MSNBC "All in with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Sherrod Brown

Interview

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HAYES:  There are still a number of potential presidential candidates who are considering entering the Democratic race, including, perhaps move famously, Joe Biden, who is reportedly still mulling over his decision, and Beto O`Rourke, who says he`ll have an announcement soon, and today Stacey Abrams said that a 2020 presidential run is on the table.
 
When I hear that, I always wonder what exactly the period of contemplation looks like and how someone makes the decision, one way or the other, to run for president, because not everyone decides to do it, like, for instance, Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown who toured the country on a dignity of work tour while considering a run, and then announced he would not run last week.
 
How did he make that decision?  Well, Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio joins me now.
 
Senator, I`m really curious about this.  What goes into the calculation, because you constantly hear reports about people, oh, they are talking to their advisers and they`re talking to fundraisers and
they`re going out and talking to people.  What is in your head?  What did you come to believe through
the process that led to your decision?
 
SEN. SHERROD BROWN, (D) OHIO:  Well as you know, Chris, I  haven`t had a life long dream to be president.  I`ve known you a long time, you`ve never heard me -- nobody that I know has heard me talk about it as something I wanted to do at some point in my life, and that began to change in November or December when I saw that just -- I just thought Democrats weren`t talking to workers enough.  And we  don`t win -- I don`t think we win in the south, I don`t think we win in the Mountain
West or the Midwest if we don`t talk to workers better and listen to workers better, and workers of all races.
 
And I announced on this show, on the Chris Hayes show, a couple of months ago our dignity of work listening tour, and I underline listening because we really spend time in each of the four early states -- New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada listening to people, and this whole idea of the dignity of work, we wanted this to become the narrative for other candidates, and I consider it a victory in the sense that so many other candidates now are talking about work, talking about the dignity of work -- if you love for your country, you fight for the people that make it work.  And I`ve chosen to
DO that in the senate.
 
HAYES:  but why?
 
BROWN:  I think that I could have a loud voice there.
 
HAYES:  But at some point you were considering not doing that.  I mean, I guess the question is like do you draw up a spreadsheet, do you make a like pros and cons list?  Like what is the thing that tips one over when making such a monumental decision.
 
BROWN:  I think it is the question of what are willing to go through, what are you willing to put your family through.  I think that -- I mean, sort of the joyful way I try to do my job in the Senate, I didn`t feel that I could do the presidential race quite the same way and be effective.  And so the decision was -- I know everybody gets to it differently. 
 
I think it is I don`t long to have the long to this huge desire to be president of the United States.
I love my job in the Senate.  I think I`m effective.  I think that our dignity of work narrative, partly because we started on this show, has become a much bigger thing than it would have been.  So I -- I just think I`m ready to continue to do this in the Senate.
 
HAYES:  When you talk about that, I wonder, was there pressure -- I mean, you won this race -- you were just re-elected in Ohio.  I think part of the reason people talked about you as a possible presidential candidate was because you have this record where you have been a fairly liberal senator, if you look at voting records and things like that, in a state that has gone increasingly -- trended increasingly conservative and red.  You just got re-elected.  You clearly have a connection with that state.  You are able to sort of message your politics and connect to voters there.  Were you getting any push-back from Chuck Schumer, anyone else, about if you were to win this thing, we would be down a
seat in Ohio that we would have a real hard time replacing, because the Republican governor would appoint your successor?
 
BROWN:  No.  I heard that literally from nobody.  I was questioned about it by media but I -- nobody said, hey -- including people in Ohio, and including Senate Democratic leadership, nobody said to me you can`t do this I think partly because we would be glad in this time to trade a senate seat for the presidency.  And I think that there is a recognition that if I were the nominee, I would have perhaps the best chance to beat Trump.
 
But I think that if this dignity of work theme, if people learn to talk -- I want people to start -- I want our candidates to start think about the general election and how you`re going to win the general election, and if they start talking to workers -- of course we play to a progressive base.  I take a back seat to nobody on my vote against the Iraq war and for marriage equality and against NAFTA and against the bankruptcy bill and a whole bunch of those issues as a progressive, but we have to talk to workers.  If we do that, I predict if we do that right, I predict that whoever raises her hand or his on
January 20th, 2020 -- what year it would be, 2021, that they will talk about the dignity of work  in her his inaugural speech.
 
HAYES:  Sharpen that, though, because it sounds to me like what you are trying to say is you`re saying like, look, Democrats need to be thinking about a way to talk to voters broadly and appeal broadly and you have an experience where you are running in a place like Ohio where there is a bunch of different constituencies and people of different political leanings, and as opposed to what, like, what is the thing you are worried the field has been doing or is going to do that you`re trying to provide an antidote to that is bad?
 
BROWN:  I don`t say it is bad yet.  It might become that.  I don`t think that our candidates are thinking of the general election, I think that there is a bit of one bird flies off the telephone wire and five more birds fly off the wire.  I just there is a little bit of that. 
 
I just want candidates to think for themselves and to move the country forward and think
about the general election, and realize that even though I have a lifetime F from the NRA, I get gun owners` votes in some significant number in Zanesville and Nanceville (ph) and Lyme, Ohio, because I talk about education and I talk about keeping their health care costs down and going after the drug companies and how do you send your kid to community colleges, to Zane State or to Rhode State (ph) in Lyme (ph), how do you do that. 
 
And it really is -- it is actually -- this tour we did really was a listening tour.  I wasn`t trying to get the biggest crowd.  I was listening to people and I learned stuff.  One woman in Laconia, New Hampshire, said you have got -- who had run a childcare facility for years, said you have got to think about childcare as a public good.  We invest in transportation.  We invest in public parks.  We need to invest in childcare.  And the irony of childcare is people can`t afford it and then the workers that provide can`t make a living wage, so something is wrong there.
 
HAYES:  All right, Sherrod Brown, it`s always a pleasure to have you on.  Thanks for taking the time.

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