Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno named his holy trinity of endorsers — “President Trump, J.D. Vance, Jim Jordan have endorsed me,” he said in a post-primary victory interview — and kissed off moderate Republicans who haven’t yet mailed in their MAGA fealty subscriptions.
Echoing fellow MAGA Senate hopeful Kari Lake in Arizona, who famously rejected old guard McCain voters instead of embracing them, Moreno gave a kiss off to moderate Republicans.
“My opponent is endorsed by the swamp RINO establishment,” Moreno said. “If you want the party of Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney, then you have a choice on the other side. But I don’t think that’s where Ohio is.”
Trump-endorsed GOP Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno says moderate Republicans shouldn’t vote for him: They have a choice on the other side pic.twitter.com/WWFrmXwve6
— DNC War Room (@DNCWarRoom) March 20, 2024
Where Ohio is — that’s a question both parties are anxious to understand. Trump won the GOP primary in the state, carrying 79% of Republican primary voters while rival Nikki Haley — who had already dropped out — still got 14 percent.
Ohio is also notably a state that reacted to the Supreme Court overturning Roe vs. Wade by approving an amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution.
Moreno, a Colombian-born car dealership owner, will face incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown in the November general election. Ads for Moreno’s campaign quoted Trump saying he is “exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate.”
Both Lake and Moreno — in closing ranks rather than opening the tent — follow in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who as the presumptive GOP presidential candidate has said he doesn’t “need” the votes of Republicans who supported Haley in the primaries. “We don’t need any more votes,” Trump said. “We have all the votes we need.”