Sherrod Brown's Job Isn't To Resist, But He Will If He Has To

It’s a good time to be Sherrod Brown. The senator from Ohio has made a name for himself as a critic of President Donald Trump’s agenda. But the liberal Democrat’s got something of a populist streak himself. When the Cleveland resident got into a minor car accident last October, Brown made a point of declaring that he was unscathed due to the Toledo union steelwork that went into his Jeep. That’s Brown — slugging it out, even amid a car crash. We got the senator on the horn earlier this year for a Q&A. 

Q: Why are you a no on Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch?
A: I was very familiar with Gorsuch’s record when he was announced. Trump had made clear that he was only going to nominate somebody who wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. That’s a very important reason to vote no. Second, there’s enough in Judge Gorsuch’s record that he believes that corporations are people and that fundamentally gives corporations more rights than individual citizens.

Q: Do you consider yourself part of the Trump resistance movement?
A: My job is not to resist. I’ve had one conversation with the president by phone about Buy America. I am hopeful now [that] he’s president, [he] will work with us on Buy America, on taxpayer-funded construction projects. Things I can work with him on: trade, Buy America and infrastructure. But when he wants to raise retirement age and weaken Wall Street consumer protections, he’s lost me. I’m against him. 

Q: What are you doing to cross party lines?
A: I’m working with Sens. [John] McCain, [Lindsey] Graham and [Marco] Rubio — three mainstream Republican senators — and two Democrats [Claire] McCaskill and [Ben] Cardin on legislation that would say to the president: “If you are going to try to weaken and wash sanctions against eastern Ukraine and cyber security and election meddling, you have to get a vote from the Senate and House to do it. You can’t weaken these.” Whatever the ties the Trump administration has with Russia, which we don’t really understand yet, don’t do any of that without the Senate and the House.  

Q: What effects could Trump’s policies have on our city?
A: I am concerned about his Secretary of Treasury [Steven Mnuchin]. I look at what his history is on foreclosures. [Trump’s] White House is increasingly looking like a Goldman Sachs executive retreat with all the people he’s brought in from Wall Street. The zip code my wife [Connie Schultz] and I live in — 44105 — in the first half of 2007 had more foreclosures than any zip code in the United States, so we have a lot to do and I hope the president will not do the bidding of Wall Street and instead will do the bidding of Cleveland and Garfield Heights and Westlake.

Q: Is your dog Franklin named after Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Ben Franklin?
A: FDR. Connie joked we should do Hubbert, and I’m like, We’re not calling our dog Hubert. Are you kidding? [FDR] is my favorite president — although [Abraham] Lincoln is close.