Ohio’s GOP Senate primary pleases Trump, Democrats
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Former President Donald Trump got what he wanted when former car dealer Bernie Moreno won Ohio’s GOP Senate primary.
So did Democrats. Moreno’s positions on abortion, immigration and Trump’s election lies make the Republican less electable this fall, Democrats believe, in the race against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Democrats actually ran ads in the GOP primary’s closing days boosting the Trump-backed Moreno over more moderate alternatives.
Yet it was Trump who may have cheered the loudest in the wake of Moreno’s victory Tuesday night.
“Trump reigns supreme in OH,” the former president declared in one social media post.
Moreno stands as the latest proxy in the Republican Party’s wrestling match between Trumpism and the GOP’s more traditional conservatives. Even after underwhelming Republican performances in three consecutive national elections under Trump’s watch, the former Republican president and his allies have been unrelenting in their fight against any GOP candidate who does not wholly embrace Trump’s wishes.
Just last week, Trump secured a third consecutive nomination after dominating primary contests from New Hampshire and Nevada to North Dakota, even with his legal baggage.
Besides Moreno in Ohio, Trump loyalists have emerged in key races in other states, including Arizona, where Kari Lake is the GOP’s hope to flip a Senate seat.
Trump’s reach has extended into the headquarters
of the Republican Party, where he has installed his daughter-in-law and a campaign lieutenant to take over the Republican National Committee.
Republican officials privately worry there could be serious implications in the broader fight for control of Congress, where Republicans are clinging to a razor-thin House majority and seem in position to retake the Senate.
Democrats are defending seats in Montana and West Virginia, Republican strongholds. On paper, Democrats have a better chance to hold Brown’s seat in Ohio, a state that has shifted sharply right in recent years. Moreno may have been the Democrats’ preferred candidate, but the general election is considered a toss-up. Brown will be among the nation’s most vulnerable Senate Democrats in November.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman campaigned against Moreno, arguing that moderate Matt Dolan, a wealthy state senator whose family owns baseball’s Cleveland Guardians, was a better choice. Also in the race was Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
Moreno, in his election night speech in Cleveland, called for party unity while
praising Trump. Moreno also hinted about the tenor of the fall campaign against Brown with a pledge to “retire the old commie.”
Brown responded with a brief statement on X, formerly Twitter: “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.”
In paid advertising before the primary, Moreno embraced Trump’s lies about the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
“President Trump says the election was stolen and he’s right,” Moreno said in one digital ad.
Yet Democratic strategists are even more focused on what they see as Moreno’s baggage, both personal and political.
Moreno, a former luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur, has described himself as “100% pro-life no exceptions.” During the primary campaign, he said he would favor the federal government imposing restrictions on abortions — limits that would directly counter Ohio voters’ decision in November to enshrine in the state constitution an individual’s right to make their own reproductive decisions.