A surge of grassroots and conservative-backed funding is pouring into Ohio as Americans contribute millions of dollars to help Republican Sen. Jon Husted defend his seat in a high-stakes 2026 race.
A conservative group is spending more than $8 million to support Sen. Jon Husted. The race against Democrat Sherrod Brown is expected to play a key role in deciding control of the Senate after the midterms.
Tight Contest in Ohio
The Sentinel Action Fund announced its endorsement of Husted on Wednesday, April 15th through a press release first shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The group and its affiliated organization Right Vote will together spend more than $8 million on activities to engage and mobilize voters early.
Husted, 58, was appointed to the Senate by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in January 2025. He took the seat left open when JD Vance became vice president. Because this is a special election, the winner will serve until 2028 and must then run for a full six-year term.
Brown, 73, held Ohio’s other Senate seat for 18 years before losing it to Republican Bernie Moreno in 2024. He had also served in the U.S. House, as Ohio secretary of state, and in the Ohio State House, where he won his first election in 1974.
Recent polls show the current race between Husted and Brown within the margin of error, even though President Donald Trump won Ohio by more than 11 percentage points in the 2024 presidential election.
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The Sentinel Action Fund has now backed three Senate candidates for the 2026 midterms. The other two are Republican Mike Rogers in Michigan and Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine. These three races are the only ones rated as toss-ups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.
Spending and Campaign Funds in Ohio
Brown announced on April 7 that he raised a combined $12.5 million in the first quarter of 2026 and had $16.4 million available, according to Semafor congressional bureau chief Burgess Everett. The day before that announcement, the pro-GOP Senate Leadership Fund said it would invest nearly $80 million to protect Husted’s seat.
SAF President Jessica Anderson said in the group’s statement: “There could not be a more stark contrast than radical Democrat Sherrod Brown.” Anderson also stated that the group’s ground game operations helped mobilize Ohio voters to defeat Brown in 2024.
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The Sentinel Action Fund previously endorsed the three Republicans who defeated Democratic incumbents in the 2024 Senate elections: Bernie Moreno in Ohio, Tim Sheehy in Montana, and Dave McCormick in Pennsylvania.
The group describes itself on its website as the only super PAC on the right with a year-round ground game focused on turning out absentee, early, and Election Day voters.
The more than $8 million committed by the Sentinel Action Fund and Right Vote comes from donors who support keeping the Ohio Senate seat in Republican hands. The money will go toward contacting voters and getting them to the polls.
In his first year in the Senate, Husted has supported parts of President Trump’s agenda, including tax breaks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and legislation on election integrity, according to the group. This large outside spending shows the importance both parties place on this single race in Ohio.
