WASHINGTON, D.C. — Bernie Moreno’s defeat of Sen. Sherrod Brown ends a decades-long career in public service for the Ohio Democrat. When Brown leaves the Senate, he will leave behind a legacy of working for unions and workers’ rights.

Brown focused his political career on protecting American jobs by promoting domestic manufacturing. He opposed free trade long before presidents of both parties came to embrace economic protectionism, fighting in 1994 against then-President Bill Clinton’s decision to sign the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“He has stood up for the dignity of work in the face of any forces that were against it. He has proven that he would work with Republicans when they would agree with him, and that he would oppose Democrats, including me, when he disagreed with us,” Clinton said Nov. 4 at a rally for Brown in Cleveland. The former president said it was “profoundly important” that Brown win.

Brown later wrote a book, “The Myth of Free Trade,” and continued to advocate for more protectionist policies. His anti-free trade position helped shift the political consensus over the years.

The Trump administration withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2017 and  renegotiated NAFTA in 2020.

The Biden administration pulled out of negotiations for the trade pillar of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in 2023, largely due to vocal pushback from Brown.

Brown also successfully pushed the Biden administration to raise tariffs on Chinese steel to 25 percent and tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles to 100 percent.

“I don’t care what car people drive. My mission is to make sure, ultimately, that Ohioans and Ohio union workers and non-union workers, too, are making these vehicles,” Brown said in a May interview with Spectrum News.

Brown has also sponsored legislation like the Butch Lewis Act, which became law in 2021 as part of the American Rescue Plan. The law, which is named in honor of an Ohio Teamster who died in 2015, provides a bailout to fund multi-employer pension plans for 30 years, restoring pensions to their full amount. The law has preserved the pensions of more than 1 million Americans, according to the White House, including 62,000 Ohioans.

“This is coming from deep inside of us. Thank you very much,” said Bill Devito, Iron Workers Local 17 member and Berea City Councilman. “There’s no word in the dictionary to describe how we feel.”

In recent years, Brown sponsored legislation to protect veterans, like the PACT Act, which expanded benefits for veterans with 23 respiratory illnesses related to toxic burn pits commonly used by the military during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Brown’s FEND Off Fentanyl Act, which was signed into law in April, seeks to stem the flow of the opioid entering the country through Mexico.

Brown still has two months left in the Senate to pass legislation. He has said he still wants to pass a railroad safety bill that was introduced after the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.

After that, Brown said in his concession speech on election night that though he will soon leave the Senate, he isn’t done fighting for workers.