Trump-Obsessed MAGA Republican Wins Ohio Senate in Blow to Democrats
An anti-abortion, Trump-endorsed Republican propelled by Mitch McConnell and cryptocurrency PAC dollars has won the Ohio Senate election—flipping a key seat for Republicans.
Republican Bernie Moreno beat incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown 50.5 percent to 46.1 percent according to the Associated Press, which called the race on Tuesday evening, with 91 percent of votes counted.
This is a much-needed win for Republicans, who now hold a nine-seat majority in the Senate, with 11 votes still remaining to be called.
Thanks to dark money, the only Democratic senator in the state was finally unseated after first being elected in 2007. The race had garnered more ad spending than any other Senate race in history with nearly $500 million spent between the two candidates.
On the Republican side, Defend American Jobs, a super PAC tied to the cryptocurrency industry spent over $40 million to support Bernie Moreno. While the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spent over $160 million for Moreno, more than any other Republican Senate candidate this year.
Their investment made up for the fact that Moreno continued to flaunt his extremist MAGA views on the campaign trail, rallying against “wokeness” and bashing reproductive rights.
“You know the left has a lot of single-issue voters,” Moreno said back in September. “Sadly, by the way, there’s a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women that are like, ‘Listen, abortion’s it! If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else!’
“It’s a little crazy, by the way, but, especially for women that are past 50. I’m thinking to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s an issue for you,’” Moreno continued.
Moreno also made headlines for allegedly lying about his business dealings and for appearing on a gay hookup app, despite his anti-LGBTQ+ record.
The Colombian immigrant Moreno later went on to copy Trump’s playbook and spread racist rumors about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.. In September, Moreno wrote that thousands of “illegal Haitians” were “sucking up social services and even reportedly killing and eating pets.”
“We need to deport illegals, not invite them to wreak havoc on our communities,” he added.
The MAGA Republican won out as Trump won the state, as he did in 2016 and 2020.