Sherrod Brown says he’s ‘not actively considering’ running for president

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said that he’s not “actively considering” a run for the White House in 2020, though he said he thinks “about it from time to time.”

“I’m not actively considering it,” he said when asked about it during an interview earlier this week with the Cincinnati Enquirer’s editorial board.

But he also acknowledged hearing about it “more and more.”

{mosads}”I don’t have the great desire to be president like a lot of my colleagues do,” Brown said. 

“I think about it from time to time,” he added, “but I’m not close to wanting to do that.” 

Brown is among a handful of Democrats floated as possible 2020 challengers to President Trump.

The two-term senator is up for reelection this year, but most polls show him with a comfortable lead over his Republican challenger, Rep. Jim Renacci. 

Trump beat out Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Ohio in 2016, including in 17 counties that Brown won in his 2012 reelection bid.

Brown was once a potential pick to serve as Clinton’s running mate. She ultimately chose Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) in part because Democrats did not want to run the risk of losing Brown’s Senate seat. 

Democrats are hoping that gubernatorial candidate Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, can help the party retake the governor’s mansion in Ohio this year.

That would mean that a Democrat would likely be appointed to fill Brown’s seat should he mount a bid for president in 2020.

The gubernatorial race, however, remains close. A Politico–AARP poll released earlier this month shows Republican Mike DeWine leading Cordray by only 1 point in the race for the governor’s mansion.