CLEVELAND — Ohio Republican voters have chosen Cleveland businessman and Trump-backed candidate Bernie Moreno as their nominee for the U.S. Senate in Tuesday's primary election. Moreno will face incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown this November in what will be a key race in determining which party will control the Senate. The Democrats currently hold a 51-49 edge.
"We have an opportunity now to retire the old commie," Moreno said of Brown during his victory speech on Tuesday.
Moreno was projected by the Associated Press as the winner over Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan at 8:36 p.m.
"It's going to be a tough next seven months, Moreno told supporters. "But we're going to win this race in November, we're going to re-take the United States Senate, we're going to have President Trump in the White House, we're going to get the "America First" agenda done."
Some of the examples of the "America First" agenda that Moreno cited was the U.S. being an "energy-dominant nation," restoring law and order, and eliminating the Department of Education "by the end of next year." You can watch his entire victory speech below.
Moreno told his supporters that he spoke to former President Donald Trump after his victory.
"I want to thank President Trump for all he did for me, for this campaign, for his unwavering support, for his love of this country," Moreno said. "Because I don't think I've ever seen somebody who loves this country the way he does."
The 57-year-old Moreno came back this year for his second attempt at winning the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate after falling short in 2022 to JD Vance. This time, he had the backing of the most influential Republican in the nation: former President Trump.
"It's time for the entire Republican Party to UNITE around Bernie's campaign for Senate, so that we can have a BIG victory in what will be the most important Election in American History," Trump said in his January endorsement of Moreno. "Bernie Moreno will be an outstanding United States Senator, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement — He will never let you down!"
With Moreno locked in a close battle with Dolan heading into Tuesday, Trump appeared at a rally in Dayton last weekend to support his chosen candidate. The former president referred to Moreno as an “America first champion" and “political outsider who has spent his entire life building up Ohio communities."
“He's going to be a warrior in Washington," Trump said days after he himself secured enough delegates to clinch the 2024 Republican nomination.
A Colombian immigrant, Moreno made his reputation in Northeast Ohio as a luxury car dealer before recently turning his interests to blockchain technology, and currently serves as president of his own company and chairman of the national personal chauffer service Dryver. Initially a critic of the bombastic Trump — he once called him a "lunatic" and "maniac" during the 2016 election — he has since sought to cater to the 45th president's conservative base and later called his hardline immigration stances "100% right."
Seeking to match Trump's rhetoric, Moreno's campaign heavily featured the former president in its ads while the candidate himself has pledged things like "restor[ing] the integrity of our elections" (an apparent nod to Trump's false claims of rampant voter fraud) and calling for "absolutely no more money for Ukraine period" in its war against Russia.
In Jan. 2024, the Associated Press reported that three discrimination suits were filed against Moreno in Cuyahoga County between 2015 and 2017. Two accused Moreno and Bernie Moreno Cos. of gender and age discrimination, respectively. The third, in which Moreno was not named, alleged race discrimination against a dealership run by a BMC subsidiary. All three lawsuits identified by the AP were settled out of court, and terms of any resulting settlement deals were kept private. Often, such deals include a clause preventing either side from disparaging the other.
Also in Jan. 2024, Moreno discussed the outcome of a Massachusetts lawsuit that he lost related to overtime wage theft on a radio show. In 3News' VERIFY series, Stephanie Haney showed that Moreno's claims that the Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned federal law was false.
Like Moreno, Dolan was making a second attempt at winning the GOP nod for the U.S. Senate after losing to Vance in 2022. "When we got in this race, there were a lot of people who really hoped I was going to win, and then there's another group that thought I could win," he told supporters after conceding to Moreno.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.