Brown will not run for White House

“I fight best when I bring joy to the battle. And I find that joy fighting for Ohio in the Senate.” — U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown

COLUMBUS >> U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Thursday he will not run for president in 2020, becoming the latest Democrat to bow out of the White House race.

His decision comes after recent visits to several early-voting states to highlight his worker-friendly policy agenda. Brown said he believed his “dignity of work” tour succeeded in putting the struggles of average Americans on Democrats’ 2020 radar and that he “can be most effective” by remaining in the Senate.

“I fight best when I bring joy to the battle,” he told home-state reporters. “And I find that joy fighting for Ohio in the Senate.”

Several other Democrats, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and former Attorney General Eric Holder, announced this week that they would not join a presidential primary already packed with a dozen candidates. Democrats are awaiting word from former Vice President Joe Biden and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke about whether they will undertake highly anticipated campaigns that could reshape the race.

Brown said he will continue to call out President Donald Trump’s “phony populism” from his perch in the Senate and will “do everything I can to elect a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate in 2020.”

The 66-year-old had emerged as a potentially strong challenger to Trump after winning re-election in November in a state that Trump carried by nearly 11 percentage points in 2016. Brown’s victory was powered by strong support in many blue-collar areas of the state where Trump had prevailed.

Well-known for his progressive populism, Brown had pledged to be the most “pro-union, pro-worker” candidate in the Democratic field if he ran. But he would have faced a steep climb to the upper tier of the 2020 field.

Brown’s comfort in relating to Midwestern, working-class voters is a key element in the political appeal of Biden, who is seen as leaning heavily toward running.

JULIE BENNETT — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks to reporters during the Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast in Selma, Ala. , on March 3. Brown says he won’t run for president after making an exploratory swing through early-voting states.