COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republicans prevailed Tuesday in a must-win Senate race in Ohio, as Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno defeated Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown with control of the chamber hanging in the balance.
With spending that hit $500 million, it was the most expensive Senate race this year and one of the most expensive in U.S. history.
Moreno, 57, who was born in Colombia, will be the first Latino to represent Ohio in the Senate. He won in the Republican-leaning state with a campaign that cast Brown as “too liberal for Ohio,” using false or misleading claims about Brown’s votes related to immigration and transgender athletes. Moreno also worked to tie Brown, a third-term incumbent, to President Joe Biden and his vice president, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, on border security.
Brown’s defeat marked another win for a candidate endorsed by the former president, whose backing in the state lifted “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance into politics and on to become his vice presidential running mate. Trump appeared in ads for Moreno in the final days of the campaign.
About 4 in 10 voters in Ohio’s Senate election said that party control of the chamber was the single most important factor in their vote, while about half said it was an important factor, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,700 voters in the state. Voters favoring Brown were as likely to say this as voters for Moreno.
Brown, 71, one of Ohio’s longest serving and best known politicians, had sought to appeal to Trump crossover voters by emphasizing his work with presidents of both parties and to woo independents and Democrats by promoting his efforts to boost middle class workers.
Brown and his allies pounced on cellphone video that emerged late in the campaign showing Moreno criticizing suburban women who base their votes on abortion rights to paint the Republican as out of step with the 57% of Ohioans who supported a 2023 amendment that enshrined access to abortion into the state’s constitution.
But abortion, the issue Democrats had banked on to help them win Tuesday, ultimately did not appear to be the determining factor. Republicans’ hopes for victory hinged on the one-time bellwether state’s hard shift to the right in recent elections and a strong financial advantage.
Four in 10 Ohio voters said the economy and jobs is the top issue facing the country, according to the 110,000 voters surveyed for AP VoteCast, which included more than 3,700 voters in Ohio. About 2 in 10 Ohio voters said immigration is the most pressing issue, while only about 1 in 10 named abortion.
As Moreno and his Republican allies consistently outspent Democrats during the race, they significantly chipped away at Brown’s favorability ratings among Ohio voters, erasing an advantage that Brown had enjoyed in the polls throughout the campaign and depriving him of a fourth term.
Brown was the only Democrat to hold a nonjudicial statewide office in Ohio.
Julie Carr Smyth, The Associated Press
