Ohio voters are witnessing a battle of campaign television ads as each Senate candidate tries to tie the other to Jeffrey Epstein — by way of donations from those with some link to the late convicted sex offender.
Democrat Sherrod Brown’s campaign charges that Republican Sen. Jon Husted “took more money from Jeffrey Epstein’s co-conspirators than anyone else in Washington, and then voted to keep the Epstein files secret.” The donations total $116,892 over more than 20 years. Husted’s TV spot, meanwhile, calls Brown “a liar,” saying that Husted “voted to release the Epstein files” and that Brown took $100,000 “from Epstein associates.” Those contributions date back to 2005.
Whether the campaign donations are problematic is a matter of opinion that we leave to voters to decide. We’ll lay out who gave the money.
In Husted’s case, the contributions all came from Les Wexner, the founder and former CEO of the retail companyL Brands, which included The Limited and Victoria’s Secret and is based in Ohio. Wexner, who knew Epstein and hired him to be his financial manager for many years, was listed in a2019 FBI documentas a “co-conspirator,” hence the description in the Brown ad. But he has never been charged with a crime. In February, after his inclusion in the document became public, Wexnersaidhe “never witnessed nor had any knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activity.”
This year, Husted donated about $34,000 of the more recent Wexner donations to a charity, his campaign said, noting this was “all the funds that were available.”
In Brown’s case, the Husted campaign mined the Epstein files for mentions of Brown donors. A few have a well-known connection to Epstein, such as Larry Summers, the former Treasury Secretary whoannouncedin February that he would resign from Harvard University after some of hiscorrespondencewith Epstein was released. Summers also hasn’t been accused or charged with any crime related to his friendship with Epstein. Some of the others who donated to Brown have a tangential connection to Epstein, or it’s unclear if they knew him, such as being mentioned by Epstein in an email.
As for Husted’s votes on the Epstein files, neither campaign tells the whole story. Husted voted against a Democratic amendment to release them — in a largely party-line vote — and, two months later, supported releasing them — in a unanimous consent vote on standalone legislation.
Brownwas a longtime Ohio senator, from 2007 to 2025. Hustedwas appointedin January 2025 by Gov. Mike DeWine to fill the Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. The raceis rateda toss-up by the Cook Political Report.
Both of the TV ads we examine here started airing in late May, according to AdImpact.
We’ll start with the issue that’s easier to explain: whether Husted “voted to keep the Epstein files secret” or “voted to release the Epstein files,” as the TV ads from each campaign say. The senator essentially did both. The campaigns, though, point only to the vote that supports their position.
On Sept. 10, Husted — and all but two Republican senators —votedto block a Democratic amendment to a defense budget and policy bill. Theamendment, proposed by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, called for the attorney general to release all unclassified documents related to Epstein, including Department of Justice investigations of him and his associates, and information related to Epstein’s suicide.
In July 2019, federal authoritieschargedEpstein, a wealthy financier, with sex trafficking of minors, alleging that he “sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money” between 2002 and 2005. A month after his arrest, Epsteindied in prison. His deathwas ruleda suicide by the DOJ and the New York City medical examiner.
The Brown campaign has linked Husted’s September vote to a$3,500 contributionfrom Wexner two months earlier. “Just last year Husted took a maximum donation from Epstein’s co-conspirator and weeks later voted to block the release of the Epstein files. The record is clear,” Patrick Eisenhauer, Brown’s campaign manager, said in an email to us. (That is themaximum amountan individual can give to a candidate committee per election.)
At the time of the September vote, President Donald Trumpwas opposedto the DOJ releasing its files on Epstein. The two Republicans who voted in favor of releasing the files were Sens. Rand Paul and Josh Hawley.
Asked in a Feb. 18 deposition before a congressional committee whether he lobbied Husted or anyone else to block the release of the Epstein files, Wexnersaid, “Absolutely not.”
