Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown follows Republican Bernie Moreno as the state of Ohio was called for former President Donald Trump.

The Senate contest in Ohio was seen as one of the toughest for Democrats in the 2024 elections, with Brown running for re-election in a red-leaning state that went for Donald Trump by margins of about 8 points in 2016 and 2020. While Brown previously won reelection in 2018, during the Trump era, this was the first election in which the Democrat split the vote with the former president.

Polls consistently showed a tight race, with the two candidates roughly tied or one narrowly ahead, and many analysts viewed the race as one of the best opportunities for the Republican Party this election cycle. With Democrats only narrowly controlling the Senate with a 51-49 majority, the race was closely watched as it was expected to help determine which party will control the legislative chamber.

With 83 percent of the votes counted, Moreno led Brown with 51 percent of the vote, according to NBC News projections.

Brown, one of Ohio’s longest-serving politicians, wanted to increase his support for unions and labor rights during the campaign. He also emphasized his efforts to be bipartisan and work with Republicans. The Democrat also hit his Republican rival hard on the abortion issue, saying Moreno was out of step with the majority of Ohioans who voted to enshrine abortion as a constitutional state right in 2023.

“I’m fighting for progress on the issues that matter most to Ohio workers and families – from higher wages to safer workplaces to protecting the retirement benefits and affordable health care that Ohioans have worked their entire lives for,” wrote Brown in a closing message to voters Tuesday on X (formerly Twitter).

Moreno, a Colombian-born Ohio businessman, tried to portray his Democratic rival as “too liberal” for the increasingly Republican-leaning state. Notably, former President Barack Obama won Ohio in 2008 and 2012, before Trump.

Now Brown is the only Democrat to hold a non-judicial statewide office in Ohio. Republicans control all branches of state government.

Moreno also targeted Brown over transgender rights, the situation at the southern U.S. border with Mexico and support for foreign aid. Republicans also canceled ads featuring Trump, whose endorsement in Ohio had never failed. Trump’s vice presidential candidate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, got a boost from the former president in his Republican Party primary and went on to win his Senate race in 2022.

“Sherrod Brown’s closing argument is that Ohioans should vote for him because he supports giving hundreds of billions of dollars to foreign countries. He is the classic definition of America last,” Brown wrote in a post on X on Monday. “I will put Ohio and America last. First.”