Sixty Million Dollars and Not a Damn Thing to Show for It

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-26

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: Sixty Million Dollars and Not a Damn Thing to Show for It

The party that took working Ohio for granted is back with a $60 million check and a promise to fight harder this time.

I did everything they told us to do. Showed up. Voted for the guy who said he’d fight for working people. And here’s what working Ohio got: three Senate terms of jack shit.

Sherrod Brown chaired the goddamn Banking Committee. He had the gavel, the platform, and the promise. Single-payer healthcare? Failed. Tariffs on Chinese imports that killed our manufacturing? Failed. Ban on Wall Street buying up homes families need? Failed. All three.

And when urban Ohio needed the party to show up and organize — to knock doors, turn out voters, fight for every precinct — they didn’t bother. Turnout in Ohio’s cities barely cracked 60 percent in 2024. Trump country hit 80. The party took those voters for granted, lost the state, and then acted like it was a surprise.

Now Chuck Schumer’s crew is back with a $60 million check. Sixty million dollars. Not to pass single-payer. Not to put tariffs on China. Not to stop Wall Street from hoarding homes. That money is for one thing: buying back votes the party spent years refusing to earn.

Brown is out at barns and breweries now, promising to fight for working people. He had three terms to fight for working people. The promises are in the trash. The check is on the table.

That’s not a comeback. That’s an invoice they expect you to pay twice.

Ohio working people should tell the Democratic establishment to go to hell. You don’t get to piss away a decade of promises, lose the state, and then show up with a bag of cash calling yourself the party of working people. That’s the oldest con in American politics, and Ohio has seen it before.

Source story: Brown runs to reclaim Ohio Senate seat.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-26
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: politics
Storylines: 2026-midterm-elections
Primary entities: Sherrod Brown, Jon Husted, Ohio, Bernie Moreno, Chuck Schumer, JD Vance
Themes: Senate elections, Democratic Party, red-state politics, urban voter turnout, working-class voters
Floor values engaged: Accountability of power, Informed citizenship, Equality & fairness