Senator Sherrod Brown

In Ohio and in Washington, Senator Sherrod Brown has earned a reputation as a public official who looks to the future. An early and outspoken opponent of the Iraq war, then-Congressman Brown fought for body armor for our troops and comprehensive health benefits for our nation's veterans.

Beginning with his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993 and to Most Favored Nation Status for the People's Republic of China, to his book "Myths of Free Trade," Sherrod is building a bipartisan coalition for a new trade policy to strengthen America's middle class, to provide opportunities for American manufacturing, and to protect workers rights, the environment, and product and food safety.

His amendments five years ago launched our government's efforts to combat the antibiotic resistance threat to our public health system, earning Sherrod (Brown) the National Public Health Legislator of the Year Award from the American Public Health Association in 2003.

He's worked to strengthen the Centers for Disease Control to guard against public health threat from terrorism, bird flu, tuberculosis, and methicillin-Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

Sherrod's interest in making Ohio the Silicon Valley of Alternative Energy began when he wrote Ohio's first solar energy law in 1977. As a U.S. Senator, Sherrod is working with area universities, entrepreneurs, labor unions, and community leaders to help utilize the states natural resources — wind and solar power, and corn for ethanol — and develop an alternative energy industry in the state.

As a Congressman from the 13th District from 1993 — 2006 he earned a reputation as an independent voice for ordinary Ohioans and middle-class families - a man of principle who has made a career of standing up to special interests who have too much influence in Washington. 15 years ago, Sherrod pledged not to take the Congressional health plan until every Ohioan has health care coverage. To this day, he refuses the Congressional health plan.

A native of Mansfield, Ohio, an Eagle Scout, and the winner of the Boy Scout's highest religious award - the Lutheran Church's Pro Deo Et Patria. Sherrod is a graduate of Yale University and earned Masters' Degrees from The Ohio State University in education and public administration. He has an honorary doctorate from Capital University.

He was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1974 after knocking on more than 20,000 doors, beginning his career as an elected official who listens to his constituents.

Already, as a U.S. Senator, Sherrod has held 120 roundtables around the state with farmers and veterans, health professionals and small business owners, with community leaders and teachers, and bankers. He was Ohio's Secretary of State from (1983-1990) leading the effort on what The Washington Post called "the most successful voter registration in the country."

Prior to his serving in Congress, Sherrod worked with The Ohio State University's renowned Mershon Center to write the curriculum, and train teachers and educators in Poland about democracy, after the Communist government fell.

Senator Brown sits on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee and the Banking Committee. He's the first Ohio Senator in 40 years to sit on the Agriculture and Nutrition Committee and the first Ohio Senator to serve a full term on the Veterans committee.

The tradition of public service continues in the Brown family. His wife, Connie Schultz, a columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer, won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, "...for her pungent columns that provided a voice for the underdog and underprivileged."

Their son Andy teaches math at The Ohio State University. Daughter Emily organizes home health care workers for the Service Employees International Union, Elizabeth is an assistant editor for New York Magazine, and Caitlin is earning a degree in early childhood education at John Carroll University.

Sherrod was elected to the U.S. Senate on November 7, 2006 by more than 450,000 votes. But, as Sherrod Brown reminds his staff, "we represent all 11 million Ohioans."

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