The mad scramble in Ohio to become Trump’s favorite Republican

The Scene

The story had been passed around for weeks, from Republican to Republican and reporter to reporter. On Feb. 22, LibsOfTikTok shared it with 2.9 million followers: “Bernie Moreno, a GOP Senate hopeful in Ohio, allegedly caught in AdultFriendFinder leak.”

That post, with a link to a 2008 profile seeking “young guys to have fun with while traveling,” was deleted within minutes. It took until Thursday night, 48 hours before Donald Trump arrived in Dayton to campaign for Moreno, for the story to get published — an Associated Press investigation that confirmed the profile’s existence, with an old Moreno intern saying he created it as a “prank.”

Trump, about to go on trial over hush money payments to an adult film actress after previously being found liable for sexual abuse in a separate case, did not seem too concerned about a casual hookup site from the aughties. His spokesman Steven Cheung called it “a slime job” that proved Moreno was “a threat to the entire swamp.” Moreno agreed: “Look at what they did to Judge Kavanuagh, look at what they did to President Trump.”

The former president’s response might matter more than anything Moreno says in his defense ahead of Tuesday’s primary vote. The story was just the latest beat in a smashmouth three-way campaign that’s largely revolved around Trump, just as so many primaries in the state have this year. The race between Secretary of State Frank LaRose, state Sen. Matt Dolan, and car dealer-turned-candidate Moreno has rippled with negativity, and accusations of dishonesty. Moreno, who Trump endorsed in December, accused his rivals of representing the “Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney wing of the party,” while they called him a phony who’d gone MAGA to get elected.

“This man can’t be trusted — he’s constantly shifting his views,” LaRose said last week, in their final televised debate.

“I didn’t have to delete my history about President Trump,” said Dolan, referring to pre-campaign tweets that showed Moreno criticizing Trump and blaming him for the Jan. 6 riot.

Democrats, eager to re-elect Sen. Sherrod Brown in a state where Republicans hold every other statewide office, have been pulling for Moreno. Their Duty and Country super PAC bought a last-minute ad on Thursday to boost the candidate (“too conservative for Ohio”) by highlighting his Trump support.

Moreno had girded for the attacks with a well-tested strategy — binding himself to Trump. He’d promised to work hand-in-glove with the former president to end aid to Ukraine and deport every migrant in the country illegally. At his final debate with LaRose and Dolan, Moreno claimed that the “same forces that for the last 14 or 15 or 16 months have tried to cancel the America First movement” were arrayed against him. Attacks from Trump’s enemies, he said, could not be trusted.

“He’s a good man, and we need more people to say that loudly and clearly,” Moreno said. “We’re so lucky to have a man like that, who’s so strong, who’s willing to fight for this country. It’s an inspiration to me.”

David’s view

Most competitive Trump-era Republican primaries have become about Trump, a departure from the previous gauntlet of ever-changing issue tests put forward by various conservative interest groups.

That ended some Republican careers in this month’s North Carolina and Texas primaries, and it’s driving this coming Tuesday’s races in Ohio. In Toledo, a front-runner for a winnable seat spun off course after he was taped criticizing Trump; in Appalachia, the candidates for a now-safe House seat call themselves “just like President Trump.”

But Trump himself has been most involved in the Senate race. Moreno, like Sen. J.D. Vance, is a former MAGA critic with the zeal of a convert. He dropped out of the crowded 2022 race after Trump endorsed Vance, and after he met personally with the former president about how to consolidate the vote. For this race, he tapped Trump allies like Kellyanne Conway and Andy Surabian to advise him. His daughter Emily married Rep. Max Miller, a former Trump aide, at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster.

Years earlier, Moreno had been publicly critical of Trump. He’d recanted, but the record was so public that both Dolan and LaRose used it to build the case that Moreno would say anything to win. Moreno’s response was simple: Trump had endorsed him. Pro-Trump validators assured voters that Moreno was one of them.

“It matters who wins this primary, because Donald Trump is a rock star in Ohio,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said at a Moreno campaign stop this week. “You’ve gotta elect Bernie, because Donald Trump wants Bernie, and Donald Trump is going to make sure that Bernie wins this Senate race.”

Down the ballot, in Ohio, support for and from Trump is a defining issue in every Republican race. In the 2nd district, where Rep. Brad Wenstrup is retiring, one candidate’s campaign is built around his amicus brief in the Colorado ballot access case: “Larry Kidd went all the way to the Supreme Court to protect President Trump.” His rivals compare themselves to the former president, calling themselves “Trump conservatives” who can carry on his policies because they, too, are outsiders.

The Trump brand means something else — that you cannot trust bad things you hear about this candidate. Moreno is walking a well-trod path here, citing Trump as his character witness when he’s accused of flip-flopping, self-dealing, or anything else. The larger threat, says Moreno, is that the “Liz Cheney, Mitt Romney” wing of the party will not enact the Trump agenda.

“Congress did not pass his budgets,” Moreno has said, when asked how his support for Trump squares with his hope to reduce the deficit. “We’re going to change that all in 2025.”

The View From Democrats

Brown’s campaign declined to respond to questions about the GOP race. Other Ohio Democrats were optimistic about how the Republican primaries had turned out, teeing up the sort of candidates that they were able to beat in some close 2022 races.

“I think these campaigns speak to a very broken Republican Party here in Ohio and nationwide,” said House Minority Leader Allison Russo. “It no longer matters what is truthful, factual, or meaningful to the real needs of everyday Ohioans. These are primary campaigns focused on appealing to hate and extremism, regardless of the consequences to our communities and democracy. I think most voters are sick of it.”

Notable

• In Politico, Ally Mutnick and Burgess Everett capture the Republican angst about the Senate primary, and fear that it “could produce lasting damage to the eventual nominee and threaten their chances of flipping the seat.”

• For NBC News, Henry J. Gomez has the full story on the Democrats’ primary meddling, and why Moreno’s campaign thinks it’s a mistake: “Many thought Trump would be the easiest Republican for Hillary Clinton to beat in the 2016 presidential election.”