Bernie Moreno, a successful Cleveland businessman and son of legal immigrants from Columbia, officially kicked off his 2024 Senate campaign in Milford, Ohio on Tuesday April 18th to a crowd of enthusiastic supporters. He returned to Clermont County, the first county to endorse him in his 2022 Republican primary race, to formally announce his second run for US Senate — this time aiming to unseat three-term US Senator Sherrod Brown.
This race against Sherrod Brown is anticipated to be one of the messiest and most expensive of the 2024 cycle. Brown is considered one of three vulnerable Democrat senators up for re-election in states that went for Trump by large margins in the last two presidential contests. Other vulnerable senators are Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Jon Tester of Montana.
Introduced by wife – a cancer survivor
Moreno’s wife, Bridget, introduced her husband of 34 years as the next US senator from Ohio by saying. “With no border, 100 times increase in the National debt, democrats trying to erase women, schools indoctrinating our kids, fentanyl killing 300 Americans a day, teens more depressed and suicidal than ever, it’s easy to give up hope and not care. But we are here to fight.”
Outsider & fighter for American Dream
After simply announcing “I am running for US Senate,” Moreno said, “We are lucky to live in the United States – the greatest gift my parent gave me was to bring me to the United States of America.”
Moreno often says that he will fight for the American dream because he’s lived it. Born in Bogota Columbia, he immigrated to the US at the age of 5 with his parents and became an American citizen at age 18. He purchased his first car dealership in 2005 by investing every cent he had and never looked back.
Moreno is running as an outsider and holds career politicians on both sides of the aisle responsible for the problems we face today. “We’ve had enough of career politicians who spend 80-90% of their time thinking about their next campaign or how to monetize their current job – not about the American people. If I had employees that did that, they would be called former employees. We keep electing the same career politicians who only care about themselves and insanely expect a different result.”
The open southern border is one example he mentioned. “Since Joe Biden took office politicians have allowed 5 million people to invade our country. That’s one half the population of Ohio! It’s not just Biden but elected officials both Republicans and Democrats…Instead of us controlling immigration we are outsourcing it to the drug cartels!”
Moreno also took aim at his ultimate opponent Sherrod Brown, who he said has only collected government paychecks his entire adult life – almost 50 years. He asked the crowd, “Who said this? ‘If you’ve been in Washington DC more than 10 years, you are a crook.’ Well, he’s been right once. Yes, it was Sherrod Brown who said this.” Moreno also said he knows that during CO-VID Sherrod Brown was on the phone with a CEO of a hospital demanding that they fire nurses who were not vaccinated. When he gets a chance to be on the stage with Brown, Moreno said that he’s going to ask Brown to look in the camera and say that America is the greatest country on earth. “He won’t do it,” said Moreno, “because he’ll lose votes.”
On the subject of inflation and Democrats he said: “Inflation hurts the middle class the most. The very wealthy are actually profiting from it, the middle class are getting devastated. I pledge to go to Washington DC to fight for the middle class. The Democrat party has become the party of the wealthy and connected.”
In summing up Moreno said, “There are three things you need to know about me. 1) I am unapologetically pro-life, 2) I will defend your 2nd amendment rights…and 3) I believe Trump was the best president in our lifetime…he wasn’t allowed to govern.” The last point got him the most enthusiastic response of the evening.
Trump supports Moreno campaign
Two days after Moreno filed his paperwork with the Federal Election Commission, 2024 presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump offered his support in a tweet:
“Word is that Bernie Moreno, the highly respected businessman from the GREAT STATE of OHIO, and the father-in-law of fantastic young Congressman, Max Miller, is thinking of running for the Senate. He would not be easy to beat, especially against Brown, one of the worst in the Senate!”
Donald Trump Tweet
Moreno retweeted Trump’s support and added “Thank you sir!”
Although short of an outright endorsement, Trump’s early support shows his interest in candidates running or preparing to run for Senate in Ohio. Moreno has said previously that he would be honored to have Trump’s endorsement.
Trump not likely to endorse Dolan
Republican State Senator Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) has announced his candidacy and Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose is considering a run. It is highly unlikely that Trump would support Dolan. Dolan, a career politician whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, ran in the 2022 Republican primary as the anti-Trump candidate and his wife openly asked for Democrats to cross-over and vote in the Ohio Republican primary to help her husband win. Dolan finished third behind JD Vance and Josh Mandel in that race.
Previous run in 2022 primary
Moreno withdrew from the 2022 primary after meeting with Former President Donald Trump. It is thought that Trump asked Moreno to withdraw from the crowded primary field of Trump supporters to give JD Vance, whom he later endorsed, a clearer path to victory. It is also possible that Trump asked him to wait for 2024 to mount a campaign against Brown in Brown’s own backyard. Since then, Moreno’s daughter Emily Moreno Miller, who worked on Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign, married U.S. Congressman Max Miller (R-OH-07), another former Trump aide.
More about Bernie Moreno
According to his campaign website, Moreno created one of the largest dealership groups in American from his first dealership. He also found success as an entrepreneur. He turned ChampTitles which eliminates the need for States to issue paper titles from an idea to a $100m+ company in just a few years.
After a successful career, Moreno sold most of his business to begin focusing what he says is his calling: protecting the American dream for another generation. If elected Moreno pledges to fight to shrink government, protect our freedoms, stop the Chinese communist party from taking our data and land, and always put America First.
Check out the Bernie Moreno for US Senate campaign here
See his campaign video “Outsider” here
