2026年10月2日，美国东部时间上午5点——前民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗（Sherrod Brown）于2024年10月26日参加了由美国通信工人协会（Communications Workers of America）第4370分会举办的集会。两年前失去参议院席位后，布朗再次参选，目标是击败现任共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特德（Jon Husted）。
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October 2, 2026 5:00 AM ET Andrea Hsu Former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown attends a rally with the Communications Workers of America Local 4370 on Oct. 26, 2024. After losing his Senate seat two years ago, Brown is now running for the Senate again, seeking to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
俄亥俄州哥伦布市、佩恩斯维尔市和阿克伦市——对谢罗德·布朗来说，这次集会无疑是一次“热烈的欢迎仪式”：舞厅里的音响里播放着AC/DC乐队的《Thunderstruck》；代表钢铁工人、公用事业工人、建筑工人等群体的工会成员们用热烈的欢呼声和不断的握手欢迎这位73岁的民主党人。
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Stay up to date with our Politics newsletter, sent weekly COLUMBUS, PAINESVILLE AND AKRON, Ohio — It was a raucous homecoming for Sherrod Brown. AC/DC's "Thunderstruck" blared from ballroom speakers.
这次集会是由俄亥俄州AFL-CIO（美国劳工联合会-产业工会联合会）举办的两年一度的大型活动。在布朗担任公职的50年里（其中32年是在美国国会任职），他始终将这些工会成员视为自己政治议程的核心支持者。如今，他正依赖这些工人的支持来重返华盛顿。
Union stalwarts representing steelworkers, utility workers, construction workers and others greeted the 73-year-old Democrat with resounding cheers and endless handshakes. This was the biennial gathering of the Ohio AFL-CIO, a crowd Brown has kept at the forefront of his agenda throughout his 50 years in public office, including 32 years in the U.S. Congress. And these are the people Brown is counting on to send him back to Washington after suffering defeat at the polls two years ago.
“我希望你们能去和人们交流，因为人们会倾听你们的声音，”布朗恳切地说，“请告诉他们：我一生都在为工人权益而奋斗。”他告诉在场的管道工人们：“如果你是管道工，其他管道工会的成员会听你的；你的朋友、教会里的教友以及社区里的邻居也会听你的。请告诉他们这次选举的重要性，以及他们必须去投票的重要性。”
"I want you to talk to people, because people will listen to you," he implored. "I want you to share information — how I spent my whole career fighting for workers." If you're a pipefitter, he told the room, other pipefitters will listen to you, as will your friends at church and school and in your neighborhood. "Tell them how important this election is, and how important it is that they get out and vote," he said.
一场关键的选举……布朗之所以向工会寻求支持，是因为两年前这位连任三届的美国参议员在选举中落败——当时特朗普总统在俄亥俄州赢得了历史上最多的选票，导致布朗失去了参议院席位。如今，布朗希望击败现任共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特德，从而重夺参议院席位。这场选举的结果仍充满不确定性，它可能会决定特朗普在任期最后两年内能否继续掌控参议院的权力。
A pivotal race Brown's appeal to labor unions comes two years after the three-term U.S. senator was unseated by GOP businessman Bernie Moreno losing in a year when President Trump won the most votes of any presidential candidate in Ohio history. Now, Brown is hoping to regain a U.S. Senate seat by defeating incumbent Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill JD Vance's seat early last year. The race remains a toss-up, one that could determine control of the Senate for Trump's final two years in office.
随着提前投票定于10月6日开始，工会成员们正在为布朗（Brown）挨家挨户走访、进行电话拉票并出席集会。他们希望能够争取到足够的支持，以扭转俄亥俄州自2016年以来形成的局面——当时特朗普凭借振兴工厂和让人们重返工作岗位的承诺赢得了选民。那一年，特朗普在该州赢得了54%的工会家庭选票，而希拉里·克林顿仅获得41%。
With early voting set to begin Oct. 6, union members are knocking on doors, phone banking and showing up at rallies for Brown. They're hoping to drum up enough support to overcome a shift that took hold in Ohio in 2016, when Trump ran on a promise to revitalize factories and put people back to work. That year, Trump won 54% of union households in the state while Hillary Clinton won just 41%.
