Associated Press calls Ohio's special Senate election for Democrat Sherrod Brown

The Associated Press called Ohio's special Senate election for Democrat Sherrod Brown late Tuesday night, declaring him the winner over Republican Sen. Jon Husted, according to the AP's own report.

The call matters because the AP is one of three outlets whose agreement decides the race. The contest is settled when the Associated Press, Fox News and NBC all call it for the same candidate. The information available does not show calls from Fox News or NBC. If the three do not agree, the result goes to official certification.

The AP's call followed a count that favored Brown throughout the evening. Cleveland.com reported an early Brown lead in Tuesday night's returns. Fox News' results page, which uses AP-sourced figures, later showed him at 48.54% to Husted's 46.60% with 86.23% of the vote reporting. A partial count does not decide a race, and those figures were not final.

Poliwave had earlier listed Brown as its winner. That call is separate and is not one of the three that settle the contest.

The race was a special election to fill the remainder of JD Vance's Senate term, which ends in January 2029. Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Husted to the seat in January 2025, after Vance became vice president. Brown, who lost Ohio's other Senate seat in 2024, won the Democratic primary in May.

Late polling had pointed toward a Brown win. The final RealClearPolling average put him ahead 48.5% to 45.7%. A Fox News poll conducted Oct. 15 to 19 had him up 52% to 47%, and a New York Times poll conducted Oct. 26 to Nov. 1 had him ahead 49% to 44%.

The result also bears on the wider fight for control of the Senate. Ohio is one of seven seats, along with Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Michigan and Texas, in a group of contests that Democrats were targeting.

What comes next is whether Fox News and NBC follow the AP in calling the race for Brown. If they do, the contest is settled on those calls. If they do not, it goes to official certification. Ohio's secretary of state says certified results are generally published about three weeks after the election. Early returns in Ohio can lean toward early and absentee ballots, so later Election Day returns can change the margin.