Op Ed by Sherrod Brown

Reconnecting the Democratic Party to the working class is an electoral and a moral imperative, and it will be my mission for the rest of my life.

In late fall, I was in a break room with 10 or so autoworkers at the Avon Lake Ford plant near Lake Erie. As they talked about the challenges they and their families faced, one worker asked everyone whom they were voting for in the presidential election

One by one, they went around the table: the vice president. The vice president. The vice president. Only one was not. Why not? we asked.

“The vice president wants to take my guns away.”

The man next to him turned to him and said, “Well, Sherrod has basically the same position on guns, and you vote for him.” He responded, “Yeah, but Sherrod’s on my side. He fights for me and my family.”

That conversation happened in October … in the year 2000.

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