“在希拉里参选的时候，很多人只是——他们想要改变，”九年前退休的民主党人戴夫·亚尼谢夫斯基（Dave Janiszewski）说，他职业生涯的大部分时间都在钢铁厂和造纸厂度过。
"Back when Hillary was running, so many people just — they wanted change," says Dave Janiszewski, a Democrat who split his working years between a steel plant and a paper plant before retiring nine years ago.
戴夫·亚尼谢夫斯基在俄亥俄州中部的钢铁厂和造纸厂工作了四十年。这位72岁的民主党人现在正为谢罗德·布朗（Sherrod Brown）进行竞选宣传。“我们需要什么，他总会为我们提供支持，”他说。
Dave Janiszewski spent four decades working in a steel plant and then in a paper plant in central Ohio. The 72-year-old Democrat is now out canvassing for Sherrod Brown. "Anything that we needed, he was there for us," he says.
安德烈娅·许（Andrea Hsu）/NPR报道，如今，亚尼谢夫斯基身穿一件海军蓝配金色的美国钢铁工人联合会政治行动委员会夹克，每天在哥伦布市周边的中产阶级社区进行走访，做着布朗所呼吁的事情：敲开工会家庭的门，试图说服那些对布朗或是否参加中期选举犹豫不决的选民，让他们相信布朗就是他们要找的人。
Andrea Hsu/NPR Now, donning a navy and gold United Steelworkers Political Action Committee jacket, Janiszewski is spending his days canvassing middle class neighborhoods around Columbus, doing exactly what Brown called for: knocking on the doors of union households, trying to persuade voters who aren't sure about Brown, or about voting in the midterms at all, that he's their guy.
“我亲自见过他，了解他——从2012年起我就一直关注他，”亚尼谢夫斯基对一位开门的年轻人说。“他一直都站在劳动人民这一边。”作为在一个日益“变红”的州里的民主党人，布朗最初顶住了俄亥俄州选举向右转的趋势，在特朗普首次当选总统两年后的2018年，成功连任第三个参议员任期。除了法官职位外，布朗是当时俄亥俄州唯一仍在全州范围内赢得选举的民主党人。
"I've personally met him, know him — I've been around him since 2012," Janiszewski tells one young man who comes to the door. "He's always been there for working people." A Democrat in an increasingly red state Initially, Brown withstood Ohio's electoral shift to the right, winning re-election to a third Senate term in 2018, two years after Trump was first elected president. Aside from judges, Brown was the only Democrat still winning statewide races in Ohio.
亚尼谢夫斯基表示，俄亥俄州的工人们很清楚布朗的立场。人们都知道他是一位强烈反对《北美自由贸易协定》的人，他会出现在纠察线上，而且只穿俄亥俄州制造的西装。2021年，布朗推动通过了一项立法，使数百万工会工人的养老金免于破产。该法案被称为《布奇·刘易斯法案》，以一位在为保护退休人员福利而奔走时去世的俄亥俄州卡车司机命名。“我们需要什么，他就会为我们提供什么，”亚尼谢夫斯基说。
Janiszewski says Ohio workers were clear on what Brown stood for. People knew him as the guy who vehemently opposed NAFTA, who showed up on picket lines, who only wore suits made in Ohio. In 2021, Brown pushed through legislation that saved the pensions of millions of union workers from insolvency. It was called the Butch Lewis Act named after an Ohio truck driver who died while working to protect retiree benefits. "Anything that we needed, he was there for us," says Janiszewski.
尽管如此，到了2024年，形势变得难以扭转。在选票顶端，特朗普以超过11个百分点的优势击败了时任副总统卡玛拉·哈里斯，而布朗输给莫雷诺的差距不到4个百分点。
Still, by 2024, conditions proved insurmountable. At the top of the ticket, Trump defeated then-Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 11 percentage points Brown lost to Moreno by less than 4 percentage points.
