Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio called on President Joe Biden to end his re-election campaign Friday, becoming the fourth Democrat in the chamber to ask Biden to drop out of the race.
“Over the last few weeks, I’ve heard from Ohioans on important issues, such as how to continue to grow jobs in our state, give law enforcement the resources to crack down on fentanyl, protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts, and prevent the ongoing efforts to impose a national abortion ban,” Brown said in a written statement shared first with NBC News. “These are the issues Ohioans care about and it is my job to keep fighting for them.”
“I agree with the many Ohioans who have reached out to me,” Brown added. “At this critical time, our full attention must return to these important issues. I think the President should end his campaign.”
Brown’s call follows one Thursday from Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., who, like Brown, faces a tough re-election campaign this fall, and another Friday from Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., urged Biden to withdraw from the race last week. More than 30 congressional Democrats now want someone other than Biden to be their party’s presidential nominee.
The push for Biden to exit comes after a debate performance with Trump last month that raised alarms about the president’s age and health — and about his ability to lead the Democratic ticket this fall. The push has intensified in recent days, with speculation increasing about Vice President Kamala Harris and others stepping in for Biden.
Brown, according to his campaign, will not weigh in on the process to choose a new Democratic nominee and believes Biden should serve the rest of his term.
The three-term Ohio senator had previously said that voters in his state, which former President Donald Trump twice won by 8 percentage points, had “legitimate questions about whether the president should continue his campaign” and that he intended to listen to their concerns. But he had stopped short of calling for Biden to end his re-election bid.
Brown’s Trump-endorsed Republican challenger, businessman Bernie Moreno, has been linking him closely to Biden’s struggles for weeks.
Moreno, reacting to Brown’s announcement later Friday, asserted that his opponent had not gone far enough.
“If Joe Biden is unfit to run, he is unfit to serve,” Moreno said in an emailed statement from his campaign. “I am formally calling on Joe Biden to resign the Presidency because his continued presence in the situation room is a national security threat. I hope Senator Brown will join me.”