BRUNSWICK, Ohio — The Sherrod Brown "Dignity of Work" tour is officially off and running following a kickoff Thursday night in Brunswick. The tour will take Brown to Iowa Thursday through Saturday with future stops in the early primary states of New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
Brown told the crowd that the tour carries with it the basic theme that if you work hard, you should have a decent lifestyle.
"When work has dignity we honor the pensions people earn," Brown said. "When work has dignity everyone can afford healthcare and education and housing. When work has dignity workers have power over their schedules and the economic security to start a family and to pay for daycare and college."
The concept is one that hits home with many of the Ohio voters who voted Brown into a third term in the U.S. Senate last year and two years earlier voted for Donald Trump for president.
"Thank you for showing the country that an outspoken progressive can win and win decisively in the Heartland," said Brown who stressed their is a difference between himself and the president. "Donald Trump doesn't respect the dignity of work pure and simple."
Brown will use this tour to decide whether he will seek the Democratic nomination for president. Of the Democrats who have announced or are expected to announce his message is one he believes may be the key to success and that is by reconnecting with voters in the Midwest.
"I think that's part of where Sherrod Brown does have some advantage and a lane," said News 5 Political Analyst Dr. Tom Sutton of Baldwin Wallace University. "Despite a lack of name recognition now, he may be able to make up for and in time maybe become one of the leading contenders of the 15-20 plus that wind up running."
"This is our America," Brown told the crowd in closing. "We will never give up the hallowed ground of patriotism to the extremists at the statehouse and the extremists at the White House because when you love this country you fight for the people who make it work and tomorrow we take that fight on the road."
