CINCINNATI, Ohio — Democrats are resuming the controversial practice of meddling in Republican primaries in the hopes of advancing candidates they believe to be weaker opponents in a general election, this time spending to elevate Donald Trump’s choice in Ohio’s U.S. Senate primary next week.
Senate Majority PAC, a group closely aligned with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is behind another super PAC, Duty and Country, that’s on TV in Ohio with an ad touting Trump’s endorsement of car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur Bernie Moreno, Politico first reported. The ad calls Moreno “too conservative for Ohio” with the aim of boosting him with GOP primary voters just days before voting ends Tuesday.
Senate Majority PAC confirmed it’s all part of a $2.7 million digital and TV ad buy highlighting Moreno’s Trump ties.
“When Ohio voters head to their polling place they deserve to know the truth about Bernie Moreno — and the truth is that Moreno is a MAGA extremist who embraced Donald Trump, just like he embraced his policies to ban abortion nationwide and repeal the ACA,” said spokesperson Hannah Menchhoff.
A video of the ad posted on YouTube Wednesday has since been removed.
Ohio is one of the country’s top Senate battlegrounds this year, with Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown fighting for another term in a state that’s trended redder since Brown was first elected in 2006. Besides Montana, Ohio is the best chance Republicans have to retake the Senate.
Senate Majority PAC has meddled in Montana’s primary, too, funding a PAC that ran ads against the expected GOP nominee, Tim Sheehy.
Tuesday’s primary features three Republicans who are generally polling against each other within the margin of error: Moreno, state Sen. Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose. Dolan, who is often considered to be the stronger general election candidate, has surged at the last moment, apparently worrying Democrats enough to spend on helping Moreno. A poll this week from Emerson University found Dolan pulling ahead of Moreno, 26% to 23%, with 32% still undecided.
“The prospect of Sherrod Brown going up against Republican Matt Dolan in November has Chuck Schumer so worried that he’s injecting millions of dollars into Ohio, aimed at dragging Bernie Moreno across the finish line in Tuesday’s Republican primary,” said Chris Pack, the spokesman for the pro-Dolan PAC Buckeye Leadership Fund.
Trump is also concerned — the former president and presumptive GOP presidential nominee announced a last-minute rally Saturday to help Moreno. Ohio’s primary is the first major test of Trump’s endorsement since the 2022 midterms, when many of his preferred candidates proved to be too extreme to beat Democrats.
Moreno’s campaign compared Democrats’ strategy to the way they underestimated Trump and the MAGA movement in 2016.
“Democrats constantly underestimate the America First movement at their own peril,” Moreno’s campaign said in a statement to HuffPost. “They thought President Trump would be easy to beat in 2016 and then they got their clocks cleaned when he demolished Hilary Clinton. The same thing is going to happen to Sherrod Brown this year. Bernie is a threat to the establishment in both political parties, which is why the RINO establishment, the entire swamp, and leftwing media have been attacking him with lie after lie since the moment he launched his campaign.”