Rep. Sherrod Brown (D) Elected 1992, 7th term
Born:	Nov. 9, 1952, Mansfield
Home:	Lorain
Education:	Yale U., B.A. 1974, OH St. U., M.A. 1979, M.A. 1981
Religion:	Lutheran
Marital Status:	married (Connie Schultz)
Elected  Office:	OH House of Reps. 1974-82; OH Secy. of State, 1982-90.
Professional Career:	Prof., OH St. U. at Mansfield, 1979-81.
DC Office	2332 RHOB20515, 202-225-3401; Fax: 202-225-2266; Web site: www.house.gov/sherrodbrown
State Offices	Akron, 330-865-8450; Lorain, 440-245-5350.
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Update: November 30, 2005
On October 6, 2005, Rep. Sherrod Brown announced he would seek the Democratic Senate nomination against Republican Senator Mike DeWine in 2006.

Fifty years ago most of the people of metro Cleveland were clustered in the city itself, in tightly packed blocks of houses on the limestone plains above the Cuyahoga River valley with its giant steel mills. Around the city there were some comfortable suburbs, then as you drove past them you found yourself amid miles of farm fields before you got to the nearby industrial cities--Akron, the "Rubber Capital" with its Firestone, B.F. Goodrich and Goodyear tire factories, or Lorain, a sort of mini-Cleveland, on Lake Erie with steel mills lining the narrow Black River. In the half-century since, the population of Cleveland has fallen by half and the metro area has spread out over the northern Ohio countryside. The suburbs have spread from Cleveland to Akron without interval; the shoreline from Cleveland to Lorain has been filled in. Medina County, between Lorain and Akron, has been transformed from farmland to suburbia; only the Cuyahoga River valley between Cleveland and Akron has been off limits to development, protected by the creation of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The economy has changed as well. In 1950 Cleveland depended on heavy manufacturing, especially steel, and Akron on tires. Today most of the steel mills have gone cold or been torn down, the old tire factories have mostly been converted to other uses, and Ford announced the closing of its assembly plant in Lorain. Akron has memorialized the past in the National Inventors Hall of Fame and has developed itself as the "Polymer Center of America," with 80% of the nation's polymer research and a first-class polymer engineering program at the University of Akron. Downtown Akron has been revived by entertainment areas, the University of Akron, and some upscale housing.

The 13th Congressional District of Ohio is made up of much of this area in metro Cleveland, but none of the city itself. It includes the west side of Akron and its western suburbs; the lines separating it from the 14th and 17th Districts in Akron's Summit County are absurdly convoluted. It includes the northern and eastern parts of Lorain County, including Lorain and Elyria just to the south; the southern tier of suburban townships in Cleveland's Cuyahoga County--Strongsville, North Royalton, Broadview Heights; and the northern tier of suburban townships in Medina County, including Brunswick. Fifty years ago this would have been a Republican area, with Democratic precincts in Akron and Lorain. Today, as Clevelanders have spread far and wide, the area is Democratic, though not overwhelmingly so: George W. Bush twice got 44% of the vote here.

The congressman from the 13th District is Sherrod Brown, first elected in 1992. He grew up in Mansfield, the son of a doctor, graduated from Yale in 1974, won a seat in the state House later that year (another House member, mistaking him for an intern, gave him a dollar to get her a cup of coffee), and later got master's degrees in education and public administration from Ohio State. He has never stopped running. In 1982 he was elected secretary of state at 29 and worked hard to increase voter registration and turnout. In 1990 he lost that office to Bob Taft, who is now governor. In 1992 Brown ran for the open 13th District House seat. With solid labor support, he campaigned loud and hard against NAFTA and championed universal health care. He won 53%-35%.