哥伦布/俄亥俄州中部建筑与施工行业委员会执行秘书兼财务主管多尔西·黑格表示，这些数字说明了一切。
Dorsey Hager, executive secretary-treasurer of the Columbus/Central Ohio Building and Construction Trades Council, says those numbers are telling.
“特朗普总统在16年、20年和24年赢得了该州，这已不是什么秘密。不幸的是，这很大程度上是因为我们的成员投票支持他，同时也支持了一些共和党的下层候选人，”黑格说。他指出，该委员会过去曾支持过共和党人，但在今年秋季支持了布朗。
"It's no secret that President Trump won the state in '16, '20, and '24. A lot of that was due unfortunately to our members voting and supporting him and supporting some downballot Republicans, too," says Hager, noting that the council has supported Republicans in the past but has endorsed Brown this fall.
黑格希望他的许多成员能响应这一背书。尽管工作机会充足，但他表示，许多建筑工人告诉他，他们正深受高油价、高食品价格和整体通胀的困扰。“他们感受到了巨大的压力，”他说。
Hager is hopeful many of his members will follow that endorsement. Even though jobs are plentiful, he says many construction workers have told him they're suffering from high gas and diesel prices, high food prices and overall inflation. "They're feeling it very hard," he says.
劳工阶层的分歧：人们常说工会选民并非铁板一块，这一点在今年秋季俄亥俄州的美国参议院竞选中表现得尤为明显。虽然大多数劳工组织都支持布朗，但克利夫兰和托莱多的建筑行业委员会却支持了休斯泰德，称他是建筑工人的“朋友和拥护者”。锅炉工工会也支持休斯泰德，理由是他对发电厂、炼油厂和造船业工会工作的支持。
A split among labor It's often said that union voters are not a monolith, and that's ever apparent in the U.S. Senate race in Ohio this fall. While most labor organizations have endorsed Brown, the building trades councils in Cleveland and Toledo have endorsed Husted, calling him a "friend and advocate" for construction workers. The Boilermakers union is also backing Husted, citing his support for union jobs in power plants, refineries and shipbuilding.
共和党参议员乔恩·休斯德于2026年9月29日离开美国国会大厦，地点位于华盛顿特区。休斯德正与前民主党参议员谢罗德·布朗陷入胶着竞争。
Republican Sen. Jon Husted departs the U.S. Capitol Building on Sept. 29, 2026 in Washington, D.C. Husted is in a tight race with former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
安德鲁·哈尼克/盖蒂图片社北美分社 在竞选途中，布朗试图反驳这些说法，辩称休斯德只为华尔街、制药公司以及如今因休斯德担任副州长时大力推动的巨额税收减免而在俄亥俄州大建数据中心的科技公司利益服务。
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images North America On the campaign trail, Brown is trying to counter those narratives, arguing that Husted is only looking out for Wall Street, drug companies, and the tech companies now building data centers across Ohio, thanks to massive tax breaks Husted championed as lieutenant governor.
但在莱克县——上届选举中抛弃布朗的八个俄亥俄县之一——共和党专员约翰·普莱克尼克自信地表示，工会成员今秋将选择休斯德，哪怕仅仅因为休斯德支持特朗普。"民众并不愚蠢。他们知道拜登总统任内边境大开，这损害了劳工利益，也损害了薪资水平，"普莱克尼克说。"如今我们看到强有力的边境安全，薪资开始回升，就业岗位也开始回升。"
But in Lake County, one of eight Ohio counties that abandoned Brown in the last election, Republican commissioner John Plecnik is confident union members will choose Husted this fall if only because Husted supports Trump. "People aren't stupid. They know that the borders were wide open during President Biden's term, and it was hurting labor. It was hurting salaries," Plecnik says. "Now that we see strong border security, you're starting to see salaries tick back up again, jobs tick back up again."
