Thune Calls Ohio Senate Race 'Ground Zero', Warns of a Long Trump Impeachment Trial as He Rallies for Husted in Lima

United States Senate Majority Leader John Thune called Ohio's Senate election 'ground zero' in the fight for control of the Senate. He made the remarks on Tuesday night, October 27, at a campaign event in Lima, Ohio, for Republican Senate nominee Senator Jon Husted.

At the event, after remarks by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr Mehmet Oz, Thune praised Oz's work in rooting out waste, fraud and abuse. He said Republicans must hold their Senate majority if Oz is to continue that work.

Thune told the crowd that this would happen only if Husted is elected next Tuesday. In his words, 'This is ground zero. This is the firewall in the United States Senate.' He said it would decide whether, over the next two years, President Donald Trump has to deal with Democrats in the House and Senate, where all that would happen is investigations.

Top Democrats including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Representative Gregory Meeks have already signalled an intention to use subpoena power to investigate President Trump and members of his cabinet. Meeks, the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Associated Press in September that they would use those tools and act like Congress.

Thune said that if the House flips to the Democrats, the first thing they will do is impeach the president. That, he said, would require a trial in the Senate, and the only difference between a 24-hour impeachment trial and a 24-month impeachment trial is a Republican majority.

Thune attacked Husted's Democratic opponent, former Senator Sherrod Brown. Brown served as a senator from Ohio from 2007 until 2025, when he ceded his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno after losing the 2024 election. Thune said Brown had proved over 30 years that he was a rubber stamp for Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

Praising Husted, Thune called him principled, hardworking, smart and solution-oriented. He said Husted cut taxes in the state legislature and as Ohio's lieutenant governor and again in Washington, and secured the border. Thune claimed that no person had been released illegally into the country in 17 months.

Thune said, 'This is a knife fight, a bare-knuckles brawl.' He said the stakes could not be higher and the consequences could not be greater, so it was crucial that voters turn out.

Husted himself repeated that the race would be close and challenged Republican voters to get to the polls. He compared the contest to the fourth quarter of a football game, saying the other side would try to intimidate voters and make them quit, but that what voters do matters.

A recent Fox News survey of likely Ohio voters showed Brown with a slight lead: 52 percent of respondents said they would vote for Brown, compared with 47 percent for Husted.

Leader Jeffries and Representative Meeks, the Brown campaign, Leader Thune and Senator Husted did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for further comment, the report said.