Republican Bernie Moreno defeats incumbent Sherrod Brown in key Senate race
Democrat Mr Brown has failed in his bid to hold on to the state of Ohio.
Republican Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno has defeated Democratic US senator Sherrod Brown in the state of Ohio.
With spending that hit 500 million dollars, it was the most expensive Senate race this year and one of the most expensive in US history.
Mr Moreno’s victory helped to shift control of the US Senate to the Republicans.
The 57-year-old, who was born in Colombia, will be the first Latino to represent Ohio in the Senate. He won in the Republican-leaning state with a campaign that cast Mr Brown as “too liberal for Ohio”, using false or misleading claims about Mr Brown’s votes related to immigration and transgender athletes.
Mr Moreno also worked to tie Mr Brown, a third-term incumbent, to US President Joe Biden and his vice president, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, on border security.
During an acceptance speech in Cleveland, Mr Moreno pledged to serve all Ohioans and to work to win over those who voted against him.
“We talked about wanting a red wave. I think what we have tonight is a red, white and blue wave,” he said. “Because what we need in the United States of America is leaders in Washington, DC, that actually put the interests of American citizens above all else.
“We’re tired of being treated like second-class citizens in our own country. We’re tired of leaders that think we’re garbage and we’re tired of being treated like garbage.”
Mr Brown’s defeat marked another win for a candidate endorsed by the former president, whose backing in the state lifted Hillbilly Elegy author JD Vance into politics and on to become his vice presidential running mate. Mr Trump appeared in ads for Mr Moreno in the final days of the campaign.
About four in 10 voters in Ohio’s Senate election said that party control of the chamber was the single most important factor in their vote, while about half said it was an important factor, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,700 voters in the state. Voters favouring Mr Brown were as likely to say this as voters for Mr Moreno.
Mr Brown, 71, one of Ohio’s longest serving and best known politicians, had sought to appeal to Trump crossover voters by emphasising his work with presidents of both parties and to woo independents and Democrats by promoting his efforts to boost workers.
Mr Brown and his allies pounced on mobile phone video that emerged late in the campaign showing Mr Moreno criticising suburban women who base their votes on abortion rights to paint the Republican as out of step with the 57% of Ohioans who supported a 2023 amendment that enshrined access to abortion into the state’s constitution.
But abortion, the issue Democrats had banked on to help them win Tuesday, ultimately did not appear to be the determining factor. Republicans’ hopes for victory hinged on the one-time bellwether state’s hard shift to the right in recent elections and a strong financial advantage.
Four in 10 Ohio voters said the economy and jobs is the top issue facing the country, according to the 110,000 voters surveyed for AP VoteCast, which included more than 3,700 voters in Ohio. About two in 10 Ohio voters said immigration is the most pressing issue, while only about one in 10 named abortion.
As Mr Moreno and his Republican allies consistently outspent Democrats during the race, they significantly chipped away at Mr Brown’s favourability ratings among Ohio voters, erasing an advantage that Mr Brown had enjoyed in the polls throughout the campaign and depriving him of a fourth term.
Mr Brown was the only Democrat to hold a nonjudicial statewide office in Ohio.
