Dems Lose Ohio Senate Seat as Sherrod Brown Falls to Bernie Moreno

Sen. Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Party’s mainstay in the red state of Ohio, has been ousted from the Senate by MAGA Republican Bernie Moreno.

Moreno’s win, which was called by the Associated Press at 11:27 p.m. EST, all but ensures Republicans will take control of the Senate.

Brown, a pro-labor stalwart and populist Democrat, ran for his fourth Senate term in a state that has moved red over the past decade. Brown was first elected to the Senate in 2006 and has had a 50-year career in politics. Moreno has worked as a car salesman, selling brands like Porsche and Mercedes-Benz. 

The Ohio Senate race was the most expensive non-presidential race ever recorded, according to the advertising data firm AdImpact, which tracked $477 million in spending. While Brown substantially outraised Moreno, outside groups poured money into the race for Moreno, erasing any advantage Brown might have. Moreno saw $181 million in support from Super PACs and dark money groups, while Brown benefited from $101 million in outside spending. 

Brown, the Senate Banking Committee chair, has long expressed skepticism about cryptocurrencies and has been an obstacle to legislation that would protect the industry. As such, he was targeted for defeat by crypto firms and their executives. A crypto-funded Super PAC spent over $40 million to boost Moreno’s campaign. As Rolling Stone previously reported, at one point in the race, crypto interests were spending more than $800,000 per day on ads in support of Moreno.

Donald Trump endorsed Moreno last December, writing on Truth Social that he is “exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate.” 

Moreno, who previously described himself as “100 percent pro-life with no exceptions,” attempted to walk back that position, even as he campaigned in support of a national abortion ban. However, he drew scrutiny on the campaign trail after suggesting abortion shouldn’t matter to women over 50. 
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“You know, the left has a lot of single-issue voters. And sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion is it. If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else,’” he said at a town hall. “OK. It’s a little crazy, by the way. But, especially for women that are like past 50, I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you.’”

Although Moreno was born in Colombia and immigrated with his family to the U.S. as a child, he led a loudly anti-immigrant campaign. After Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, pushed a series of racist lies about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Moreno visited the city and called for the immigrants to be deported, even though they are in the U.S. legally. 

One ad for Moreno alleged that Brown “helped create the crisis at our southern border,” and accused Brown of “voting with radicals like Kamala Harris to give illegals taxpayer-funded stimulus checks, health care, even Social Security, rewarding illegals.” Moreno, the ad promised, would deport undocumented migrants and build the border wall.

Some of the crypto Super PAC ads reiterated Moreno’s xenophobic messaging, saying he would stop “stop illegal immigrants from taking our hard earned tax dollars.”

Whereas Brown has a history of standing up for workers in the state, Moreno has been sued for wage theft twice. In one case, Moreno was ordered to pay more than $400,000 to two former employees.

In a statement, Ohio AFL-CIO president Tim Burga said: “the choice for Senate in Ohio is easy. While Sherrod Brown looks out for Ohio workers, Bernie Moreno continues to show them that he only cares about himself.”
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Moreno encouraged people to record him during rallies. But his campaign has been caught twice using audio jamming technology to make it hard to hear what he is saying. In October, a person asked Moreno whether he wanted to apologize for saying that women over 50 are “crazy” for caring about abortion rights, but a black box muffled the sound. 

Brown’s loss marks the end of an era for Ohio, a swing state until the Trump years. The Associated Press projected the former president won the state for the third election in a row earlier on Tuesday.