In the House, Brown has a consistently liberal voting record and has been a politically adept member of the Energy and Commerce Committee. On trade he has been one of the most voluble pro-labor and "fair-trade" members from the Great Lakes area attacking NAFTA, GATT, normal trade relations with China and trade promotion authority. In 2004, he added an amendment to an appropriation bill clarifying that fast-food workers are not part of the nation's manufacturing sector. As ranking Democrat on the Health Subcommittee, his influence has been spotty because Republicans have written their health care proposals mostly in party task forces. He has sponsored bus trips to Canada for consumers to buy prescription drugs. But Brown has had some legislative successes. He helped to enact the Children's Health Act, which created a new Pediatric Research Institute. In 2003, he helped to secure an increase in Medicaid funding. To prevent the transmission of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in food, he has urged a ban on the use of antibiotics on farm animals, including penicillin and tetracycline. He called for enforcement of laws against importing goods made with slave labor in China and helped to increase funding for international programs to fight tuberculosis. He authored Congress from the Inside, a book that reviews why House Democrats lost their majority in 1994, including his conclusion "we were blamed for everything the voters did not like." Later, he authored Myths of Free Trade.

Brown had a serious Republican challenge in 1994 from Lorain County Prosecutor Gregory White, but he survived by 49%-46%. Since then he has won easily. After the 2000 election Brown seemed threatened by redistricting. After he let it be known that he would run for governor if his district was eliminated, Taft asked legislators not to eliminate Brown, though he had defeated Brown years earlier and had good ratings in the polls. In the resulting 13th District, the bad news for Brown was that he had not represented 56% of his constituents. The good news for him was that they were much more Democratic than the constituents he lost, and he quickly became secure. His quiet accumulation of seniority likely would make him a significant player in the House if and when Democrats regain control. But he continued to be mentioned as a candidate for statewide office; in May 2005 he announced he would not run for governor in 2006.

Committees

• Energy & Commerce (7th of 26 D): Commerce, Trade & Consumer Protection; Health (RMM); Telecommunications & the Internet.
• International Relations (7th of 23 D): Asia & the Pacific.

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	95	84	100	91	10	11	24	4	0	23	--
2003	100	--	100	95	--	27	25	12	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	87%	--	9%		89%	--	8%
Social	81%	--	19%		85%	--	15%
Foreign	94%	--	0%		81%	--	18%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts N 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. Y 5. DC School Vouchers N 6. Ban Human Cloning N		7. Restrict Gun Liability N  8. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Fund Iraq War N 11. Bar Cuba Embargo Funds Y 12. Intelligence Reorg. N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2004 general	Sherrod Brown (D)	201,004	67%	$601,435
	Robert Lucas (R)	97,090	33%	$7,518
2004 primary	Sherrod Brown (D)	unopposed
2002 general	Sherrod Brown (D)	123,025	69%	$606,396
	Ed Oliveros (R)	55,357	31%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 (65%); 1998 (62%); 1996 (60%); 1994 (49%); 1992 (53%)

2004 Presidential Vote Kerry (D) 177,472 (56%) Bush (R) 140,908 (44%)

2000 Presidential Vote Gore (D) 133,458 (53%) Bush (R) 110,812 (44%)

For 1992 and 1996 presidential results in the Thirteenth District, please see the Almanac 2000 online. Please note that these older returns reflect district lines as they existed prior to 2002 redistricting.

• Cook Partisan Voting Index: D + 6
• District Size: 537 square miles
• Population in 2000: 630,730; 92.7% urban; 7.3% rural
• Median Household Income: $44,524; 9.4% are below the poverty line
• Occupation: 26.3% blue collar; 59.2% white collar; 14.4% gray collar; 14.0% military veterans
• Race/Ethnic Origin: 81.5% White, 12.1% Black, 1.2% Asian, 0.2% Amer. Indian, 0.0% Hawaiian, 1.3% Two+ races, 0.1% Other, 3.5% Hispanic origin
• Ancestry: 17.3% German, 10.1% Irish, 6.7% English
• Click here for statewide demographic data.