A contentious Republican primary for an Ohio Senate seat has become a divisive proxy race between Trump loyalists and the state’s more traditional conservatives.
The three candidates vying for the chance to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown are Secretary of State Frank LaRose, state Sen. Matt Dolan and businessman Bernie Moreno.
Moreno has garnered GOP endorsements from Ohio’s junior senator, J.D. Vance, Rep. Jim Jordan, and most notably, former President Donald Trump.
At a rally in Dayton on Saturday headlined by Trump, Moreno said, “This is the last gasp of breath of the swamp RINO establishment in Ohio.” RINO is an acronym for “Republican in Name Only,” a term Trump and his supporters use to describe critics of the former president within the Republican party. “I need you on Tuesday to stab it right in the heart and make it clear that in Ohio, we put America first,” Moreno added.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a more establishment Republican, gave his endorsement to a different candidate last week. He and his wife, Fran, chose Dolan for the job, whom Trump also calls a “RINO.”
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“We believe this proven conservative is the strongest candidate to beat Sherrod Brown in the fall,” they wrote in a statement.
DeWine, a former senator, lost his seat to Brown in 2006. Brown is now seeking his fourth term in the Senate in a state that trends red but was once considered a battleground state. Brown is the only Democrat who has won a statewide election in Ohio since 2006, aside from the state Supreme Court.
In 2022, Trump-back candidates swept key primary races, but several eventually lost their general elections – allowing Democrats to deflect the “red wave” Republicans expected.
Vance was an exception. He was first elected to the Senate in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement, defeating Tim Ryan and filling the vacancy left by the retirement of moderate Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Vance won by about 6 points, although Portman defeated Democratic challenger Ted Strickland in 2016 by roughly 37 points. Earlier this month, Portman threw his support behind Dolan.
Although LaRose didn’t receive Trump’s endorsement, a campaign spokesperson said that he’d be a Trump ally if he’s elected to the Senate. The spokesperson called LaRose a “proven conservative who voters can trust.” Trump backed LaRose in the 2022 primary for Secretary of State, and ahead of the 2022 election, LaRose tweeted about the “serious problem” of voter fraud.
LaRose brought in the most money in the last quarter of 2023 but had the least cash on hand among his GOP rivals going into the new year. Unlike LaRose, both Dolan and Moreno had the ability to partially self-fund their campaigns. Dolan’s family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, and Moreno owns a car dealership.
Democrats have also been spending in the Ohio GOP primary.
Last week, Duty and Country PAC went up with an ad touting Trump’s endorsement of Moreno and his support for a national abortion ban. The PAC is funded by a dark money group connected to the campaign arm for Senate Democrats.
This was a successful strategy for Democrats in the 2022 midterm elections when they were expected to lose their majority. In the primaries, they boosted far-right Republican candidates they believed would be easier to beat in general elections.
The Ohio Senate race is one of only three rated “toss-ups” by the Cook Political Report, a non-partisan elections tracker. Brown’s seat is a top target for Republicans who hope to take control of the Senate.
The chair of the Senate Republican campaign arm, Steve Daines, has emphasized the importance of candidate recruitment this cycle — even endorsing in numerous Republican primaries. Still, Daines has not endorsed a candidate in the Ohio race.
In an interview with CBS News’s Major Garrett, Daines called Mereno, Dolan, and LaRose “strong candidates.” He added, “But it’s not lost on any of us that when President Trump steps in and endorses a candidate, it is a huge boost to their candidacy. We started with J.D. Vance in 2022. J.D. was not leading in that primary – at that moment, and it was President Trump’s endorsement of J.D. Vance that propelled him to the primary win and the general election win.”
Contributors: Jake Rosen, Hunter Woodall
