The primary for the Ohio Senate race has gone to Bernie Moreno, who will face Sherod Brown in the general election. Moreno was backed by fellow Ohio senator JD Vance and Donald Trump.
Facing Moreno was Matt Dolan, backed by Gov Mike DeWine and other Establishment members. While DeWine is still popular with Ohioans, the state as a whole has shifted in a more populist direction. Fox News says:
As Moreno was wrapping up a campaign swing with two top Trump loyalists and America First all stars – Sen. JD Vance of Ohio and Arizona Senate candidate and 2022 GOP gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake – Dolan was teaming up with two-term Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a former U.S. senator and state attorney general.
“The person who clearly has the best shot at winning in the fall is Matt Dolan,” DeWine told the crowd at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio’s capital city, as he argued that Dolan is the strongest candidate to take on longtime Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown in November.
Moreno will be taking on Sherrod Brown, a radical left winger with support in the North of the State. Brown managed to survive the shift of Ohio towards the GOP in 2018, but this could be the end of his term. Politico reports:
It set up what will likely be the premier and potentially decisive race for control of the Senate between Moreno and vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. But Moreno is also the candidate for whom Democrats pined — one of the party’s top super PACs meddled in the primary to boost Moreno in the final week of the race, viewing him as the easiest to defeat in November.
Moreno’s win capped a strong night for the former president down the ballot: Trump went three-for-three in competitive primaries, boosting Moreno and two other House candidates who won close races.
If Moreno fails to defeat Brown, this will be a serious problem for Trump and Populism, and the neoconservatives could make a new attempt to take control of the party.
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