Epstein’s files are a campaign issue in Ohio’s Senate race: Democrat Sherrod Brown attacks Republican Sen. Jon Husted over roughly $116,000 in donations from Les Wexner, Epstein’s former financial adviser; Husted’s ads cite Brown’s donations from people named in the files.
Brown’s ads spotlight a $3,500 Wexner donation to Husted in July 2025, less than 10 weeks before Husted joined most Senate Republicans in defeating a Democratic effort to force release of the files. Husted’s campaign calls that vote procedural and says he supported the Epstein Files Transparency Act in November. The campaign says Husted donated $34,300 in available Wexner contributions to an anti-human-trafficking charity; the rest had been spent. Brown took no donations from Wexner, and Husted’s ads cite about a dozen other Brown donors named in the files, none accused of a crime.
The Epstein Reading Room, a traveling exhibit displaying more than 3 million pages released by the Justice Department, is due in Ohio on Oct. 7. Accuser Annie Farmer said Epstein abused her when she was 16; her sister Maria alleges Epstein sexually assaulted her in 1996 in New Albany, Ohio, where he had a house while working for Wexner. Wexner testified he had not heard of Maria until her name appeared in media reports and did not know whether she had stayed at his property.
