are.

John Husted was a special interest politician in Ohio that looked out for the utility company.

He was involved in a huge scandal where There was a $61 million bribe to a local politician who went to jail.

Husted is that he was a special interest guy in Columbus.

Now he's a special interest guy in Washington.

And so for people that you've spoken to, particularly independents and Republicans, what have those conversations been like where you have someone who, you know, for whom their support for Republican candidates or politicians is, has been a big factor in who they are, but are now recognizing that it's not working for them.

[laughs] Yeah.

So, uh, the optics I, I guess are what they are.

I, uh, John Husted was a special interest politician in Ohio that looked out for the in- for, um, for the utility company.

He was involved in a huge scandal where, uh, there was a $61 million, um, bribe to a local politician who went to jail.

Um, Husted is, and he was a special interest guy in Columbus, now he's a special interest guy in Washington.

In Washington it's the data centers, it's the drug companies, it's Wall Street.

Uh, he occasionally sponsors a bill that might look good, the politics might look good, but never materializes and continues to vote against Ohioans' interests.

Yeah.

yeah you mentioned data centers and donald trump was all about data centers over the weekend i'm sure you saw this he was speaking about how much he loves data center apparently he defended the data centers at this event um and went on and on about this why is it why is this issue getting people so fired up uh in particular in ohio

Yeah, I mean, people think the whole system's rigged against them.

And it's been rigged for a number of years.

It's just so much worse now because people didn't vote for the war, didn't vote for these higher prices.

But data centers sort of are really that.

John Husted is called the face of data centers by the media in Ohio.

He got $2.5 billion in tax subsidies, giveaways to the data centers.

Is that kind of the long and the short as to why the tide is shifting? What is your sense of it? Because you know Ohio politics so well, Senator.

Why do you think this industry doesn't want you back in Washington?

Well, John Huston actually, two weeks ago, sent out a plea to be bailed out by the crypto data center crowd.

And they responded, as you said, right now with $30 million, dropping $30 million in this race beginning about a week ago.

They know that John Huston will always do their bidding.

He got a $2.5 billion tax giveaway for the crypto data center crowd coming to Ohio.

He votes for for billionaire tax cuts.

He votes on, votes for the war, votes for the terrorist, votes for all those things.

What would you do if you returned to the Senate in order to be a check on Trump when it comes to data centers and big tech?

That statement by, uh, John Husted, uh, are people, uh, do people believe he actually spoke to, uh, this young lady, he says, who doesn't know what money is?

I, I don't think probably John Husted spends a lot of time himself in grocery stores, but it's just the, I mean, it, just what comes through here is, one, that he doesn't listen to people.

Second, he doesn't care about people.

That's why he votes for tax cuts for billionaires.

That's why he's voted 14 times for this war, where p- diesel prices and fertilizer prices and gas prices and food prices go up and up and up.

He's either not aware or he doesn't care 'cause he's not getting, and that's, that really is the underlying theme of this.

'Cause th- those people that were talking, they had never seen those words until they were filmed looking at it on a phone, and, um, I think even, they were surprised.

How are you even still standing at this point with all the money they've poured in there against you?

What would you do to make sure people have access to health care following these changes?

Well, the reason 160,000 lost their health insurance at the beginning of this year was that John Husted was a swing vote on against putting a cap on premiums under the Affordable Care Act.

People, a lot of small business people, a lot of people that work with a lot of farmers were using the Affordable Care Act.

an exterminator, single business, single-owning business.

He's his whole company dealing, exposed to chemicals that most of us in the workplace aren't exposed to.

I talked to him in November.

He said he thought his insurance was going to double.

What do you think about this concern and how will you address it?

Now, I asked Sherrod Brown about his past support for data center construction in Ohio, and pushed him on what's different now.

What's different now is that these invest- these out-of-state corporations have come in.

Um, they've gotten these 200, $2.5 billion in subsidies.

Uh, they've gone in local communities.

Local communities had no say over this.

Uh, uh, taking their land, swallowing up their water, and then they have to pay more in electric bills for this.

And, uh, nobody, you know, it, it's, it's just, you build 250 of these, and one guy has led the charge on these.

Aren't there gonna be a lot of jobs and economic investment that comes from that? How do you balance those two things?

Senator Brown, the cost of diesel fuel, the cost of gas in Ohio going up by the day, we're now, what, 15 days away from early voting in Ohio? There's nothing going to change in those prices in the next two weeks.

Well, things might change because I was in Southeast Ohio and Marietta and Athens and Newark yesterday.

And the prices I saw in a rural area of diesel were about 50 cents higher than 30 cents, probably higher than that.

And not getting any better, I'm told.

And that's You know, that means truckers are paying higher prices.

They use diesel.

It means farmers and their tractors and combines.

What does the crypto business have to fear from you?

But what do you make of his effort to revise his record on this issue that I know is on the mind of so many people in Ohio?

Well, he's trying to run away from...

J.D. Vance's trying to run away from his special interest past.

I mean, he was a special interest guy in Columbus for the, for the, um, insurance companies and the electric companies.

Now he's a special interest guy in Washington.

Uh, he was the guy who, um, was the point man for the 200-plus data centers in Ohio, $2.5 billion in tax breaks, uh, higher electric rates.

We have some of the highest electricity rates in the country now, and did this without anybody, without anybody locally having any in- input.

What do you think should be involved in, in regulations as, as we look ahead to the challenges should you return to the Senate?

Can you talk a little bit about how the tariffs on Canada and this kind of re-ignition of this trade war is impacting folks in your backyard?

Well, the tariff in Canada to most Ohioans is just, um, just underscoring the, the bad tariff policy of the past.

I mean, it's just sort of one more.

I don't know that people...

