By Richard Cowan WARREN, Ohio (Reuters) - Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has navigated Ohio's increasingly Republican political currents for the past two decades by appealing to the state's blue collar voters, but the Nov.
5 election will test him as never before. Democrats' hopes of defending their narrow 51-49 majority in the Senate depend heavily on Brown's success in a state that has taken a strong turn toward Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump -- whose running mate, U.S.
Senator JD Vance, hails from Ohio. The state hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since President Barack Obama carried it by two percentage points in 2012, and hasn't elected a Democratic governor since 2007. That trend helps explain why Brown, 71, has not been joined on the campaign trail by Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris or her running mate Tim Walz.
Opinion polls show Brown locked in a tight race with Republican former luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno, 57, a closer contest than the presidential race in the state, where Trump leads by about 8 points, according to the FiveThirtyEight.com polling average. Success for Brown, who heads the Senate Banking Committee, will hang on strong turnout in the Democratic strongholds of Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, as well as a significant number of "ticket-splitting" voters willing for vote for both Brown and Trump.
Senators serve for six-year terms, making this the first election that both Brown and Trump's n.