Sherrod Brown will not run for president in 2020

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced Thursday that he will not run for president in 2020, just after completing a tour of early caucus and primary states.

Brown said in a statement that he was confident other candidates would adopt his political mantra — "the dignity of work" — and that he would continue working against President Donald Trump in the Senate instead of joining the crowded Democratic primary field.

"We’ve seen candidates begin taking up the dignity of work fight, and we have seen voters across the country demanding it — because dignity of work is a value that unites all of us," Brown said in the statement. "It is how we beat Trump, and it is how we should govern."

Brown’s allies saw him as a potential rival to former Vice President Joe Biden in the 2020 Democratic field, and Brown is the second high-profile potential candidate in days — following former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — to drop out of the running as Biden draws closer to his own 2020 decision. Biden was a factor in Bloomberg’s calculations before the former mayor announced Tuesday that he would sit out the presidential campaign.

Meanwhile, Biden is beefing up his political operation, hiring Cristobal Alex, the head of the influential Latino Victory Fund.