Maybe people in northern Ohio, 'cause they live closer to Canada, and [chuckles] let's say closer to Lake Ontario, but don't get into that issue.

But I, I think they just really see the damage it's done.

If you're a farmer, uh, you've seen that you've lost your soybean markets.

H- how do we change that? How do we get Congress moving again to actually working on behalf of the people that voted, say, senators into office?

There's a whole lot of reasons why Donald Trump seems to be on the wrong side of this issue.

issue.Well, and I would say no one, I'm not a pundit, but no one has done more for data centers, uh, than John Husted.

He pushed the legislature in Columbus two and a half billion dollars in tax breaks.

And n- no, and no local input on these coming to your community.

226 of them, I believe, at last count in Ohio built or, or in the process of being built.

And nobody really trusts the data centers or John Husted to make sure that the electricity p- rates aren't raised for local people.

Ohio has some of the largest, um, change in, in electricity rate increases in the country for two reasons.

We're, we're talking about billions of dollars, not millions.

Uh, you cut Medicaid, you vote to cut Medicaid, or you don't.

Yeah.

We, um...

I hear those stories.

That was the most, most poignant one.

I did a round table six, eight months ago and met her, met Audrey's mother, and, uh, it was a stunning moment.

But I hear those kinds of stories from people that have been promised, uh, that Medic- that they won't make those cuts, promised that they'll speak out against the war, for all these kinds of things that, that they feel betrayed.

What do you see, uh, in the primary results that we're seeing around the country tonight, particularly in Florida? What, what are the indicators that you see there for Democrats, and, and what turns out to be the, the diminishing power of the Trump endorsement?

"This is an example of throwing the baby out with the bathwater." Is that how you see it?

Yeah, uh, but more than that.

Again, it's, it's, um...

I, I was talking to a, a flight attendant in Columbus one day, and she said, "What's happened to our country with this kind of corporate greed and this president?" And I said, "Well, we used to have a Supreme Court, and we used to have a legislative branch that would actually stand up and do the right thing and, and, and could, could contain or could put, sorry, the cliche, guardrails on what a president did." But when you have a senator...

I mean, John Husted was a, was a special interest guy in Columbus, then the governor appointed him to the Senate.

Now he's a special interest guy in Washington, joining another four dozen special interest, uh, compliant senators that simply don't do their jobs.

And, uh, it means they'll have more money than they need in all these races.

Who's counting? Um, what, what's your plan for keeping the momentum going through November?

And what are people around Ohio telling you, other than just the war? What are they telling you are their primary concerns about, um, their day-to-day?

day-to-day?Uh, I hear, I was talking to a, an exterminator, so, uh, one, one person business, uh, exterminator in Columbus, and he, back in October the first time I talked to him, and he was afraid that Congress wouldn't put a cap on premiums for the Affordable Care Act, so he had some help that way.

Uh, and they didn't.

They f- Husted, I believe eight or nine times, seven or eight or nine times voted against that cap.

And, uh, uh, uh, his, his, uh, his premiums more than doubled and he dropped his insurance.

Uh, and look at the kind of business he's in, where he's exposed to dangerous chemicals, and when he drops his insurance, it's terrible for him, but it's also when he shows up at a hospital without being able to pay for it, um, it raises everybody else's insurance or, or healthcare costs.

So, um, i- it's just one thing after another.

It's something he's been pushing and peddling for a long time in Ohio.

What would change if the Democrats have 51 votes in the Senate next year?

Well, you wouldn't see, you wouldn't see clownish nominees like you say, uh, Lawrence.

You wouldn't see these terrible federal judges.

I mean, it'd be a whole different thing.

I don't know if Trump would send different nominees or [laughs] who knows, but you wouldn't see the spectacle you see.

And then, you know, this is all happening instead of the Senate and the House and the White House paying any attention to helping people deal with their problems in their daily lives.

You know, gas prices up, diesel prices up, uh, all that's meant for fertilizer, food costs.

Those, that's what he said, "I don't care about the housing bill."

like that's so amazing how his music, how like, his music just this transcends time like no matter right like not everybody does that you know but michael jackson's music really just connects with the child and all of us yeah no matter what right that's a blessing that's a blessing all right well your new album is called daily beloved what was the meaning behind that title so dearly beloved

is um The second album and a trilogy piece that I'm putting out.

So my first album is called Love Jones.

The second one is Dearly Beloved.

I haven't really kind of schemed and got the last one.

It'll have something to do with all the connection of love and things of that nature.

But how I came up with the idea and the thought for my second album, Dearly Beloved... was a complete compilation of songs, obviously trying to like make them all fit in together cohesively to make it make sense as far as the album, but a compilation of love songs that they all don't line up as far as like time as like a complete story, but they're all different like love stories about, different love interests, different experiences in life, um, that connect and coincide with one another.

How has your city shaped your sound and your hunger?

this all available funds thing.

Well, from your time in the Finance Committee and, uh, just, I, I don't think anybody knows what that means.

But the, the point is that he took 106 or 115, $116,000 for an Epstein co-conspirator, and within weeks he voted to close the files.

But it's, it's sort of his history.

He was a special interest lieutenant governor, looked out for the gas companies and the electric companies and the drug companies and Wall Street, and now he's a special interest senator.

Um, and the Republicans have committed to hold this seat, $79 million and, and counting, more than that.

That's why I ask people, uh, to come to sherrodbrown.com and, and help us with 15 or 20 bucks, 'cause they're gonna do that.

Donald Trump keeps telling them, "Don't worry, the price of gas will go down fast as soon as we reopen the Strait of Hormuz." But Donald Trump doesn't seem to understand that money that they're spending, 4.50 a gallon, is never coming back.