Trump-Backed Bernie Moreno Wins Bruising Ohio GOP Senate Primary

WESTLAKE, Ohio–Bernie Moreno has emerged the victor in a nasty Ohio Republican U.S. Senate primary marred by outside money from a Democrat-aligned super PAC to prop him up, bickering about which candidate was more conservative, and mudslinging that turned personal toward the Trump-backed candidate.

At 8:35 p.m ET., the Associated Press called the race for Mr. Moreno. State Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose came in at second and third, respectively, as at press time.

Mr. LaRose, Mr. Dolan, and Mr. Moreno have been at odds with each other for several months in their quest to win the primary. The three men share one common theme, however, and that is to “retire Sherrod Brown.”

Mr. Brown,  a Democrat, was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2007 in a deep red state that former President Donald Trump won by eight points in 2016 and 2020.

National and Ohio Republicans believe that Mr. Brown is vulnerable because he has frequently supported the policies of President Joe Biden at a time when the president has low approval ratings amid the southern border crisis, a sluggish economy, and questions about his physical and mental fitness to serve.

“Sherrod Brown is like a cicada who goes underground for five years,“ said Mr. LaRose. ”You don’t hear from him. Then he pops up and chirps.”

He added that Mr. Brown campaigns as a centrist, but “the guy is the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate.”

“If we beat Sherrod Brown in November, we can fire Chuck Schumer in January. We can give President Trump the Senate majority he needs to make America great again. The whole nation is watching what we’re doing in Ohio.”

The Trump Impact

Mr. Moreno secured President Trump’s endorsement last December.

Mr. Dolan gained different stamps of approval. Last week, apparently propelled by endorsements from Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and former Republican Sen. Rob Portman, Mr. Dolan came in first in an Emerson College poll (26 percent) over Mr. Moreno (23 percent) and Mr. LaRose (16 percent), with 32 percent reporting they are undecided.

Mr. DeWine, who was reelected to a second term in 2022, is considered a moderate by many Ohio conservative elected officials and voters. Mr. Portman, the Republican senator who chose not to seek another term in 2022, leading to Trump-backed J.D. Vance’s victory, has a similar reputation.

To bolster Mr. Moreno, President Trump and a group of allies that included Mr. Vance, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), and South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, spoke at a March 16 rally for Mr. Moreno in suburban Dayton.

The move could be responsible for a shift recorded in a new Emerson College survey released on March 18. It showed Mr. Moreno back in the lead (38 percent), followed by Mr. Dolan (29 percent) and Mr. LaRose (12 percent), while 21 percent said they were undecided.

When those voters were asked which candidate they favored, Mr. Moreno’s backing increased to 44 percent, Mr. Dolan’s to 40 percent, and Mr. LaRose’s to 16 percent.

On the morning of March 19, Mr. Moreno appeared at the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County headquarters in suburban Cleveland to thank campaign staffers and volunteers. He was joined by Mr. Vance.

“Unfortunately, what our primary turned into was the slugfest between the Liz Cheney wing of the Republican Party and the Donald Trump wing of the Republican Party. Unfortunately for the Liz Cheney wing, they don’t have the voters on their side. So Donald Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno,” Mr. Vance said.

‘A Sick … Attack’

Last week, Mr. Moreno’s reputation was attacked in an Associated Press article reporting that an Adult Friend Finder profile was linked to his email address in 2008 seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex.”

A former intern admitted that he created the account as a “juvenile prank” and apologized to Mr. Moreno.

On March 16, Adult Friend Finder founder Andrew Conru wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that he reviewed all of the available information “and it showed that the account had only a single visit, no activity, no profile photo, consistent with a prank or someone just checking out the site.”

Even temporary access to an email account “is sufficient enough to create a fake dating profile in someone else’s name,” Mr. Conru added before offering his “sincere apologies to Bernie and anyone similarly affected by the 2016 data incident.”

Mr. Moreno has said little about the AP report. He called it “a sick, last-minute attack by desperate people.”

Money has played a substantial part in the GOP Senate primary.

Through Feb. 28, which marked the closing date of the most recent Federal Election Commission filings, Mr. Dolan had poured $11 million of his own money into the race and Moreno $5.4 million.

Data showed that outside groups had spent $3.1 million on negative messaging against Mr. Dolan, $4 million against Mr. LaRose, and $9.2 million against Mr. Moreno.

Mr. LaRose, 44, was an Ohio state senator for eight years before taking office as secretary of state in 2019. The U.S. Army veteran was a member of the Green Berets and is now in the U.S. Army Reserve.

