Ohio's largest police union backs Husted after once endorsing Democrat Sherrod Brown

Ohio's biggest law enforcement union endorsed Republican Sen. Jon Husted for reelection on Tuesday, completing a years-long break with former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, and signaling that the party's leftward drift on policing and immigration has cost it credible allies in blue-collar Ohio.

The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio, which represents more police officers than any other union in the state, threw its support behind Husted after having backed Brown as recently as 2012. The endorsement came alongside four other unnamed labor organizations that also switched their support to the Republican incumbent, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.

Ohio FOP President Jay McDonald framed the decision in plain terms. The union wants officeholders who show up for cops, not politicians who play to activist crowds when the cameras are rolling.

"We're not asking for anything revolutionary, we want candidates with a proven commitment to supporting law enforcement and standing with us on issues that help our members keep their communities safe."

McDonald did not name Brown directly in that statement, but the Husted campaign's press release left little to interpretation. It accused Brown of having "repeatedly opposed stronger border security measures and alienated Ohio's law enforcement community" during his three decades in Washington.

Brown's 32-year record gave the union plenty to walk away from

Husted pointed to specific votes in his own statement, claiming Brown voted eight times to fund sanctuary cities and supported amnesty for eleven million illegal immigrants. Those claims, drawn from the campaign's press release, track with the broader case Republicans have built against Brown since his 2024 loss to Sen. Bernie Moreno.

"I'm honored to earn the FOP's endorsement. They know what's at stake because they've lived the consequences of Sherrod Brown's record: during his 32 years in Washington, Brown voted eight times to fund sanctuary cities and supported amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants. I'll always stand with our police, secure the border and fight for the safety of Ohio families."

Husted also noted that Ohio's officers "risk their lives every day to keep our communities safe, and they deserve leaders who have their backs." He has already secured endorsements from the National Border Patrol Council and seventy-five Ohio sheriffs.

The union's trajectory tells its own story. In 2012, Ohio FOP backed Brown. By 2022, the union endorsed Republican JD Vance in his successful run for Ohio's open Senate seat. In 2024, the FOP sat the race out entirely, endorsing no one as Brown went down to defeat against Moreno. Now, in 2026, the union has landed squarely in the Republican column for Husted.

That arc mirrors a broader pattern of traditional Democratic constituencies drifting toward the GOP as the national party moves leftward on crime, immigration, and policing.

A 2021 tweet still haunts Brown's standing with police

The Husted campaign's press release highlighted a moment that crystallized Brown's break with Ohio law enforcement. On April 21, 2021, the same day the Derek Chauvin trial verdict was being read, Columbus police shot and killed Ma'Khia Bryant, a sixteen-year-old girl. Body camera footage showed that Bryant apparently lunged at two women with a knife and ignored officers' calls to "get down," prompting an officer to fatally shoot her.

Brown posted on X that same day without mentioning any of that context:

"While the verdict was being read in the Derek Chauvin trial, Columbus police shot and killed a sixteen-year-old girl. Her name was Ma'Khia Bryant. She should be alive right now."

The tweet omitted the knife, the apparent lunge, and the officers' commands. For a police union already watching national Democrats embrace "defund the police" rhetoric, it was the kind of statement that made future endorsements difficult to justify.

Nick Puglia, a regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, put it more bluntly in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation:

"Sherrod Brown spent 32 years in Washington defending defund the police lunatics and giving criminal illegals taxpayer-funded benefits. Brown puts Ohioans last, and he will be rejected again."

Brown's spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rank-and-file officers say law and order belongs at the top of the ballot

Eric Delbert, a sergeant who served for thirty-two years in a central Ohio suburb, captured the mood among working officers in an earlier interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

"Law and order should be at the top of everyone's mind these elections. It's what drives society. It's what makes people feel safe. It's something that affects everyone."

That sentiment, practical, unglamorous, rooted in daily experience, is exactly the kind of voice that once anchored the Democratic coalition in Ohio. Factory workers, firefighters, cops. Brown built a career on those voters. But the national party's embrace of policies and rhetoric hostile to law enforcement created a gap that local relationships could not bridge forever.

Husted, who was appointed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January 2025 to replace Vance after Vance became vice president, now heads into his first election with a law enforcement endorsement portfolio that would have been difficult for any Ohio Democrat to match even a decade ago.

The shift is not unique to Ohio. Across the country, Democratic leaders have bent to their party's progressive wing on policing and criminal justice, and the political cost keeps compounding in working-class states.

Meanwhile, the leftward pull that has alienated police unions and blue-collar voters shows no sign of easing. Progressive candidates with activist backgrounds continue to gain traction in Democratic primaries, reinforcing the very dynamic that drove the Ohio FOP away from Brown in the first place.

And as Republicans in Congress press forward on border security and immigration enforcement, even amid their own internal debates over legislative strategy, the contrast with Democrats who voted repeatedly against those measures only sharpens.

Five labor groups in one cycle tells a bigger story than one endorsement

The Ohio FOP endorsement alone would be notable. But the press release's mention of four additional labor organizations switching to Husted this cycle suggests something broader than a single union's leadership making a calculated bet. The campaign did not name those four groups, and the details remain unclear. Still, the direction is consistent: organized labor in Ohio is fracturing along the same lines that cost Brown his seat in 2024.

Brown served thirty-two years in Washington, first in the House, then in the Senate. He built a reputation as a pro-labor populist. He won tough races in a state that was trending red. And in the end, the institutions that once stood beside him walked away, not because he changed, but because his party did.

When the cops who once endorsed you start endorsing the other side, the problem is not the cops.