MEDINA, Ohio — In Medina Saturday, Ohio’s Republican U.S. Senate candidates held their first forum of the primary campaign. In a country club ballroom, looking out over a stormy golf course, more than 200 guests nibbled on appetizers while they waited for the candidates to take the stage.
With conflicts in Ukraine and Israel roiling the world — not to mention congressional politics — the discussion leaned heavily on foreign policy. The candidates also sparred over perennial GOP priorities like immigration.
Ukraine
Congressional Republicans had to cut $6 billion in aid for Ukraine from a bill averting a government shutdown earlier this month. On the Medina stage, the skepticism that fueled that last minute change wasn’t hard to find.
"Let me answer crystal clear: absolutely no more money for Ukraine period," Westlake entrepreneur Bernie Moreno insisted.
He argued U.S. aid is paying expenses that have nothing to do with the war. He also claimed it's getting siphoned off by corrupt officials.
"I'm sorry, I'm asking for you to elect me to be the Senator of the United States of America and not for Ukraine," Moreno said. "And what a world leader does is he ends the killing and ends the war, and that's what we should be doing."
Secretary of State Frank LaRose expressed resistance to additional funding, as well, but he offered a caveat.
"This as a matter of priorities," he insisted. "Not another penny until we secure our southern border. But then, the most exceptional nation on earth can do things to make sure that the world is a safer place."
State Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, on the other hand, argued forcefully for continued support, even as he criticized the Biden administration’s approach. Dolan insisted what happens in Ukraine matters in the U.S. and in Ohio specifically.
"It controls 25% of the world's wheat — do you want higher food prices?" Dolan asked "Do you want higher gas prices? Do you want our allies to have Russia at their border deciding where they buy their gas and oil?"
"If you want to talk to a farmer in Ohio, and ask them whether Ukraine means anything to them," he added, "ask them how much they have been paying in fertilizer prices since this tragedy started."
Israel
All three candidates promised support for Israel.
LaRose explained his support first in religious terms but added that Israel is our most important regional ally and an economic partner. As Senator, he promised to give Israel "the support that they need," including funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system.
Most important, however, he argued the U.S. needs the "resolve" to give Israel latitude as it fights what LaRose termed "these bloodthirsty Hamas animals."
"We're going to have to have resolve to let Israel conduct the kind of combat operations that they're going to have to conduct so that they can wipe out the ability of Hamas to continue bringing war and bringing murder to innocent men, women and children throughout Israel," LaRose said.
While international observers have described Hamas' targeting of civilians as a war crime, they've argued Israel's response amounts to a war crime as well.
Like LaRose, Moreno argued the U.S. needs to give Israel room to operate.
"Israel needs the space not just to protect themselves by going into Gaza," Moreno said, "they need to end Hamas — end it like we ended ISIS."
Unlike LaRose, however, Moreno argued Israel doesn't need additional funding. He argued the U.S. should expedite delivery of the ammunition Israel has already ordered, but the country can handle the conflict on its own.
Moreno, who earlier insisted a world leader "ends the killing," also took a shot at "Sherrod Brown and the other Democrats" for urging Israel to negotiate a cease fire. But U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-OH, has not done that.
In public statements, Brown has called for additional aid to Israel and promised to use his committee to investigate potential funding from Iran. He's also called for the Biden administration to re-freeze $6 billion in Iranian assets recently made available for humanitarian purposes.
Speaking after the forum, Moreno shifted gears. He said he was criticizing Brown for not disavowing what other Democrats had said.
Inconsistency?
Dolan readily committed to "defend" Israel. "And yes," he said, "if they need additional ammunition, we should help them." But he argued policymakers' chief focus should be on keeping Iran and Iranian-backed groups from escalating the conflict.
But Dolan was sharply critical of the way his competitors' approaches differed between conflicts.
"We can take our challenges head on," he argued. "We can secure the border. And yeah, we can defend Israel. Somehow that logic doesn't — when we're talking about Ukraine, somehow we have to decide we can only do one thing at a time?"
Afterward Dolan added "I think there's an appeasement to Putin going on, which I will not be part of."
The U.S.-Mexico border
Perhaps the most notable takeaway from the evening is how readily adopted — and warmly received — once-radical immigration positions appear to be among Ohio Republicans.
Without qualification, Moreno called for an end to birthright citizenship. He added that the U.S. should designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Moreno argued the U.S. needs to acknowledge that the Mexico is America’s biggest legal, and illegal, trading partner. But it's time for Mexico to make a choice.
"Colombia made that choice in the 80s," Moreno said. "And when they do make that right choice, we declare the drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations. And we use our special operators and our military to wipe the drug cartels off the face of the earth."
LaRose would designate cartels as terrorists, too, comparing overdose deaths to "a fully loaded 737" crashing every day.
"It is the Chinese and it is the Mexicans that have to that have to bear the responsibility for this," LaRose said, "and starting by classifying those cartels as foreign terrorists is a good start."
LaRose didn't call for outright elimination of birthright citizenship, but he insisted it should "not be extended to anybody who broke the law coming into this country."
He added people who arrived illegally should permanently lose eligibility for federal benefits.
Dolan sidestepped both ideas, insisting until the border is secured, anything else is a distraction.
"Let's stop the bleeding," he said. "You can't fix the patient until you stop the bleeding. That’s got to be No. 1."
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