CLEVELAND – After winning Ohio’s divisive Republican Senate primary On Tuesday night, former car salesman Bernie Moreno quickly took aim at the Democrat he will unseat in November.
Moreno told his supporters: “Now we have the opportunity to retire the old committee.”
The following afternoon, Senator Sherrod Brown held a video conference to discuss the new funding. Intel computer chip factory in the state.
Brown, a three-term incumbent whom Moreno sought to brand as a far-left apparatchik, was joined by Intel’s vice president of government affairs and a former Republican congressman who now runs the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, both of whom praised him for his work. bilateral efforts. A worker leader Approved by Brown Also got a call earlier this week.
“Republicans and Democrats have joined hands to bring this new industry to Ohio, and it’s a big, big deal,” said former Rep. Steve Stivers, the chamber’s CEO. “I also want to thank Senator Brown and the Republican and Democratic members of the US House of Representatives who supported the CHIPS Act.”
With the primaries over and the race moving into the general election mode, Brown and Moreno are scrambling to define themselves and each other in a battle that could determine which party controls the Senate. Each candidate accuses the other of selling out Ohio workers and out of step with key voters.
Brown, who has appealed to working-class voters in past campaigns, maintains a progressive populism. Moreno is a relative newcomer to politics He mingled with Cleveland’s civic eliteprides itself on being an outsider and embraces the right-wing populism promoted by former President Donald Trump, who supported him.
As evidenced by Brown’s call to a business friend on Wednesday, he wants to show off his relationship with executives. Meanwhile, Brown’s campaign and allies have characterized Moreno as an unscrupulous businessman who mistreated workers, citing past lawsuits. discrimination in the workplace and overtime pay against their companies.
“My record,” Brown said Wednesday on MSNBC, “Joe tomorrow,” “is to walk down the hall and do things. … My opponent has always looked after himself.”
That sentiment is echoed almost exclusively by Brown’s allies, including the Democratic super PAC Senate Majority PAC. He interfered in the GOP primary By running an ad promoting Moreno’s conservative ideas and support for Trump. Multimillion-dollar fundraising in the final week of the race suggested national Democrats see Moreno as Brown’s weakest possible challenger.
“Bernie Moreno cannot be trusted to put the interests of Ohioans above his own,” Senate Majority PAC President JB Poersch said in an email Tuesday evening from the group, which referred to Moreno as a “shady car salesman” and his allegations. encountered companies.
Moreno was mentioned in a statement from the Ohio Democratic Party support for a federal abortion ban, even though Ohio voters similarly enshrined women’s reproductive rights in the state constitution. “Bernie Moreno has made it clear throughout his career and campaign that he only cares about himself — not the people of Ohio,” spokeswoman Katie Smith said.
Brown campaign spokesman Reeves Oyster did not return a message seeking comment for this article.
“Sherrod is going to win this race because he’s in stark contrast to Bernie Moreno, who is showing that his record fight for Ohio is all about him,” he said.
Moreno’s push to turn voters against Brown, Ohio’s only Democrat to win back-to-back elections in recent years, is to paint him as an ultra-liberal and political impostor who feels less at home on Lake Erie than on Martha’s Vineyard.
“While I’ve spent my career building businesses and creating jobs in Ohio, Sherrod Brown has spent his career collecting taxpayer-funded paychecks and rubber-stamping the leftist agenda of DC Democrats,” Moreno said in a statement to NBC on Wednesday. News. “Sherrod Brown Biden polls 99% and selling out Ohio workers in favor of Biden’s open border policies and Green New Deal radicalism.
Moreno’s supporters followed a similar theme in their post-primary attacks on Brown.
“Bernie is a political outsider running against a liberal career politician who has been in office for 50 years,” said Sen. Steve Daines, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, in the group’s statement supporting Moreno and criticizing Brown.
Club for Growth PAC President David McIntosh said his group is “keen to help him defeat radical leftist Sherrod Brown in this fall’s general election,” noting the millions of dollars he spent on television ads to boost Moreno in the primary. “
Moreno won the three-candidate GOP primary after leaning heavily on Trump, who led a rally for him last weekend, and Trump-friendly figures like Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. State Sen. Matt Dolan, Moreno’s primary challenger, has received endorsements from Gov. Mike DeWine, whom Brown unseated in 2006, and Vance’s predecessor, former Sen. Rob Portman.
Primary turned particularly disgusting in his final weeks, Moreno singled out Dolan and his supporters as RINOs, or Republicans in name only, and acknowledged a “somewhat dysfunctional Republican family” dynamic. Dolan and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the other GOP candidate in the race, highlighted Moreno’s changes in several policy positions, repeated stories about the lawsuits he has faced and portrayed him as unreliable.
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee shortly after Moreno called the race Tuesday digital ad per minute This repackaged some of their opponents’ attacks.
“Republicans don’t trust Bernie Moreno,” he says. “Why should you?”
Brown said in a “Morning Joe” interview that he believes he can win over Dolan voters.
“Dolan ran a campaign like Portman, like DeWine,” Brown said, recalling recent discussions with DeWine about tornado damage in the state and praising Portman for his bipartisanship. “He was such a public servant, and I am such a public servant.”
Brown continued the pragmatic conversation on the Intel call a few hours later. When asked by a local reporter if it was true that Moreno was the opponent he was most eager to face, the senator demurred.
“I’m not going to take calls like that today,” Brown said. “I’m always open, but this is a non-political call and people from both parties are on it. I don’t think I should answer here today. But thanks for trying. I always appreciate the aggressiveness and diligence of journalists.”
On Wednesday, Moreno’s team signaled signs of a unifying party, highlighting how it is DeWine quickly backed Moreno after his major victory. Moreno, won all 88 counties of the statealso won large margins in eastern Ohio and the Mahoning Valley, home to Youngstown and a large concentration of blue-collar voters who have been key to Brown’s winning coalitions in the past.
“While Bernie could run hand-in-hand with President Trump, Sherrod Brown will have to spend the next eight months running from Joe Biden despite his 99% polling record. “, said Andy Surabian, Moreno’s senior adviser. “Furthermore, Bernie’s populist message appeals directly to working-class voters, which Sherrod will need to deliver en masse to even have a prayer of winning in November.”