Trump-backed Moreno wins Ohio Senate primary

WESTLAKE, Ohio — Bernie Moreno, a former car dealer endorsed by Donald Trump, won a three-way GOP primary Tuesday for the right to take on Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

Moreno handily beat out Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan, who was endorsed by popular figures in the state’s Republican establishment. But for months polling indicated it was essentially a two-person race between Dolan and Moreno.

Moreno's victory is a relief for the former president, who traveled to the state to rally on Saturday as the polls tightened. Ousting Brown is crucial to the GOP’s hopes of winning back a majority — he is one of only two Democratic senators seeking reelection in a state that Trump won in 2020. With a near-certain pickup of retiring Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin’s West Virginia seat, Republicans need to flip only one more seat to guarantee control of the chamber.

“I want to thank President Trump, for all he did for me, for this campaign, for his unwavering support, for his love of this country,” Moreno said in his victory speech to supporters gathered in the ballroom of a DoubleTree hotel. Moreno said he had spoken to both Trump and Dolan, who called him to concede.

The Associated Press called the race for Moreno shortly after 8:30 p.m., when the candidate himself was not in the room yet. Moreno staffers rushed to pass out signs — “Stop Biden. Stop Sherrod.” — before Moreno walked out, joined by his wife and three of his children. The Twisted Sister song “We’re Not Gonna Take It” played as he took the stage. Moreno declared the GOP “fully united party” and took aim at Brown, yoking him to liberal policy proposals like the Green New Deal and chiding him as someone who “has been in office since Richard Nixon was president.”

The primary turned into a brawl between Ohio’s GOP old guard and the MAGA movement that has swept through the state. Ohio has become redder and Trumpier since twice electing former President Barack Obama, and the race became a referendum of sorts on the future of the Republican Party in the state.

And the results Tuesday were clear: MAGA won.

Moreno was backed by Sen. J.D. Vance and other Trump-aligned figures, while Dolan had the support of former Sen. Rob Portman, whom Vance replaced in 2022, and Gov. Mike DeWine. Dolan was the only one of the three candidates not to seek Trump’s support.

The final weeks of the campaign saw the three-way race turn into a triangular firing squad, with the candidates attacking each other on the campaign trail and in ads. The race was further roiled after The Associated Press reported last week that Moreno’s old company email had been used in 2008 to create an account seeking “young guys to have fun with” on an adult website. Moreno has forcefully denied the story and said an intern made the account as a prank. His lawyer said in a statement that that the email address was a public-facing one managed by staff, not Moreno’s personal one.

Moreno sought to move quickly past the report, dismissing it as “a sick, last-minute attack by desperate people” while continuing with planned campaign stops at which he did not mention the article. A super PAC supporting Dolan quickly produced ads quoting the story.

As the race grew heated in the final stretch — and with polls showing a toss-up between Moreno and Dolan — allies of both men rushed to shore up support.

Portman and DeWine endorsed Dolan in the final two weeks of the race and held a series of campaign stops with him, emphasizing the issue of electability and saying Dolan would be best-positioned to take out Brown, a prolific fundraiser and battle-tested campaigner.

Trump flew into the state on Saturday to headline a late rally for Moreno. In a 90-minute speech outside Dayton, he railed against Dolan, casting him as an ally of Mitt Romney. The rally included a who’s who of MAGA favorites, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). On Sunday, Moreno was joined by Vance and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake at a St. Patrick’s Day event.

Both Dolan and Moreno are wealthy and pumped their own money into their campaigns. Every candidate had at least one super PAC on his behalf. LaRose, who struggled to fundraise, relied heavily on his and did not run a single TV ad on his own.

LaRose, the state’s chief election official, finished a distant third in the primary. He had also sought Trump’s endorsement — the former president backed his secretary of state bid in the midterms — and ultimately ended up remaining a clear tier below Moreno and Dolan for the end of the race.

While the contest bitterly divided Republicans in the state, those in Washington stayed neutral. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has forcefully waded into primaries this cycle to help their preferred candidates prevail. And the chair, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), has often sought Trump’s help to do so.

In Ohio, the NRSC remained neutral through the primary but Daines quickly offered Moreno his “full endorsement” in a statement on Tuesday after the race was called.

But party strategists were not pleased at how deeply vicious the primary had turned in the closing weeks. Some worried that the ultimate beneficiary of all the infighting will be Brown, who could benefit from facing off against a primary-battered Moreno.

Brown is the last remaining elected statewide Democrat in Ohio, which voted twice for Trump by about 8 points. That’s made him a top target for Republicans, who see him and Montana Sen. Jon Tester as their best shots to defeat incumbents in their quest for the majority.

If Moreno beats Brown in the fall, Trump will have handpicked both of Ohio’s GOP senators, lifting them out of heated primaries and helping cement the state GOP’s MAGA turn. Ohio has become significantly more Republican-leaning in recent years, but it has a relatively moderate governor in DeWine and, at least for now, a Democratic senator in Brown.

A deeply skilled retail politician, Brown was first elected to the Senate in 2006, when he ousted DeWine. He’s defeated two Republican challengers since. And Brown is an impressive fundraiser who had $13.5 million in the bank at the end of February.

Ohioans “know that Bernie Moreno always looks out for himself,” Brown said in an interview with MSNBC’s Lawrence O'Donnell Tuesday night.

He alluded to Moreno’s deep pockets, saying “we’ll be outspent, but we’ll out-organize.”

A super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had signaled Moreno was Democrats’ preferred pick for Brown to take on when it dropped some $3 million in the race to boost Moreno.