Can Sherrod shed Dem candidate worries with Trump approval high in Ohio?

In a new Axios poll called "Big warning signs for Senate Democrats," the race for U.S. Senator in Ohio between two-term incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown and his likely challenger Republican Congressman Jim Renacci of Wadsworth is highlighted.

Banner at Ohio Democratic Party in
2012 when Bill Clinton delivered the key
note address. Hillary Clinton lost Ohio to
Donald Trump in 2016 by 447,000 votes

For Sen. Brown, a liberal, progressive Democrat whose name is very familiar to Ohioans after spending 40 years being elected to a state or federal office, the report by Axios that he's at a 50-percent approval rating and leads Renacci by five points is something to worry about, especially when Republican forces geared up to take him down are coming out in force.

In recent email solicitations, Brown's campaign sounds the alarm that the election this November will be a close one, despite Brown's long tenure in office in his home state.

"We don’t have any room to play games. Once the RNC starts smearing Sherrod -- special interest groups will write seven-figure checks like it’s nothing," a recent email warned. "If you’re feeling the Sunday scaries already, don’t worry. You’re not alone. A new poll came out showing only five points separating Sherrod and Rep. Renacci. Now the RNC has the green light to spend money helping Rep. Renacci win."

Sometimes called the candidate Republicans dislike the least, Brown will have to contend with a mountain of money to soil him—as happened to once-popular former Democrat governor Ted Strickland in his race against Rob Portman— and his time in office.

The senator whose ruffled hair and gravely voice are his trademark will also have to contend with a small army of Republicans coming to states like Ohio, where electing Republican senators to maintain control of the Senate in Washington is first priority.

The RNC is preparing to dispatch a huge ground operation to beat back the threat of a “blue wave” this November, NBC reports. “The RNC will add an additional 170 permanent staffers to its field program by the end of March, more than doubling the number already in the field to over 300," the peacock network said, adding, "And the party expects to add 200 more before before the start of the summer.”

Can the Democratic National Committee under Tom Perez or the Ohio Democratic Party under David Pepper match those numbers for Brown, or for any of the other statewide candidates running for secretary of state or auditor or treasurer or attorney general?

In the Axios poll, approval for Trump in Ohio, where the New York billionaire clobbered Hillary Clinton in 2016 by almost a half-million votes, is at 54 percent. In another poll by Marist, which touts itself the "home of America’s leading independent college public opinion poll," President Trump’s national approval rating is at 42 percent, his highest approval rating since taking office.

In 2012, Brown beat his then-Republican candidate Josh Mandel by about six points, a margin that stayed the same from the beginning of the year through Election Day even though Mandel's campaign was aided by $40 million or more in anti-Brown campaign spending. Jim Renacci, who already has the support of Trump himself even though the Ohio Republican Party has not outright endorsed him as it has the ticket for governor of Mike DeWine-Jon Husted, is independently wealthy and can expect even more help as outside campaign cash to beat down Brown comes pouring in.

Portrayed as an economic populist along the lines of Trump, Sherrod Brown cheers Trump raising tariffs on steel, a sharp contrast to other Democrats who say it could easily lead to a trade war and job loss across the nation. Sometimes called the "liberal lion of the senate," a moniker held by the late great Teddy Kennedy of Massachusetts, Brown knows Ohio's working class well and can defend his support of some of Trump's agenda even though the two are fields apart on nearly all other issues.

As Ohio continues to lag in job creation under term-limited, lame duck governor John Kasich, Brown is the working man's working senator. He knows his agenda well and how well it sells in parts of the Buckeye State that are wondering what their future holds, following years of GOP austerity policies that have robbed them of local government funds, which in turn have forced them to raise their own taxes to keep local services running.

Trained in political combat from his early days as an Ohio House Member, through his two terms as secretary of state, and his tenure in DC representing his congressional district in northeast Ohio, Sherrod Brown will use his talent and skills to fend off the many staffers and tens of millions of dollars that will be lined up against him.

It's no small consideration, therefore, to think that since Ohio is so skewed for Republicans, mostly because of gerrymandered districts Gov. Kasich signed into law in 2011, the continued popularity of Trump in the biggest swing state of them all offers Brown and his team lots of reasons to worry.

And like it or not, Brown's name will be on the Democratic slate of candidates. If Republicans turn out in this year's midterm elections with half of their turnout two years ago, Brown will need by necessity to separate himself as best he can from his fellow Democrats whose chances of winning are slim at best, to avoid going down with the ship.

If Democrats don't turnout in so-called "Blue Wave" numbers, that portend a surge of voters going to the polls in November as they have in Virginia or Florida, will Brown drown by that association? Can he build a life raft of his own to keep him afloat as one or more of his Democratic ticketmates go under if Democrats fail to turn out in off-election years as history shows is the case?