U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, Republican of Ohio, speaks before former President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump takes the stage during a Buckeye Values PAC Rally in Vandalia, Ohio, on March 16, 2024. Moreno won the Ohio GOP Primary against candidates state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose Tuesday night. Credit: Kamil Krzaczynski | AFP and Getty Images (via TNS)
Bernie Moreno, a Republican candidate for Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat endorsed by former President Donald Trump, clinched the victory in the Ohio GOP Primary Tuesday night.
A wealthy car dealership businessman from Cleveland, Moreno refers to himself as a “political outsider” due to having no prior involvement in the political system, according to the Associated Press.
Officially called by the AP at 8:35 p.m., Moreno was declared the winner when he held 41% of the vote, up against state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who held 37% and 22% of the vote at that time, respectively.
By 10 p.m., 50% of the vote went to Moreno, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Dolan earned Gov. Mike DeWine’s endorsement just last week, as he called Dolan “the party’s best shot at defeating Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in November,” the AP said.
According to the AP, the votes cast on election day heavily favored Moreno, while Dolan did well among early voters.
“Since the issue of early voting became highly politicized after the 2020 presidential election, election day voting has tended to favor Republicans and conservatives, while votes cast before election day have tended to favor Democrats and moderates,” the AP said.
Moreno will face incumbent Brown for one of Ohio’s two Senate seats in the November election. Brown has served three terms since his initial election to the U.S. Senate in 2007 and has been labeled one of the most vulnerable reelection candidates in the 2024 November general election due to Ohio’s continued rightward trend, according to NPR News.
In an acceptance speech in Cleveland Tuesday night, Moreno discussed his plan to defeat Brown, and his plans for the country if he defeats Brown in the general election and if Trump is reelected.
In his speech, Moreno outlined five initiatives, including tough border policies cracking down on illegal immigration, the establishment of the U.S. as an “energy-dominant nation,” the “restoration of law and order” in the U.S. and the complete removal of the U.S. Department of Education to fix “indoctrination” in schools.
“We have an opportunity now to retire the old commie, and send him to a retirement home and save this country because that’s what we’re going to do,” Moreno said in his victory speech in Cleveland.
Moreno also said Brown was Elizabeth Warren’s “lapdog” and said Biden was Brown’s “biggest enabler” in the U.S. Senate. In a video posted on X, formerly Twitter, Brown said, “Ohioans know that I will always stand up for them, that I’ll always take on special interests and fight for Ohio,” in response to news of Moreno’s win in the Republican primary.
