CLEVELAND – Republicans dominate the airwaves Ohio Senate Race This month one advantage is removed Senator Sherrod Brown and his Democratic allies have reveled in a battle that could take control of the Senate all spring and much of the summer.
GOP nominee Bernie Moreno and outside groups supporting him have spent double what Brown and Democrats have on TV, radio and digital ads since Sept. 1 — about $35 million to $70 million through Wednesday, according to tracking firm AdImpact.
By comparison, from Ohio’s March primary through August, where Democrats prevailed, $78.5 million in ad spending dropped to $59 million for Republicans.
“Red flashing lights should be flashing everywhere [Brown’s] campaign headquarters,” said Ohio GOP strategist Jai Chabria, who helped manage Sen. JD Vance’s successful 2022 campaign. “The Republicans’ money has just started to be spent, and they’re going to take it seriously because this is a race that needs to be made for the majority.”
The attack, which comes amid a Senate battleground map reshuffle, comes in a difficult week for Moreno. hardline positions on abortion brought new scrutiny to his campaign.
“Bernie’s special interest allies are throwing hundreds of millions of dollars into this race to defeat Sherrod because they know Sherrod will always stand up to them to do what’s right for Ohio,” Brown spokesman Matt Keyes said in a statement.
Democrats, who hold a one-seat majority in the Senate, he gets more and more angry on Sen. John Tester’s bid for re-election in Montana. On Thursday, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee announced investments in races in Florida and Texas, two seats where the GOP is seen as the heavier lifters.
Republicans have more ways to the majority. The West Virginia open seat is expected to swing their way. Along with Montana and Ohio, they have battleground pickup opportunities in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as deep blue Maryland, home to popular GOP former governor Larry Hogan.
“We need to continue to invest in Ohio,” DSCC Chairman Michigan Senator Gary Peters said Thursday at an event at the National Press Club in Washington. “We’re not done investing in Ohio, and it’s going to take more money. But right now … we have a lot of outside groups that are spending tens of millions of dollars against Sherrod, trying to support another highly flawed candidate.
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokesman Philip Letsow, Brown’s Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D.N.Y. and countered that he and the vice president were “selling out the labor base to toe the Democratic Party line.” Kamala Harris, Democratic presidential candidate.
“After 50 years of politics, Ohio voters are ready to send him home,” Letsou said.
Brown, who is seeking a fourth term, is the only Democrat besides former President Barack Obama to win more than one statewide election in Ohio in the last quarter. This year, former President Donald Trump, who participated in the polls again and supported Moreno, won the state twice with 8 percent. The several recent public inquiries indicates a close Senate race in the state.
“This is unprecedented spending against Sherrod,” said one Democrat who works on Senate races and spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the top fight. “It speaks to his endurance that it’s still a shootout because most people would have done it.”
Early voting begins on October 8. Both sides are fighting as if the race is close and could be changed by one mistake. While Brown and Moreno have each expressed interest in a debate, neither has requested it — an unusual dynamic in a state where Brown has repeatedly sparred with each of his previous general election opponents. Officials from both campaigns said as of this week, nothing is close to being planned.
Democrats had a clear advertising advantage coming out of a contentious March primary Moreno’s campaign cost millions of dollars win
Even after the wealthy independent loaned more than $4 million to Moreno’s campaign, Brown, who by July had far trailed his GOP challenger, used the cash and began running ads to portray himself as an apolitical friend of the working class. Eventually, Brown and outside groups uncovered smears that painted Moreno as a ruthless businessman. unreliable car dealer.
But the Republican standoff intensified in mid-August, and by September the Democratic edge had evaporated.
“Sherrod acted like a true liberal and spent an entire summer — and frankly, wasted — doing God knows what with his money,” said Chris Grant, a senior adviser to Moreno’s campaign. “So whatever cash advantage they had was gone and they didn’t move anything.”
Republican ads are mixed — touting Moreno’s background as a businessman and portraying Brown as a career politician with ties to Harris and President Joe Biden.
Defend American Jobs, pro-Moreno related to the cryptocurrency industryand the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund spent more than $25 million on ads this month in Ohio, making them the two biggest players in the race, according to AdImpact. Close behind is WinSenate, a political action committee affiliated with Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC, which spent more than $22 million this month.
Democrats have been able to stretch their money a bit further than the disparity shows in spending, in part because candidates can buy ads at lower prices than super PACs, and Brown’s campaign has outspent Moreno’s on the airwaves. Brown’s campaign alone spent $10.5 million on ads this month, while Moreno’s combined with the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent about $5 million.
As of Thursday, election day ad bookings were more even, with Republicans expected to spend $64 million to Democrats’ $58 million. Bookings are subject to change as groups and campaigns can cancel or purchase more airtime.
“Bernie is going in the right direction and has momentum,” said Scott Guthrie, a GOP strategist who has worked on Senate campaigns in Ohio but is not affiliated with Moreno’s team. “Several polls have shown him either tied or ahead in the last few weeks leading up to the election, and overall spending over the last six weeks is overwhelmingly in Bernie’s favor.”
Peters declined Thursday to specify how much DSCC would spend in Texas and Florida, but he stressed to reporters that the new investments would not divert resources from other states such as Montana and Ohio.
“There is no world that I, you can imagine, would not be in Montana until the end,” Peters said. “Jon Tester will have what it takes to win.”
Peters also thought highly of Ohio: “There’s no way I’m going to lose Ohio.”
Ohio Democrats plan to draw more attention Moreno’s recent offensive comments about women voting based on abortion access. Moreno described the idea of being such a single-issue voter as “a little crazy … especially for women over 50.”
Reagan McCarthy, Moreno’s spokeswoman, said the remarks were “an inside joke” intended to chastise Brown and the media for focusing too much on the abortion issue. But it could be significant in Ohio, where voters last year approved a ballot initiative protecting abortion rights in the state constitution. Moreno was and is a prominent opponent of the measure continued to express his support for federal abortion restrictions.
WinSenate debuted an ad on Thursday here, Toledo woman Mary Ann recalls having an emergency abortion years ago during an ectopic pregnancy. If the federal abortion ban had been in effect at the time, he says, his doctors “would have had to let him die.”
“This is about my granddaughter, all the women I’ve known, loved, and the generations to come,” Mary Ann said in the ad. “Our lives are not in Bernie Moreno’s hands.”
Chabria, the Vance strategist, argued that last year’s successful ballot initiative made the issue of abortion a “point of contention” in Ohio.
“Electoral results,” he added, “will be marginal.”