CLEVELAND — In the high-stakes race for Ohio's U.S. Senate seat, both candidates made stops in Northeast Ohio on Thursday evening.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic incumbent who is seeking his fourth term in office, made a stop at Diamond Cut Barbershop on Cleveland's east side. 3News asked Brown if he is, in fact, "too liberal for Ohio," as his opponent's ads decry, in light of Ohio's shift from being a swing state to one that is becoming reliably red.
"I don't see politics as left or right. It's who's side you're on," Brown responded. "I've been on the side of veterans, I've been on the side of workers, the best 'Buy American' laws we've ever had. I've been on the side of kids — we've passed the child tax credit, which made a huge difference in cutting taxes for families."
Meanwhile in Medina, Bernie Moreno's bus tour made a stop at Medina County Republican Party headquarters, where he spoke to a few dozen supporters.
"I think the voters are going to reject the extremism of Kamala Harris, Sherrod Brown, Tim Waltz," Moreno told reporters. "I think they're going to be looking for a more moderate position like President Trump that can run this country from the center. I think that's what ultimately this election is about."
However, during his speech to supporters, Moreno made a couple of claims that raised eyebrows.
"The news would never in a million years report what I'm about to tell you," he told the crowd. "We spend $110,000 dollars in this country per illegal immigrant, per year."
However according to a study titled "The Cost of Illegal Immigration to Taxpayers," released last January by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee that is chaired by Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, "the lifetime fiscal drain (taxes paid minus costs) for each illegal immigrant" is about $68,000. Again, that is lifetime, not per year.
Moreno also went on to declare, "Do you know how many deaths occurred as a result of COVID under the age of 18? Zero. There wasn't one COVID death as a result of the virus."
But according to a study published last year by the Journal of the American Medical Association, "COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death for more than 940 000 individuals in the US, including at least 1289 children and young people (CYP) aged 0 to 19 years, with at least 821 CYP deaths occurring in the 1-year period from August 1, 2021, to July 31, 2022."
3News reached out to the Moreno campaign for a response to our findings and to offer the campaign an opportunity to provide more context or clarification. A spokesperson responded only with a request for our citations, which we provided. We also offered the campaign an opportunity to follow up on Friday if it had a response.
To be fair, 3News wanted to fact check a Brown rally this week, so we reviewed his event from Tuesday in Youngstown. However, we found that he mainly focused on his policies to save union jobs and pensions in his 15-minute speech to union workers at Teamsters Local 377.