Two weeks before Ohio votes in one of the closest Senate races in America, Brown's own financial disclosure has put his book money on the record — and the Cleveland group receiving it is now part of the campaign.
Ohio Senate Candidate Sherrod Brown Is Sending Royalties From His Book to Cleveland Jobs with Justice — a Radical Left-Wing Group That Calls the Border Crisis a "Myth," Denies the Fentanyl Crisis, and Advocates for "Militant Action" to Advance Its Agenda
The disclosure detail surfaced on X on Wednesday via Libs of TikTok, which pointed readers to Brown's financial disclosure and to the group named in it: Cleveland Jobs with Justice. Financial disclosures are the public filings Senate candidates are required to make listing their income and assets — in Brown's case, including the royalties from the books he has written.
"A Radical Left-Wing Group That Calls the Border Crisis a "Myth," Denies the Fentanyl Crisis, and Advocates for "Militant Action" to Advance Its Agenda"
Brown is no newcomer to Ohio voters. He represented the state in the US Senate for three terms, from 2007 until 2025, chairing the Banking Committee and building his career on a labor-first, "dignity of work" message. He lost his seat in 2024 to Republican businessman Bernie Moreno, and this year he is running to take the other Ohio seat — the one Vice President JD Vance gave up to join the Trump administration. Republican Jon Husted, a former lieutenant governor and secretary of state, was appointed to the seat in January 2025 and is running to keep it in the November 3 special election. The race is rated a toss-up and could help decide which party controls the Senate.
Labor is the center of Brown's comeback pitch: he holds most of the union endorsements in the race and has campaigned at union halls across Ohio, including an address to the Ohio AFL-CIO. That is what makes the disclosure politically charged — the royalties from his books are going not to a charity at arm's length from the fight, but to an activist coalition inside his own labor world.
Cleveland Jobs with Justice describes itself, in its own materials, as a coalition of labor unions, community organizations and the religious community, formed to raise public awareness of workers' rights and social justice issues and to build campaigns promoting them. It is the Cleveland chapter of the national Jobs with Justice network and a registered nonprofit based in Rocky River, Ohio. Its Workers' Rights Board — a panel of clergy, elected officials, academics and community leaders — says it exists to exert moral and political pressure in support of workers seeking to organize, using tactics that its own site lists as including delegation visits, public exposure and disrupting the flow of business for an employer until they respond to workers.
The fight over Brown is already the most expensive kind of Ohio fight. President Donald Trump has campaigned in the state for Husted this month, and Vance — campaigning in Sharonville this week — attacked Brown directly, arguing Ohio cannot afford to send him back. Brown's side is bringing its own heavyweight: former President Barack Obama is due to campaign with him in Cleveland on October 24.
Election Day is November 3. Between now and then, the disclosure gives Ohio voters a paper trail to weigh alongside the speeches: the former senator's book royalties are flowing to Cleveland Jobs with Justice — a group his post describes in the plainest possible terms, and one whose own website makes no secret of how hard it is willing to push.