COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - Democrat Sherrod Brown has won a new term in the U.S. Senate in Ohio after one of the most expensive and closely watched match-ups in the country.
Brown withstood an onslaught of attacks from conservative outside groups to top Republican challenger Josh Mandel -- the state treasurer and a veteran of the Iraq war. In his victory speech, Brown told supporters those groups thought the state could be bought but says they "just didn't know Ohio."
Brown made the auto industry bailout a key issue in his campaign and got three out of four votes from the majority of Ohioans who backed giving federal money to GM and Chrysler.
Mandel had sought to turn Brown's decades in public office against him. He told supporters that his defeat was a beginning, not an end, in his fight to improve the country.
