Ohio Republicans believe they have a simple strategy to beat three-term Democratic senator Sherrod Brown: tie him to President Joe Biden.

“He's Joe Biden's best friend in Ohio, and that'll be the most serious headwind he's ever faced,” Ohio GOP chairman Alex Trianfilou said in a recent interview. “We know he's formidable. We're not gonna take it lightly. He's gonna have tons of outside money — special-interest money will pour into the state to help him. But it's not going to be enough.”

Brown, as the New York Times recently pointed out, has been unusually lucky in recent election cycles. He first ran for Senate in 2006, a banner year for Democrats over voter frustrations with President George W. Bush’s second term and the war on terror. Six years later, Brown ran alongside Democratic president Barack Obama, who narrowly carried the state. Then came the blue wave in 2018, a midterm cycle when Democrats across the country romped to victory in backlash against President Donald Trump’s first term.

The political dynamics for Brown will look very different in 2024. To stave off a challenge from Republican nominee Bernie Moreno — a wealthy former car dealer who vastly overperformed the polls and cruised to victory in last week’s nasty three-way GOP primary — Brown will have to significantly outrun an extremely unpopular Democratic president who lost his red-trending state to Trump by . . .