On March 18, Mr. LaRose grinned before telling The Epoch Times that, among the three candidates in the Ohio GOP Senate primary, he is the one who stands out for multiple reasons, including on a financial statement.

“I’m the one who’s not a multimillionaire, and I’m the one who hasn’t loaned millions of dollars to my campaign. I’m a thousandaire.”

Democrats Prop Up Moreno

Last week, a super PAC linked to Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) purchased $2.7 million in ad buys. The strategy was seen by Mr. Moreno’s Republican rivals as a move to elevate a Trump-backed candidate they consider more easy to beat in the general election.

At a campaign stop on March 18, Mr. LaRose told The Epoch Times, “It’s sickening. It’s disgusting. Chuck Schumer should be ashamed of himself. And Bernie Moreno should denounce this. He hasn’t. He’s accepting dirty money from the Democrats effectively, right? They’re running their own ads. Chuck Schumer has no business picking who the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate is going to be. And the fact that he is trying to help Bernie should tell you something. Bernie is the guy who would lose to Sherrod Brown.

A Cleveland area entrepreneur who built his wealth as a luxury car dealer and the founder of a blockchain technology company, Mr. Moreno, who was born in Colombia, “legally entered the United States” with his family when he was 5 years old and became an American citizen when he was 18.

Border security is a key part of Mr. Moreno’s platform. He supports President Trump’s belief there should be a mass deportation of illegal immigrants and that construction should be continued at the border wall, which was halted by President Joe Biden.

If elected, Mr. Moreno vows to serve in the Senate for no more than two terms, or 12 years. After leaving the 2022 Senate race, Mr. Moreno was named Ohio State Chair for U.S. Term Limits.

“We’re gonna focus on the policies that help all Americans. That means legal immigration, but not illegal immigration; U.S. energy, not energy from other countries; peace and stability around the world; and a growing middle class. These are things that most Americans can agree on,” Mr. Moreno said on March 19.

Mr. Dolan was considered by many Ohio conservatives as the least MAGA candidate in the primary, a characterization he believes is false.

Mr. Dolan said he has praised President Trump’s policies, including his views on the border crisis.

“I’m supporting President Trump to be our nominee because I support Trump Republican policies,” he said.

“His personality? It’s not me. His political style? It’s not me. But his policies that make your life better, that make America stronger, that will make Ohio stronger? That is me.”

Regarding criticism from President Trump and his MAGA allies that he is not conservative, Mr. Dolan told The Epoch Times he is the only candidate in the GOP primary “who can point to conservative results, including less taxes, less regulations, and Universal School Choice.”

Abortion has “gone down 37 percent” during his time in the state senate, Mr. Dolan said.

“The irony of it all is my record reflects President Trump’s record. He cut taxes; I cut taxes. He reduced regulations; I reduced regulations. He supports law enforcement; I support law enforcement. I’m the only one that can really say I’ve done what Trump has done.”

Before being elected as a state senator in 2017, Mr. Dolan served as a state representative from 2005 to 2010. His family owns the Cleveland Guardians, the Major League Baseball franchise that was known as the Cleveland Indians for decades before they changed the name in 2021 amid concerns that it was offensive to Native Americans.

On March 18, Mr. Dolan talked to supporters at a meet-and-greet in suburban Columbus and made multiple campaign stops in central Ohio before spending Election Day at multiple destinations across the Cleveland area, culminating in a watch party in Independence—a half-hour from where Mr. Moreno and his supporters gathered to view election results in Westlake.

“I can beat Sherrod Brown. He has voted with Joe Biden 98 percent of the time, yet Ohioans are paying more than $11,000 per family for household goods … we used to be energy independent, the border is wide open, and fentanyl deaths and human trafficking in Ohio are up. I think he’s gonna have a hard time running with Joe Biden,” Mr. Dolan said of Mr. Brown.

GOP Will Unite

All three candidates agree that the Republican party should unite after the primary and focus on defeating Mr. Brown in November.

Mr. Vance said he believes the party will rebound from the bruising primary and support the winner.

“You see this all the time. You have slugfest and the primary. It happened when I won in 2022, and it has happened again. I don’t worry at all about these intramural fights carrying over into the general election. Republicans are going to unite behind Bernie Moreno.”

Mr. Moreno shares Mr. Vance’s view.

“Sometimes it does get personal, and that’s what we signed up for. It’s part of politics. Certainly, the media loves that part of it. We’ll focus on the issues that people care about, and the entirety of the Republican Party will be behind whoever wins tonight. I believe it’s going to be me to defeat Sherrod Brown,” Mr. Moreno said on March 19.

“Whenever this race is called tonight, we will come together because we have one singular cause, and that is to defeat Sherrod Brown and regain control of the Senate.”