Voters can't seem to escape the deluge of political ads in Ohio's hotly contested U.S. Senate race.
Sen. Jon Husted and former Sen. Sherrod Brown are facing off in one of the country's most expensive Senate contests. The outcome on Nov. 3 could shape which party controls the Senate, meaning all eyes are on the Buckeye State.
The campaigns and outside groups have spent more than $450 million on ads, according to AdImpact, and many of them include statements that are exaggerated, lacking context or altogether untrue.
Here's what to know about some of the most common claims airing in the race.
Does Brown support gender reassignment surgery for minors?
An ad from the GOP Senate Leadership Fund claims Brown "supports sex-change surgery for minors
and admitted he would never oppose it." It cites a 2023 WSYX ABC 6 interview in which Brown discussed a proposal from then-Sen. JD Vance to ban gender reassignment surgery for minors.
Brown has advocated generally for transgender rights and gender-affirming care, which can include hormone therapy and other non-surgical interventions. But his comments to WSYX didn't go as far as the ad suggests.
"A child's health care decisions are between them, their parents, their families, their doctors – not politicians," Brown said in an archived clip of the interview. "I will never agree with anybody that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care, period."
The ad features Soren Aldaco, a Texas woman who de-transitioned after receiving hormones at age 17 and undergoing a double mastectomy two years later, News 5 Cleveland first reported. Aldaco implies Brown is to blame for her experience, even though it happened in a different state.
Ohio banned gender-affirming care for minors in 2024. A lawsuit brought by two transgender girls and their families is pending before the Ohio Supreme Court.
Did Husted's votes raise gas and electricity costs?
Brown and his allies have repeatedly blamed Husted for the rising cost of gas and electricity.
Let's start with gas prices, which have skyrocketed since the U.S. attacked Iran in February. The average price of gas in Ohio sat around $4 per gallon on Oct. 19, according to AAA, even amid the state's 90-day gas tax suspension.
Husted voted 14 times against a resolution directing President Donald Trump to end military action unless Congress allows it. On Oct. 3, Husted told reporters the U.S. needs "to win on our terms" and ensure Iran doesn't acquire a nuclear weapon or control the Strait of Hormuz, a key passageway for the world's oil.
A Brown ad also accuses Husted of giving $2.5 billion in tax breaks to data centers, driving up electric bills in the process.
The average Ohioan's bill jumped 67% from January 2019 to September 2026, according to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Experts say demand for energy is outpacing supply, largely due to an influx of data centers that use a lot of power.
A 2025 report commissioned by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce found Ohio provided an estimated $2.5 billion in tax incentives for data center development from 2017 to 2024. That includes state sales tax breaks, job creation tax credits and local property tax abatements.
Gov. Mike DeWine paused the sales tax exemption after learning it cost nearly $1.6 billion last year.
As lieutenant governor, Husted championed data center developments and said Ohio was "becoming the tech capital of the Midwest." In 2019, he said tax breaks helped secure a Google data center in New Albany and argued the company's investment would outweigh the cost, Ohio Public Media reported.
Husted did not directly approve the tax incentives cited in the ad.
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority − whose members are appointed by the governor, House speaker and Senate president − reviews and approves applications for state tax credit assistance. Local governments handle property tax exemptions. As secretary of state, Husted was in charge of elections, not taxes, when former Gov. John Kasich's administration inked decades-long deals with Amazon, Meta and Google.
In the U.S. Senate, Husted spearheaded legislation that would encourage, but not require, states to make data centers pay for their electricity.
Did Brown vote to give benefits to undocumented immigrants?
Multiple ads from Husted and Republican groups claim Brown voted to provide taxpayer-funded benefits to undocumented immigrants. Here's what the cited votes show:
- In 2007, Brown opposed a measure to prohibit immigrants with legal status from receiving Social Security credits on any taxes they paid while undocumented, PolitiFact reported.
- Brown voted against a 2013 amendment to prevent undocumented immigrants and immigrants who lived here before earning legal status from getting Medicaid coverage or Affordable Care Act subsidies. Undocumented immigrants have long been ineligible for federally-funded health care, according to KFF.
- Brown supported the American Rescue Plan that sent stimulus checks to people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Taxpayers needed a Social Security number to qualify for payments, and the law explicitly barred "any nonresident alien individual" from receiving money.
Did Husted receive campaign money from an Epstein associate?
A Brown campaign ad claims Husted blocked the release of federal documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender and accused sex trafficker who died in 2019. It also says Husted accepted more than $116,000 from Epstein associates.
Husted opposed a procedural move in September 2025 to publicize the Epstein files. Two months later, he voted with the majority of Congress to release them.
The money refers to donations that Husted received from Les Wexner, an Ohio billionaire who maintained a close business and personal relationship with Epstein. Investigators described Wexner as a potential co-conspirator of Epstein, but he's never been charged with a crime. Wexner testified before a congressional committee earlier this year.
Brown also received campaign contributions from Epstein associates, including Abigail Wexner and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who left Harvard after his name surfaced in the Epstein files. Summers has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Husted spokesperson Amy Natoce said the campaign donated its remaining $34,300 from those contributions to Freedom a la Carte, a Columbus cafe and catering company that supports survivors of sex trafficking. She said contributions from previous election cycles had already been spent.
State and federal campaign records confirm the donations. Brown's campaign did not respond to questions about whether he donated any money.
State government reporter Haley BeMiller can be reached at hbemiller@usatodayco.com or @haleybemiller on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Husted vs. Brown ads flood Ohio airwaves. Is any of it true?
