As he considers his next political move or if there will be one, Democrat Sherrod Brown, who spent 18 years as a senator, announced the creation of the Dignity of Work Institute, which will focus on empowering and growing the middle class.

In Monday’s announcement about the nonprofit think tank, Brown said: “American workers built this country and are working harder than ever, but have less and less to show for it. They’re producing more than ever, but their wages have barely budged and the cost of living keeps getting worse. Working people have not given up on the American Dream, but they know they’re working in a rigged system.”

Brown added: “Workers keep telling us the status quo isn’t working for them and their families. But neither party has an agenda to create the dramatic change that workers want and the dramatic change that workers are demanding. People in Washington fundamentally are not listening to workers.”

Serving as its executive director, Brown said his institute’s “mission is to put the interests of American workers at the center of our country’s politics and our country’s policies and to push for the change that workers are demanding.”

The institute, Brown said, will conduct in-depth, ongoing research on how workers view themselves in the economy and society today and the changes they want to see.

After 18 years in the U.S. Senate, Brown lost the November election to Republican Bernie Moreno.

Brown remains uncommitted to running for office next year.

Asked Monday if the institute would play a role in his political future, if he would again run for office and when he would have a decision, Brown said, “One, this institute is not part of those plans, period. Second, I don’t know. This news conference, this discussion, is about the dignity of work. It’s not about my or anybody else’s political aspirations. I don’t know what I’m going to do in the future except I’m going to be focused on raising money and hiring and gathering information and more data about workers for the Dignity of Workers Institute.”

In his Dec. 17 farewell Senate floor speech, he said he would continue to advocate for the dignity of work and “I’m not giving up on our fight for workers.”

He ended saying: “It is not — I promise you — the last time you will hear from me.”

If he seeks a political comeback, Brown could choose to run for the Senate seat that Republican Jon Husted holds. Husted, a former lieutenant governor, was appointed Jan. 17 by his then-boss, Gov. Mike DeWine, to the Senate seat vacated by J.D. Vance, who left to serve as vice president.

Husted has to run in 2026 for the remaining two years left on Vance’s term. A full six-year term will be on the 2028 ballot.

Brown also could run for governor. Dr. Amy Acton, DeWine’s health director who gained fame during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is the only announced Democratic candidate for governor.

On the Republican side, billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who is endorsed by President Donald Trump, and Attorney General Dave Yost have declared their candidacies.

Brown and his wife, writer Connie Schultz, recently moved from Cleveland to Bexley, a Columbus suburb.

In a post on Substack, Schultz wrote: “We are a public couple and have lived much of our lives out loud, so there will be the usual political speculation about why we are willing to make this move. I’d like to get ahead of that nonsense, if ever so briefly.”

Schultz said the move was because of family — five of their eight grandchildren live in Columbus — and it significantly reduces the drive time to her teaching job at Denison University.

Sarah Benzing, Brown’s former Senate chief of staff, is serving as the institute’s senior adviser. Katie Mulhall Quintella, who spent 10 years working for Brown in the Senate, is the institute’s deputy executive director.

A poll by GQR, a Democratic firm, for the Dignity of Work Institute, shows that 60% of Americans polled are working more than one job at a time and half said the economy needs major change in order for them to get ahead with 86% saying it is time for a significant level of change.

The telephone poll of 1,300 nationally registered voters between Feb. 13 and 23 has a 3.1% plus-minus margin of error.