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Sen. Sherrod Brown

Senator for Ohio

pronounced SHEH-rud // brown

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Brown is the senior senator from Ohio and is a Democrat. He has served since Jan 4, 2007. Brown is next up for reelection in 2024 and serves until Jan 3, 2025.

He was previously the representative for Ohio’s 13th congressional district as a Democrat from 1993 to 2006.

Photo of Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH]

Analysis

Legislative Metrics

Read our 2020 Report Card for Brown.

Ideology–Leadership Chart

Brown is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot is a member of the Senate positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).

The chart is based on the bills Brown has sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 3, 2017 to Nov 19, 2021. See full analysis methodology.

Ratings from Advocacy Organizations

Human Rights Campaign: 100% Planned Parenthood Action Fund: 100% League of Conservation Voters: 94% American Civil Liberties Union: 92% United States Chamber of Commerce: 50% The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws: D The Club for Growth: 4%

Committee Membership

Sherrod Brown sits on the following committees:

Enacted Legislation

Brown was the primary sponsor of 29 bills that were enacted. The most recent include:

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Does 29 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.

We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).

Bills Sponsored

Issue Areas

Brown sponsors bills primarily in these issue areas:

Health (39%) Taxation (18%) Armed Forces and National Security (10%) Labor and Employment (8%) Finance and Financial Sector (7%) Education (7%) Social Welfare (6%)

Recent Bills

Some of Brown’s most recently sponsored bills include...

View All » | View Cosponsors »

Voting Record

Key Votes

Brown voted Yea

Conference Report Agreed to 83/16 on Feb 14, 2019.
This bill, in its final form, funded the parts of the federal government whose funding was to lapse on February 15, 2019. On December 22, …

Brown voted Yea

Brown voted Yea

Bill Passed 72/26 on Sep 28, 2016.
The Continuing Appropriations and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2017, and Zika Response and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5325) is an appropriations …

Brown voted Nay

Bill Passed 76/16 on Dec 16, 2014.

Brown voted Nay

Motion Agreed to 89/11 on Dec 12, 2014.
This bill became, most recently, the vehicle for the passage of the defense authorization (spending) bill for fiscal year 2015. The bill was originally introduced …

Brown voted Nay

Joint Resolution Passed 78/22 on Sep 18, 2014.

Brown voted Nay

Bill Passed 86/12 on Feb 15, 2011.

Brown voted Yea

Motion Agreed to 81/19 on Dec 15, 2010.
The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 (Pub.L. 111–312, H.R. 4853, 124 Stat. 3296, enacted December 17, 2010), also known …

Missed Votes

From Jan 2007 to Dec 2021, Brown missed 61 of 4,793 roll call votes, which is 1.3%. This is on par with the median of 1.7% among the lifetime records of senators currently serving. The chart below reports missed votes over time.

We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses and major life events.

Show the numbers...

Primary Sources

The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including: