Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he will support Donald Trump, Bernie Moreno in November

In the battle of Republican endorsements for the U.S. Senate, GOP Gov. Mike DeWine lost Tuesday night.

But DeWine pledged to support former President Donald Trump's pick Bernie Moreno and to vote for the former president in November.

"I am a Republican," DeWine told reporters Wednesday. "I am certainly going to support the Republican nominee for president."

The final weeks of the Ohio Senate GOP primary became a proxy battle between establishment Republicans like DeWine and former U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, who endorsed the more moderate state Sen. Matt Dolan, and Trump, who endorsed businessman Moreno and campaigned for him over the weekend.

More: Bernie Moreno easily wins Ohio Senate Republican primary, will take on Sen. Sherrod Brown

Ultimately, Moreno − and by extension, Trump − won the three-way primary. DeWine called Moreno's primary performance a "very impressive victory" and said Trump's endorsement is "pretty essential" in today's GOP primary. Trump's endorsement also propelled GOP Sen. J.D. Vance to victory in 2022.

DeWine has endorsed Trump in the past, serving as the former president's campaign co-chair in 2020. And Trump backed DeWine's gubernatorial campaigns in 2018 and 2022. But Trump criticized DeWine's decision to veto a bill to restrict transgender healthcare, calling the GOP governor a "stiff" and someone who had "fallen to the Radical Left."

More: How Bernie Moreno won Ohio GOP Senate primary: 4 takeaways from his win

However, DeWine said there's still room for politicians like him in the GOP. "There's plenty of space for many of us to operate under the party label. Parties are not monolithic."

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Ohio Senate race: Mike DeWine backs Bernie Moreno