My Canary Pin

This story is short and sweet.

As 2025 comes to an end, I hope you’re enjoying the holiday season in the good company of family and friends. I’ve been reflecting on the past year, and I wanted to tell you a story – short and sweet – that really embodies why I’m in this fight.

When I first got to the U.S. Senate, they gave me an official Senate pin – the kind that says, “Look at me! Look how important I am!” I wore it for a couple of days, but it just didn’t feel right.

So I replaced it with a pin depicting a canary in a birdcage, which a Lorain steelworker gave to me decades ago at a Workers’ Memorial Day rally. I’ve kept it with me all these years, and it’s become one of my most prized possessions.

As the story goes, coal miners once brought canaries down into the mines with them as a warning system against poisonous gases. Back then, they didn’t have a union strong enough or a government that cared enough to protect them. They were on their own.

Together, we changed that. We passed worker safety laws and overtime pay. We banned child labor. We passed clean air and safe drinking water laws. We enacted Social Security and Medicare, workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights.

Because when you love this country, you fight for the people who make it work.

But right now, there is no one in D.C. willing to keep up this fight for Ohioans, and working folks across the state are paying the price.

You see, I never planned to run for office again. But when I saw all the chaos happening in Washington – and Ohio Senator Jon Husted turning his back on the everyday Ohioans I spent years and years fighting for – I knew what I had to do.

I had to get back into the fight, and I had to do it now.

Together, we can flip this seat and fix a rigged system that only benefits the wealthiest people and companies in our society and makes working people pay the price. Hard work should pay off for everyone – no matter who you are or what kind of work you do.

Over the past few months, I’ve been humbled by the outpouring of grassroots support our campaign has received. It’s clear our message is resonating with people across Ohio, and I couldn’t be more grateful.

But this is going to be a tough fight, and to keep up our momentum and start the election year in the strongest position possible, I need your help.

Right now, we’re up against our final FEC deadline of the year on Dec. 31. When it ends, we’ll have to publicly report our fundraising numbers – and everyone will be watching to gauge the strength of our grassroots movement.

It’s critical we leave no doubts in anyone’s mind: We’re in it to win it.

So folks, if you believe in our fight for working people in Ohio and across the country, will you chip in whatever you can spare now to help me reach my end-of-quarter goal and flip this Senate seat?

I haven’t taken off my canary pin – and I haven’t given up our fight for workers.

How could I, when we have so much left to do?

In solidarity,

Sherrod Brown