CLEVELAND — The 2024 race for U.S. Senate in Ohio received a major shakeup Tuesday when former President Donald Trump endorsed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno in the hotly contested Republican primary.
Moreno, who has never held political office before, is seeking the GOP nomination and the right to face incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in the November general election. In a pair of statements posted to his own social media platform Truth Social, Trump referred to Moreno as "a highly respected businessman" and "exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate."
"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," the ex-president continued. "Bernie Moreno will be an outstanding United States Senator, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement—He will never let you down!"
Moreno later responded to Trump's endorsement on X (formerly Twitter), saying he was "honored and thankful" to receive his backing. Moreno has also endorsed Trump in the ongoing Republican presidential race, with the former president seeking another term in the White House after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.
"With President Trump back in the White House, we will Make America Great Again!" Moreno declared.
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."
Those latter comments came in 2021, when Moreno first sought the GOP nod to succeed the retiring Rob Portman in the Senate. However, he dropped out before the primary and Trump went on to support JD Vance, another one-time Trump skeptic and political outsider, who wound up beating Democratic former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan in the November election.
This time around, Vance endorsed Moreno early in the race, saying he wanted to avoid a "bloody primary" and focus on defeating Brown. Other GOP candidates include Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan, a Chagrin Falls resident whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians.
Seeking to match Trump's rhetoric, Moreno's campaign has already 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.
Trump's endorsement of Moreno could prove crucial as Ohio has leaned more to the right in recent years. However, Democrats scored big policy victories in November as voters approved both expanded abortion rights and legalized recreational marijuana at the ballot box, and Trump's legal troubles (indictments in four separate criminal cases) also loom large.
In addition, several Trump-backed candidates lost in swing states and districts during the 2022 midterms, including a number of Republicans in Ohio U.S. House districts. Even Vance's six-point win over Ryan was far behind the pace set by Gov. Mike DeWine, who received Trump's endorsement but struck a more moderate tone on his way to a 25-point reelection triumph.
Unlike 2022, this year's GOP nominee will face a well-entrenched incumbent in Brown, who is seeking a fourth term as he continues to appeal to Ohio's working class community. Like Trump, the Democrat has long disparaged foreign trade deals he says have hurt the state's workers, but the former president dismissed those stances as irrelevant as he endorsed Moreno.
"Don't be fooled by Sherrod Brown," Trump wrote. "He is a Radical Left Liberal who will always let you down."
In response to today's news, the Ohio Democratic Party blasted Moreno and Trump, claiming the candidate was out of touch with the needs of the state.
"Bernie Moreno has made it clear he won't fight for Ohioans and doesn't understand the issues facing their daily lives," spokesperson Reeves Oyster said in a statement. "As this primary heats up, it’s clear this slugfest is only going to get messier, nastier, and more expensive from here."
An Emerson College poll conducted in November showed Brown leading Moreno by 10 percentage points, wider than his current margins over both Dolan (three points) and LaRose (five points). Trump also had a commanding lead in the state's GOP presidential primary with a whopping 62% of the vote.