Vulnerable Dem senator ripped for votes on key 2024 Rust Belt issue: 'Lockstep' with Harris

As fracking continues to be a key issue in many of the Rust Belt swing states that could decide the 2024 presidential election, incumbent Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is facing increased criticism from his GOP opponent for previously held positions on the matter.

In 2021, Brown was one of 43 senators to vote against a bill to "establish a deficit-neutral reserve fund relating to prohibiting the Council on Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency from promulgating rules or guidance that bans hydraulic fracturing in the United States."

Brown also voted no on a motion in the Senate in 2022 giving states "sole authority" to permit and enforce fracking regulations.

While speaking to CNN in 2020, Brown suggested that most of the fracking jobs in Ohio go to "out of state" workers and that "there just aren't that many jobs in fracking or, unfortunately, even coal in Ohio now" when answering a question about his level of concern about Ohio workers losing their jobs in the fracking industry. 

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Some estimates have suggested that fracking supports over 300,000 jobs in Ohio and contributed $55 billion to the state's economy in 2021. 

When confronted by Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn on the issue of fracking and VP Harris backing away from her position to ban fracking, Brown declined to call Harris out for changing positions and said he believes in an "all of the above strategy."

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Brown, who has been criticized for supporting the Biden administration's policies nearly 100% of the time according to the VoteView database maintained by UCLA political scientists, has bucked the Biden administration on certain issues related to climate change. However, his critics say he is more in line with the progressive "Green New Deal," than he is the oil and gas industry in Ohio. 

"Sherrod Brown is in lockstep with San Francisco liberal Kamala Harris on all of her radical policies, including a complete ban on fracking. Brown and Harris would rather rely on our adversaries for energy instead of using our resources here at home," Brown's GOP opponent, businessman Bernie Moreno, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

"In November, Ohioans will reject their radical, anti-energy agenda."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, a Brown campaign spokesperson said the senator "supports fracking" when it's "done right."

"Bernie Moreno is lying and trying to distract from his long record only looking out for himself — from refusing to pay his employees the overtime they were owed and shredding the evidence to get out of it to selling the Chinese-made Buick Envision, which shipped Ohio jobs overseas," the spokesperson said. 

"Sherrod has been clear that he supports fracking and shale development when it’s done right and supports Ohio workers, has led legislation to connect Ohio workers with jobs in the shale and fracking industry, and has stood up to his own party to protect Ohio jobs."  

The campaign also pointed to a 2012 press release where Brown said, "Shale development has tremendous potential to bring new economic development and new jobs to our state. Not only do we have to protect our public safety and health, but we must make sure that these new jobs are going to Ohioans—not out-of-staters."

The Ohio Senate race will be one of the most highly watched in the country as Republicans view the Buckeye State as a prime location to take back control of the Senate in a state that Trump won by eight points in 2020.

The Cook Political report ranks the race as a "toss up."