公职人员的助力 虽然"工会选民"一词常让人联想到蓝领工人，但布朗的竞选团队也将重点放在该州的工会教师、地方政府雇员及其他公共部门工人身上。
A boost from public employees While the phrase "union voter" often calls to mind a blue-collar worker, the Brown campaign is also focused on the state's unionized teachers, local government workers, and other public sector workers.
作为其竞选演讲的一部分，布朗提醒他们自己在参议院的最后作为。在2024年大选落选几周后，布朗联手缅因州共和党参议员苏珊·柯林斯，推动通过了《社会保障公平法案》，为数百万公职人员恢复了全额社会保障福利，其中包括俄亥俄州的数十万公职人员。
As part of his stump speech, Brown is reminding them of his final act in the Senate. Weeks after losing the 2024 election, Brown, along with Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, pushed through the Social Security Fairness Act restoring full social security benefits to millions of public employees, including a couple hundred thousand in Ohio.
其中一位就是帕蒂·泰勒，她在阿克伦住房管理局的IT部门工作了近30年。为了补贴家用，她有时会在UPS、联邦快递和科尔百货等雇主处做季节性工作，退休后又在一家私营公司全职工作。这些私营部门的工作让她获得了社会保障福利。但根据一项已有数十年历史的条款，因为她同时领取住房管理局工作的政府养老金（该工作未缴纳社会保障税），她的社会保障福利本将大幅削减。
One of them is Patty Taylor, who worked in IT for the Akron Housing Authority for almost 30 years. To supplement her income, she sometimes took seasonal work with employers like UPS, FedEx and the department store Kohl's, and then worked a full-time job for a private company after retiring from the government. Those private sector jobs earned her social security benefits. But under a decades-old provision, those benefits would have been significantly reduced because she also has a government pension from her housing authority job, where she didn't pay Social Security taxes.
帕蒂·泰勒一直在领导一场明信片书写活动，敦促美国联邦、州、县和市政雇员联合会（AFSCME）成员投票支持谢罗德·布朗。
Patty Taylor has been spearheading a postcard writing campaign, urging AFSCME members to vote for Sherrod Brown.
帕蒂·泰勒 布朗及其共同提案人称之为不公正的惩罚。他们的法案以76比20在参议院通过。现年69岁的泰勒将自己能安享晚年归功于布朗。"他为我挺身而出，甚至都不认识我，"她说。"要不是我拿到了全额社会保障金，我现在真的会过得非常、非常艰难。"所以现在，她在回馈社会。
Patty Taylor Brown and his cosponsors called it an unjust penalty. Their bill cleared the Senate by a vote of 76 to 20 Taylor, who's now 69, credits Brown with saving her retirement. "He stood up for me, and he didn't even know me," she says. "If it wasn't for me getting the [full] Social Security, I would really, really be hurting right now." So now, she's giving back.
退休后，泰勒担任美国联邦、州、县和市政雇员联合会退休人员第1184分会的秘书兼财务主管。今年秋天，她一直在为布朗和竞选俄亥俄州州长的民主党人艾米·阿克顿领导明信片书写活动。她手写了数百张明信片，敦促工会成员投票，并招募其他退休人员也这样做。
In her retirement, Taylor is serving as secretary-treasurer for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Retiree Chapter 1184. This fall, she's been spearheading a postcard writing campaign for Brown and the Democrat running for Ohio governor, Amy Acton. She has handwritten hundreds of postcards urging AFSCME members to vote and recruited other retirees to do the same.
在此过程中，她特意宣传布朗在参议院的最后一票。"这改变了我们分会一些成员的生活，"她说。"他们说：'我们愿意写明信片。我能写多少张？'"俄亥俄州工会 中期选举 退休人员
Along the way, she's made sure to talk up Brown's last vote in the Senate. "It has changed some of the people's lives that are in our subchapter," she says. "They said, 'We'll do postcards. How many postcards can I do?'" Ohio labor unions midterm retirees