Watchdog accuses Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of campaign finance violations

A government accountability group filed a complaint against Sen. Sherrod Brown to the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, accusing the Ohio Democrat of multiple campaign finance violations. 

The Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has requested that the FEC investigate whether Brown, 71, and other groups associated with his campaign unlawfully solicited excessive campaign contributions during the 2024 election cycle. 

The swing-state senator, who is running against Trump-backed Republican businessman Bernie Moreno to keep his seat in the upper chamber, allegedly solicited donations for his primary election campaign “long after Ohio’s primary election occurred,” according to the complaint. 

FACT notes that Brown, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary and had a nearly $16 million cash-on-hand surplus after the election, incurred “no apparent” primary election campaign debt for which the donations could have appropriately been used to pay off.  

The watchdog group also claims that some contributions to the Ohio Democratic Party were inappropriately “earmarked” for the Brown campaign “or otherwise knowingly designated for spending on behalf of Brown in the 2024 general election.” 

The complaint names Brown, Friends of Sherrod Brown (his principal campaign committee), Ohio Grassroots Victory Fund (a joint fundraising committee) and the Ohio Democratic Party as respondents.

“There is reason to believe contributors to the Brown JFC have been making contributions to the Ohio Democratic Party with knowledge that their funds will be spent on the party’s ‘get-out-the-vote and voter turnout operation’ explicitly for Sherrod Brown,” the complaint charges, “meaning all amounts contributed to the state party through the Brown JFC must be deemed general-election contributions to Sherrod
Brown.”

FACT cites language on Ohio Grassroots Victory Fund contribution page which states that all contributions made to the joint fundraising committee “will fund” the state Democratic Party’s “get-out-the-vote and voter turnout operation to get Sherrod across the finish line this November.”

 “The Commission should seek appropriate sanctions against Brown and his agents for any and all violations, including civil penalties sufficient to deter future violations,” FACT demanded. 

The Brown campaign did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. 

Ohio is seen as a potential Republican pickup opportunity in the Senate this cycle due to the state’s rightward swing. 

Buckeye State voters have backed the GOP candidate in four of the last six presidential elections since 2000, with former President Donald Trump beating President Biden by eight percentage points in 2020.

Republicans only need to flip a net of two seats to retake the Senate in November.

Brown, among the most liberal Democrats in the Senate, has served three terms in the upper chamber.