Trump-Backed Moreno Wins GOP US Senate Primary in Ohio

Mark Niquette
·4 min read

(Bloomberg) -- Bernie Moreno, an Ohio businessman, won the state’s Republican US Senate primary, according to the Associated Press, prevailing over the traditionalist GOP establishment with Donald Trump’s backing and a populist appeal.

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Moreno, a Colombian-born immigrant who moved to the US at a young age, will face the Democratic incumbent, Sherrod Brown, in November — a race that will help decide which party controls the Senate.

Democrats view Moreno, 57, as the easier Republican candidate to beat, and a group with ties to Democrats spent millions of dollars boosting his candidacy.

He defeated state Senator Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Tuesday after a competitive and contentious primary.

Moreno said at his primary night victory party in Westlake, a Cleveland suburb, that he had spoken to the former president, thanked him for his support and vowed to defeat Brown in November.

“What we have to do now is as a fully united party understand we have one mission, which is to get rid of Sherrod Brown,” Moreno said. “And by getting rid of Sherrod Brown, we’re going to get back the United States Senate, and then by getting back the United States Senate, we’re going to put this country back on track.”

Brown said in a statement on X that “the choice ahead of Ohio is clear: Bernie Moreno has spent his career and campaign putting himself first, and would do the same if elected. I’ll always work for Ohio.”

Moreno ran as a successful entrepreneur and political outsider in the mold of Trump. He built a luxury car dealership group and invested in blockchain technology before selling his business interests. He also ran for the Senate in 2022 but withdrew and endorsed JD Vance, another populist who won with Trump’s backing.

Trump campaigned for him at a rally in Ohio on Saturday, praising him as “a winner.”

Polls showed the primary race tightening in the final weeks as Dolan and a super political action committee supporting him outspent his rivals. Dolan was endorsed by two prominent Ohio Republicans, former Senator Rob Portman and Governor Mike DeWine, who haven’t embraced Trump’s populist politics.

Ohio, once a competitive battleground state, has become more reliably Republican and voted twice overwhelmingly for Trump. Brown is the last Democrat holding statewide office and is counting on support from working-class voters who came to the GOP under Trump.

Earlier: Ohio’s Brown Shows His Populist Side in Bid to Win in Red State

Former Democratic Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said Dolan would have been the toughest candidate for Brown as a “non-MAGA kind of Republican.” Dolan, 59, has been a state senator since 2017. His family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team.

Duty and Country PAC, a group with ties to the super political action committee dedicated to electing Democrats to the Senate, reserved $4 million in ads in the final weeks to elevate Moreno by saying he “would do Donald Trump’s bidding,” according to the tracking firm AdImpact.

South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a potential Trump pick for vice president, also campaigned for Moreno in Ohio, arguing that Republicans’ best chance at the Senate seat would be a candidate Trump enthusiastically embraces.

Yet that association could hurt Moreno in the general election because a sliver of Ohio Republicans are wary of Trump and “might be willing to hold their nose” and vote for Brown, said Mark Caleb Smith, director of the Center for Political Studies at Cedarville University in Ohio.

An Emerson College poll released March 13 found about 8% of Trump voters in Ohio plan to split their ticket and vote for Brown.

Yet Brown will have to assure middle-class, blue-collar and some rural voters that the Democratic Party still represents them, and he’ll have to distance himself from President Joe Biden and the national party, Smith said.

The issue of immigration and the southern US border dominated the GOP primary. Moreno said cryptocurrency would be an issue in November. He is a champion of digital currency while Brown has been a skeptic as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee.

The industry and its aligned super-PACs have dedicated more than $80 million for Democratic primaries in Maryland and Michigan and the general election Senate races in Ohio and Montana, said Josh Vlasto, a spokesman for the crypto super PAC Fairshake.

Democrats are expecting the issue of abortion to help Brown. Ohio voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum last year enshrining abortion rights in the state’s constitution.

(Updates with Moreno comment, from fifth paragraph.)

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