Sherrod Brown made thousands of dollars writing freelance articles and teaching at Harvard University part-time during his brief break from politics, according to a new financial disclosure report the Democrat filed on Tuesday.
The New York Times paid Brown $7,000 to write this April op-ed criticizing President Donald Trump’s “failing economy.” The New Republic paid him $4,000 for another opinion piece in March laying out his argument for how Democrats could more closely align with working-class voters who traditionally made up the party’s base of support.
Harvard meanwhile paid Brown $5,500 in April after naming him a 2025 Spring fellow, a part-time teaching role at its prestigious Kennedy School of Government.
The report is Brown’s first since losing reelection in November 2024. In all, it reflects a brief working retirement – in which Brown made $16,500 for four months of work – rather than the more lucrative consulting opportunities commonly available to former politicians.
Brown back in politics
Brown unretired in August after announcing he would challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted in the November 2026 election. That’s why he filed the report, which is required for all incumbent senators and Senate candidates.
The new report discloses no outside income – other than the pension he draws as a former state elected official – since Brown returned to politics.
Brown reported one major change in his finances since the last report he made in 2024, when he was still in the Senate.
Brown and his wife, journalist Connie Schultz, no longer have a personal mortgage. The pair sold houses in Cleveland and Washington, D.C. after Brown left the Senate, using the proceeds to buy a new home in the Columbus area where the two now live.
Otherwise, Brown disclosed owning assets worth between $497,000 and $1.18 million, including Brown’s state pension worth between $100,001 and $250,000. A more precise amount can’t be gleaned from the report, since the Senate requires candidates to disclose their finances within a range, rather than give exact numbers.
What Husted’s financial report said
Husted, whom Gov. Mike DeWine appointed to his seat in January to fill Vice President JD Vance’s unexpired term, made his respective financial disclosure in May.
That report disclosed two major sources of income for Husted in 2024 – his $221,125 state salary for serving as Ohio’s lieutenant governor, and $27,575 for serving on the board of Heartland Bank, a small bank based in the Columbus area.
Husted and his wife, Tina, also disclosed assets worth between $1.3 million and $3 million. These included a Heartland Bank checking account containing between $100,000 and $250,000. The rest are in mutual funds. Husted owns no individual stocks, although Mrs. Husted owns stock worth between $15,000 and $50,000 in Noxsano, a private Cincinnati-based medical supplies company.
Husted disclosed one liability: a home equity loan from Heartland Bank. He wrote in the report the loan’s maximum balance was $100,809.96 – for which he paid a 8.5% interest rate – and that he paid the loan in full in March 2024.
Here are Brown and Husted’s full reports: