Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown went on All In with Chris Hayes on Tuesday to announce that he will travel to early primary states to consider a 2020 run. But unlike Kirsten Gillibrand, who announced her run for president yesterday, Brown stopped short of confirming or denying whether he’ll be running.
Brown said that he will go on what he calls the “Dignity of Work Tour” to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina, joined by his wife, the journalist Connie Schultz.
Hayes asked if that meant Brown was running. “Connie and I have not made that decision,” he responded.
The tour will start in Cleveland, Brown’s home, on January 30, and then head to Iowa.
“When work has dignity, everyone can afford healthcare, education and housing,” Brown said in a statement announcing the tour. “They have power over their schedules and the economic security to start a family, pay for daycare and college, take time off to care for themselves or their families when they are sick, and save for retirement. The dignity of work is a value that unites us all. It’s what I fight for everyday representing the people of Ohio and it’s what we will fight for together on this tour around the country.”
“In the coming weeks,” Brown wrote in his announcement, “I will be sharing some of my ideas to make hard work pay off for everyone in this county. And I want to hear yours.”
The tour and website will be paid for by Brown’s PAC, America Works. This means he doesn’t have to announce an exploratory committee for president, as Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren have.
Brown has been in the Senate since 2007, and is a respected progressive who has fought for workers rights. He’s been extremely critical of free trade agreements like NAFTA. But he didn’t support Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All bill in the Senate, instead saying that the age for Medicare qualification should be lowered to 55.