Bernie Moreno, the Trump-backed Republican businessman and political newcomer, will take over the seat U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown has held for 18 years, the Associated Press has projected.
Heading into Election Day, the race was one of the tightest and costliest in the country.
Brown’s campaign committee raised just about $84.6 million in 2023 and 2024, more than tripling the $24.2 million raised by Moreno’s campaign committee, according to Oct. 16 filings with the Federal Elections Commission. That excludes hundreds of millions doled out in outside funding. Brown saw the most in contributions of this cycle’s Senate candidates, according to the FEC.
As Ohio has trended redder with each recent election, the senior senator became the lone Democrat elected statewide. Even as the GOP took every other statewide political office in 2018, Brown won his reelection by nearly a seven-point margin then.
He had long said this reelection cycle would be his toughest, though.
At a banquet hall in Westlake on Tuesday night, a crowd mostly clad in Make America Great Again hats and Bernie Moreno buttons cheered each time the former car-dealer and entrepreneur’s face flashed on screen. Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Republican Attorney General Dave Yost, both eyeing a run for governor in 2026, worked the crowd.
Moreno took the stage around 11 p.m. to declare victory, characterizing the night’s national GOP wins as a “new wave.”
“We talked about wanting a red wave. I think what we have tonight is a red, white and blue wave in this country,” Moreno said.
Moreno in March knocked off Sen. Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) and Secretary of State Frank LaRose in a bruising primary, becoming the GOP party nominee taking on Brown. It was not his first run for U.S. Senate, though. He exited the 2022 primary early, following a conversation with former President Donald Trump. This time around, Trump’s endorsement propelled Moreno forward.
On the trail, the son of Colombian immigrants talked at length about immigration issues, backing Trump’s pitch for mass deportations of immigrants in Springfield and elsewhere.
“We're going to make certain that the people who come to this country are invited here, like I was, like my family was: on our terms,” he said Tuesday.
Moreno said he doesn’t plan to diverge from former President Donald Trump’s policy priorities. He’s also called for an overhaul of federal electric vehicle rules.
“They need to be gone first thing in January,” he said.
And he’s advocated for elimination of the U.S. Department of Education and protection of qualified immunity for police officers.
Brown first took office when he beat out Gov. Mike DeWine, then one of Ohio’s senators, in 2006. As Democrats across the country bleed union backing, Brown still commanded it, with endorsements from the lion’s share of organized labor this year.
“This is a disappointment, but is not a failure,” Brown said Tuesday. “It will never be wrong to fight for organized labor or for the freedom of women to make their health care decisions. It surely will never be wrong to fight for civil rights and human rights.”
On the trail, his reelection effort focused heavily on abortion rights after the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Ohio voters’ subsequent passage of a 2023 constitutional amendment protecting access to the procedure.
