WASHINGTON, D.C. — In Ohio’s consequential Senate race, Sen. Sherrod Brown and Bernie Moreno have painted each other’s policy stances as polar opposites. But they actually agree on several important issues.

At a recent rally in Akron, Brown told reporters that his job was “to focus on this race, on the difference between me and Bernie Moreno.”

The candidates’ tendency to differentiate themselves is natural, political analysts said.

“You don't really ever, as a candidate, want to say that there's very little difference between you and your opponent,” said Dave Cohen, professor of political science at the University of Akron. “That's kind of campaign 101: you don't ever want to give them permission to not vote for you and vote for your opponent.”

Yet the candidates hold similar views on at least two major issues that are important to Ohio voters.

Both candidates oppose free trade agreements and support imposing more tariffs on imported goods in order to boost domestic manufacturing.

Brown long fought the Democratic Party’s embrace of free trade deals; he was among the lawmakers fighting against passing NAFTA, the free trade agreement between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, in 1994.

“I've seen too many plants closed because politicians of both parties have sold out American workers,” Brown said during a visit to a steel manufacturing plant in Zanesville, Ohio Oct. 22.

The Democratic Party has turned toward a more protectionist stance under President Joe Biden, who imposed several tariffs during his term, such as raising tariffs on Chinese steel in order to protect domestic steel manufacturing.

The Republican Party also made a U-turn on its stance on free trade in the last few decades. Free trade was a key pillar of “Reaganomics,” the free-market economic policy of former President Ronald Reagan. Former President Donald Trump reversed that when he began enacting tariffs, particularly on Chinese goods. His administration also renegotiated NAFTA and withdrew the U.S. from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement.

Moreno supports the tariffs former President Donald Trump enacted when he was in office, and Trump’s pledge to enact even more if he is reelected.

His campaign wrote in a statement in April,

"Bernie supports President Trump's America First trade policies and was supportive of his tariffs on our adversaries, including China."

The alignment of Brown and Moreno on trade is less about a political party and more about Ohio’s manufacturing history, analysts said.

“It's pretty unpopular in Ohio to be for free trade because NAFTA, when it was passed in 1994, had devastating consequences for manufacturing jobs in the northern part of Ohio and really throughout the Midwest,” said Cohen.

Both Moreno and Brown also broadly embrace tougher border security.

Like Trump, Moreno calls illegal immigration an “invasion” and supports Trump’s plan for the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

“Since [Biden] was in office, we’ve had 10 to 12 million people come into this country illegally,” Moreno said at a campaign stop in Westerville, Ohio on Oct. 22.

Brown, like many Democrats, has moved to the right on border security, especially in the face of fierce Republican attacks. He often frames increased border security as necessary to stem the flow of fentanyl into the country.

 “This starts really with keeping this stuff out, securing the border,” Brown said in a March interview on the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which became law in April.

Analysts said Brown’s position makes sense in a state that has shifted to the right.

“Those issues play well with the Republican base and they also play well with independents, and even some more conservative-leaning Democrats,” said Cohen.

Brown and Moreno taking similar stances on some issues, even when it differs from the positions of their parties, show that politics is still local in Ohio.