5 minPolitics
Epstein Files Take Center Stage in Ohio Senate Race
The release of Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein has become a central issue in Ohio's U.S. Senate race, with former Sen. Sherrod Brown attacking Republican Sen. Jon Husted over donations from billionaire Les Wexner, Epstein's former financial adviser. A traveling exhibit of the files is set to arrive in Ohio on Oct. 7.
The long shadow of Jeffrey Epstein has fallen over Ohio's U.S. Senate race, where Democratic former Sen. Sherrod Brown is using Republican Sen. Jon Husted's financial ties to billionaire Les Wexner to frame the contest as a test of accountability. Wexner, the retail magnate and longtime political donor, was Epstein's former financial adviser before Epstein's conviction as a sex offender. The relationship has become a central line of attack in a race that could become the most expensive in the country this year.
Brown's campaign has run at least three television commercials criticizing Husted for receiving more money from Wexner than any other current member of Congress. Federal Election Commission records show Wexner contributed about $116,000 to support Husted from 2001 to 2025, mostly during Husted's two decades in state politics before he was appointed last year to fill the Senate seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. One ad highlights a $3,500 donation Wexner gave Husted in July 2025, less than 10 weeks before Husted joined most Senate Republicans in defeating a Democratic effort to force release of the Epstein files. Another ad calls Wexner an «Epstein co-conspirator,» though Wexner has not been charged and his lawyer said he was not a target of the investigation.
Husted's campaign has pushed back with ads attacking Brown for accepting donations from individuals whose names appear in the Epstein documents, including Wexner's wife Abigail, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Brown accepted no donations from Wexner himself, according to FEC records. Campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce disputed the characterization that Husted «voted to cover up the Epstein files,» saying «there has only been one vote» that counts on the matter — the November vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act — and that Husted voted yes. She called the earlier vote «procedural.» Natoce also said Husted donated all available Wexner contributions, $34,300, to an anti-human trafficking charity; the remaining balance had been spent in past campaign cycles.
Wexner, 89, stated under oath during a February congressional deposition that he never lobbied Husted or anyone else to block the release of the Epstein files. He told members of Congress he was «duped by a world-class con man.» The Epstein case is expected to resurface in Ohio early next month when a traveling exhibit showcasing the Justice Department files comes to the state on Oct. 7. The Epstein Reading Room tour displays more than 3 million pages released by the Justice Department and has plans for at least 20 more stops.
«We want to show these elected officials and the candidates that the public is interested in this topic, and the public is demanding justice for survivors and the public is demanding accountability, no matter how rich and powerful the perpetrators and enablers of these crimes are,» said David Garrett, executive director of the Institute for Primary Facts, the nonprofit that created the exhibit.
Annie Farmer, an Epstein accuser who has been part of the tour, said candidates who have received donations from wealthy people with ties to Epstein will have an incentive to keep burying the truth. She was 16 when she said Epstein abused her and her sister, Maria Farmer, in the 1990s. Maria Farmer, one of Epstein's earliest accusers, alleges her sexual assault took place in 1996 in New Albany, Ohio, where Epstein had a house while working for Wexner, whose estate is located there. During his deposition, Wexner testified that he never heard of Maria Farmer until her name appeared in media reports and that he did not know whether she had ever stayed on his property.
«We should be asking hard questions to everyone who is related to Epstein and is financially supporting politicians. Are they hoping to benefit from silence?» Annie Farmer said. «To people with that much wealth, they feel they don't have to play by the same set of rules. That's what many people are saying is not right.» The accusers are demanding that the Department of Justice do more to investigate the wealthy who for decades helped enable Epstein's abuse.
The Epstein files have flared up in congressional races across the country, including in Texas, where the reading room tour's first stop in Dallas drew Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who is running to unseat a Republican incumbent. In Ohio, the issue is central to a race that will help determine the balance of power in Washington.
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