Democrat Sherrod Brown is running for his fourth term as Senator in the beet-red state of Ohio. He first won in 2006, when the state was still considered a “swing.” In 2012 the Koch Brothers and right wing money forces went all out to defeat him – only Obama had more dark money spent against him that year. The pundits and papers were all writing him off. But he fended it all off and won reelection.

In 2018 the experts were once again writing his political eulogies. And once again, despite the fact that Trump took the state with convincing numbers in 2016, Brown won with an eight point margin. This despite the fact that no other Democrat has managed to win a statewide race since 2006. Democrats thought they had the formula in 2022 when Tim Ryan, who is more conservative than Brown, was running against MAGA wingnut celeb candidate J.D. Vance and lost.

Brown can take some left wing social positions and still win these races. Why? Because he has won over a lot of working class voters with class politics. The Democrats, and to a certain extent, the left in general has abandoned class politics in favor of more dogmatic identity politics as they (the Democrats, not necessarily the left) embrace jobs-killing trade deals dating back to the 90s.

The polls are still early, but if the Dobbs Effect is a thing in Ohio, these polls are really bad news for the Republicans, especially the Emerson College polls which have skewed right in recent years.

Clinton lost in 2016, in part, due to the fact that Trump was actually attacking her from the left in economic issues in one of the biggest ironies of 21st century politics. There were other factors, but the reluctance to part from her husbands unfortunate policies in the 90s were a decisive one in the rust belt. Biden walking the UAW picket line was a start. And this does not mean that the left and Democrats have to abandon racial, ethnic, and gender justice. They just have to remember that intersectionality is not complete if class is not at the forefront of consideration.