WASHINGTON — Sen. Sherrod Brown will campaign in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada during the next month and one half as he considers whether to enter the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, according to the Journal-News.
The trips, which Brown announced Tuesday night in a conference call with Ohio reporters, are yet another sign that Brown, 66, is seriously planning to run for president. Iowa and New Hampshire are the first two major presidential contests in 2020.
Brown will launch the effort in Cleveland on Jan. 30 before appearing in Iowa on Jan. 31. Dates have yet to set for his trips to New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, but Brown said they likely will take place in February.
He indicated Tuesday he would make a final decision in March on whether to officially enter the race.
“I don’t know if I am running yet,” Brown said, adding that he and his wife, Connie Schultz, “are thinking about it. It’s a matter of weeks away if I decide to run.”
If Brown enters the race, he would have one of the more extensive resumes of any potential candidate with the exception of former Vice President Joe Biden. He has served two full terms in the U.S. Senate, was a member of the U.S. House from 1993 through the end of 2006, and was twice elected Ohio secretary of state in the 1980s.
He is expected to espouse the theme of the “dignity of work,” which is likely to resonate with blue-collar Democrats, who have been his base in Ohio.
“Dignity of work means hard work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are or what kind of work you do,” Brown said.
He would enter a crowded field that likely will include Senators Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Kamala Harris of California, and Julian Castro, who served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Department under former President Barack Obama.
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