COLUMBUS, Ohio — Democratic superstar Sen. Sherrod Brown’s five-decade career came to an abrupt end last week as GOP challenger Bernie Moreno pulled off an upset — but the Ohio senator-elect is still waiting on a traditional concession call.
Brown made no attempt to contact or concede to the Republican on election night or the following morning, sources close to Moreno and his campaign confirmed to The Post.
One week later, Moreno hasn’t received so much as a text message from Brown or even his staff, close sources again tell The Post — though the new senator was fully prepared himself to call Brown on election night and concede personally if he lost.
Moreno seems unbothered and is instead focused on hiring and aligning senatorial staff, sources say.
That’s become a doubly important task, as the imminent Capitol Hill departure of Vice President-elect JD Vance, also from Ohio, will leapfrog Moreno into the Buckeye State’s de facto senior senator position.
From there, the 57-year-old has a very simple and public item at the top of his first-term agenda: ripping the gavel out of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s very blue hands.
“I’ve got a message to Senator Schumer: Thanks for your help during the primaries, but you’re fired, buddy,” Moreno goaded during his election-night acceptance speech near Cleveland. “We’re sick of politicians that call us garbage. We’re sick of being treated like garbage.”
Ohio seems to be in agreement.
Voters in the state favored Moreno by nearly 4 points.
That’s down from the 6 points Vance won his statewide race by in 2022, and it’s a lot lower than the almost unbelievable 11.3-point margin with which President-elect Donald Trump secured Ohio this time around.
The tighter number shows Brown still had some serious popularity down the stretch. But when pundits said the race was too close to call, apparently the defeated Democrat took that literally.
