Sen. Brown defeats challenger Mandel

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Ohio's incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown kept his seat from challenger Josh Mandel.

It's estimated at least $30 million poured into the state, the lions share from Republican supporters and Super-PAC's, to finance one of the country's most closely watched races.

Brown celebrated at a victory rally in Columbus where mid-speech, he lost his voice. without missing a beat he handed-off his speech to his wife, newspaper columnist Connie Shultz.  In the prepared speech, Brown said:

"This race was never really about me or my opponent. It was about the veteran in Columbus, the waitress in Waverly, the steelworker in Yorkville, the auto parts worker in Toledo, the small businessman in Marietta, and the farmer in Waldo.  And it was about their families and neighbors. The race is about the resurgence in Ohio manufacturing.  The workers and managers from Navistar in Springfield, Airbus in Columbus and Arcelor-Mittal in Cleveland - all adding jobs in Ohio. It’s about building trades members in Columbus and Dayton - raising steel, pouring concrete and laying pipe. It’s about the 300 electricians building a new assembly line in the Jeep plant. That would be the Jeep plant in Toledo. That would be in Ohio. That would be in the United States of America. And it’s about the Chevy Cruze, Ohio’s comeback story. "
 
Click here to read the entire text of Brown's speech

During the camapign, Brown and Mandel faced-off in three contentious debates that at times devoled into name calling. At one debate, Mandel called Brown a liar, and Brown said Mandel is a man who cannot be trusted.

The two argued over social issues, Medicare, trade policy, taxes and government bailouts.

"I'm not a bailout senator," Mandel said in Columbus on Oct. 18. "He's the bailout senator," referring to Brown's support of federal cash spent on Detroit automakers.

Brown supported the $62 million the government sent to General Motors and Chrysler in 2008 and 2009 and has made the bailout a central point of his campaign for re-election.

"These are real jobs and real people," Brown said, defending auto industry rescue, and said it "just boggles my mind" when he considers Mandel's opposition.

Brown, 59, was elected to the U.S. House in 1992 and is serving his first term in the Senate, having won his seat from Mike DeWine, who now serves as Ohio's Attorney General.

Mandel, 35, is a Tea Party favorite who became Ohio's treasurer in 2010, then immediately announced his plan to take Brown's place in the Senate. Before that he was a member of the Ohio House of Representatives and a Cleveland-area city councilman.

In his concession speech Mandel said about Brown, "He ran a great campaign and ah, I have a great deal of respect for him as a leader and also for his family and I would like to personally congratulate him and reach out to him earlier and hopefully we'll connect tonight personally, but i would like to extend congratulations to him and his family."