Brown, an Ohio Democrat, last week wrapped up his his “Dignity of Work” tour, which took him to early primary states Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
The tour was enlightening. In South Carolina, he met with a veteran who had attempted suicide seven times. who read a poem about his experience. He also met a young man who had been kicked out of his home at 17 who is now holding down two jobs. “His work ethic was way beyond the typical 22-year-old or 21-year-old,” he said.
He said he talked to farmers about tariffs in 15 below zero weather in Iowa and also spoke in big union halls. And in Nevada, he was moved by a union slogan stating “one job should be enough.”
“That continues to reverberate — that people should be able to have one job that pays good enough benefits and in wages that they don’t have to have (a second job),” he said.
“I just wanted to get a feel for these states,” he said. “And I think when I see that everybody is the same in some ways. People face the same challenges of wages and benefits and safety and safety in the workplace.”
He said his family is “on board” and his wife, journalist Connie Schultz, who wrote about her hesitation for him running for Senate in her book “And His Lovely Wife,” is “absolutely all in” if we do it.
“But it changes dramatically her life,” he said, saying she would have to give up her career as a journalist “at least for a while and maybe permanently.”
“Her chosen profession she will not be doing anymore and that matters to me,” he said. “She’s willing to go that way but all that stuff is part of the consideration.”
Still, he said, “We think we can win.”
“The question is what does this do with our family and what are we willing to go through,” he said.
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