In the final days before Ohio Republicans cast their votes to select a Senate candidate to challenge incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), political jabs in the GOP race have gotten increasingly personal.<\/p>\n
Former president Donald Trump, who endorsed Bernie Moreno in the race, held a rally in Ohio on Saturday afternoon in a final-days effort to boost his ally. It comes days after Moreno \u2014 who has taken strongly anti-LGBTQ+ positions as a candidate \u2014 was the subject of a story by the Associated Press reporting that an account on Adult Friend Finder, a website for casual sexual encounters, was created with Moreno\u2019s work email address. The account, which posted on the site in 2008, sought \u201cmen for 1-on-1 sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Washington Post has not independently verified the AP report. The candidate\u2019s lawyer provided the AP with a statement from a former Moreno intern, who said he created the account as \u201cpart of a juvenile prank.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Saturday\u2019s rally in Vandalia, Ohio, Trump defended Moreno against attacks that he attributed to Democrats.<\/p>\n
\u201cBernie is a fantastic guy. He\u2019s getting some very tough Democrat fake treatment right now and we\u2019re not going to stand for it because I know this man,\u201d Trump said. \u201cWe all know this man. He\u2019s a hero, he\u2019s a winner and we\u2019re not going to let these people \u2014 these people are sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the attacks among Republicans, a prominent Democratic super PAC has also devoted $2.7 million to ads to criticizing Moreno as being too conservative and aligned with Trump. Those critiques may actually draw Republican primary voters to Moreno. And by running the ad ahead of the state\u2019s GOP primary race, the PAC is possibly deploying a strategy that\u2019s been used by Democrats in recent years \u2014 bolstering a Republican who they see as the easiest candidate to beat in the general election.<\/p>\n
While Ohio was long considered a swing state, it has moved dramatically to the right in recent years, with Trump easily winning the state in 2016 and 2020. Brown, who is seeking a fourth term, is the Buckeye State\u2019s only remaining statewide elected Democrat.<\/p>\n
Moreno faces Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan in the primary. Polls show an increasingly tight race between the candidates, and in the final weeks before Tuesday\u2019s GOP primary, political ads from outside groups have gotten more and more personal.<\/p>\n
The pro-Moreno Buckeye Values PAC, which hosted Trump\u2019s rally Saturday, released an ad last month asking Ohioans whether they can trust LaRose, asserting that he\u2019s been called \u201ca champion for trans equality.\u201d The ad superimposes LaRose in front of a rainbow flag while wearing pro-Planned Parenthood and \u201cTrans Equality Now\u201d pins. The group has also reportedly sent campaign mail in Ohio that asks \u201cWhat Team Does Frank LaRose Play For?\u201d and \u201cIs he with us \u2026 Or is he with they\/them?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Kindel, a spokesman for the LaRose campaign, said in a statement, \u201cDesperate campaigns result to desperate measures. Frank is the only battle-tested conservative in the race who can beat Sherrod Brown in November.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pro-Dolan Buckeye Leadership Fund, meanwhile, launched statewide television and radio ads citing the AP\u2019s report, calling Moreno \u201ccreepy\u201d and \u201cdamaged goods.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ad cites a well-sourced AP story and speaks for itself,\u201d Buckeye Leadership Fund spokesman Chris Pack said. \u201cIf anyone has explaining to do, it\u2019s closet liberal Bernie Moreno. Bernie has lied so much and has so many skeletons in his closet that he seems incapable of keeping it all straight.\u201d The ads are part of a $7.4 million ad buy.<\/p>\n
Moreno\u2019s wife, Bridget, criticized Dolan\u2019s allies for spreading details of the AP report, saying in a statement that \u201cfor (Dolan) to stoop this low, simply because he\u2019s losing this race is disgusting, disgraceful and he should be embarrassed.\u201d Bridget Moreno called on Dolan to disavow the ad from \u201chis family-funded super PAC.\u201d<\/p>\n
His family donated $2 million to the PAC in December.<\/p>\n
Dolan has the backing of two major Ohio Republicans \u2014 Gov. Mike DeWine and former senator Rob Portman \u2014 while Moreno is broadly seen as the most pro-Trump candidate in the race.<\/p>\n
Moreno, an entrepreneur, has been endorsed by several Trump allies, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R), Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). But LaRose wrote on X ahead of the Trump rally that he welcomes Trump to the state.<\/p>\n
\u201cPresident Trump\u2019s visit is a reminder of the strength of America under his presidency and the disaster we face under President Biden. I welcome President Trump to Ohio and look forward to working with him to fix our nation as Ohio\u2019s next Senator,\u201d LaRose said in the post.<\/p>\n
Marisa Iati in Vandalia, Ohio, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In the final days before Ohio Republicans cast their votes to select a Senate candidate to challenge incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), political jabs in the GOP race have gotten increasingly personal. Former president Donald Trump, who endorsed Bernie Moreno in the race, held a rally in Ohio on Saturday afternoon in a final-days effort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2202,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}