Epstein Files Roil Ohio Senate Race as Wexner Donations Take Center Stage

Billionaire retail magnate Les Wexner, once a major political donor in his native Ohio, has become an unexpected focal point in the state's U.S. Senate race. Wexner's former financial adviser was Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender, and that association has turned his past campaign contributions into a central issue in a contest that could become the most expensive in the country this year.

Wexner, who has publicly disavowed his ties to Epstein, gave about $116,000 to support Republican Sen. Jon Husted between 2001 and 2025, most of it during Husted's two decades in state politics before he was appointed last year to fill the seat vacated by Vice President JD Vance. While the sum is a small fraction of Husted's overall fundraising, former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown has seized on it. His campaign has aired at least three television ads criticizing Husted for accepting more money from Wexner than any other sitting member of Congress.

One ad highlights a $3,500 donation Wexner made to Husted in July 2025, less than ten weeks before Husted joined most Senate Republicans in blocking a Democratic effort to force release of the Epstein files. Another features video from Wexner's February congressional deposition, in which he confirmed his long history of donating to Husted. A third describes Wexner as an "Epstein co-conspirator," though he has not been charged and his lawyer has said he was not a target of the investigation.

Husted's campaign has pushed back with ads targeting Brown for accepting donations from several individuals whose names appear in the Epstein documents, including Wexner's wife Abigail, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Federal Election Commission records show Brown took no money from Wexner himself. Husted's campaign also disputes the claim that he "voted to cover up the Epstein files," noting that he supported the November Epstein Files Transparency Act and calling the earlier vote procedural. Campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce said Husted donated all available Wexner contributions — $34,300 — to an anti-human trafficking charity, with the rest already spent in past cycles.

Wexner, 89, testified under oath in February that he never lobbied Husted or anyone else to block the files' release, saying he was "duped by a world-class con man." Brown has declined to return donations from about a dozen individuals named in the files, whom Husted's ad labeled "Epstein associates" even though none has been accused of a crime.

The issue is expected to intensify when a traveling exhibit showcasing the Justice Department files arrives in Ohio on Oct. 7. The Epstein Reading Room tour displays more than 3 million pages released by the department and has at least 20 more stops planned. David Garrett, executive director of the Institute for Primary Facts, the nonprofit behind the exhibit, said the goal is to show elected officials that the public demands accountability regardless of wealth or power.

Annie Farmer, an Epstein accuser who has joined the tour, said candidates who accept donations from wealthy people tied to Epstein have an incentive to keep the truth buried. She was 16 when she said Epstein abused her and her sister Maria Farmer in the 1990s. Maria, one of the earliest accusers, alleges her assault took place in 1996 in New Albany, Ohio, where Epstein had a house while working for Wexner. During his deposition, Wexner said he had never heard of Maria Farmer until her name appeared in media reports and did not know whether she had stayed on his property.

The accusers are calling on the Justice Department to do more to investigate those who enabled Epstein's abuse over decades. "We should be asking hard questions to everyone who is related to Epstein and is financially supporting politicians. Are they hoping to benefit from silence?" Annie Farmer said.

The tour has already drawn political attention elsewhere. At its first stop in Dallas, Farmer and other accusers met with Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa, who is running for Texas governor. Talarico criticized his opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton, for not meeting the accusers and urged him to sue the federal government over its handling of the files. In Omaha, independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn met accusers and pledged to prioritize justice for victims, criticizing Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts for being slow to back the files' release.

In Ohio, the issue continues to divide voters. A day after Husted announced he would donate his remaining Wexner contributions to charity, he was heckled as a "pedophile protector" at a campaign stop in Norwalk, according to a local news account. Brown, meanwhile, has had to defend his decision not to offload donations from individuals named in the files. "They're not tied in any way, the way the co-conspirator is tied in," he told CNN earlier this year.

With early voting in Ohio set to begin in less than two weeks, Brown is keeping the pressure on Husted's Wexner contributions. On his X account this month, he marked the one-year anniversary of Husted's vote on the failed Democratic amendment to release all the Epstein files with a video asking why Husted "would side with the billionaires instead of these victims."