Businessman Bernie Moreno, founder and namesake of Cleveland State University’s Center for Sales of Excellence, has won the Republican primary for Ohio’s Senate seat, which took place on Thursday, March 19.
Earning 50.5% of the vote, the former President Donald Trump-endorsed candidate beat out opponents Matt Dolan, Ohio state senator from the 24th district, and Frank LaRose, Ohio’s secretary of state. Dolan trailed behind with 32.9% and LaRose with 16.6%.
His primary victory comes after a failed bid in 2022 against Republican Sen. J.D. Vance in a race for the seat left vacant by former Republican Sen. Rob Portman. At the time, Moreno reportedly had a conversation with Trump, deciding to drop out of the race because the party’s field was over-crowded with Make America Great Again “MAGA” candidates.
Moreno spoke to supporters shortly after the race was called last Thursday, thanking the former president in the process:
“We’re going to retake the United States Senate. We’re going to have President Trump in the White House. We’re gonna get the America first agenda done.”
During a rally hosted in Dayton on Tuesday, March 17, Trump praised Moreno as an “America first champion” and “political outsider who has spent his entire life building up Ohio communities” who “[is] going to be a warrior in Washington.”
Trump has a history of having major influence on Republican primaries in Ohio, having won the state himself for two presidential elections in a row in 2016 and 2020. He endorsed Vance for the 2022 Senate race.
Moreno will face incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown this November, which will be a highly anticipated race as the Democratic party’s 51-49 majority in the chamber could be affected by the Republican’s victory.
After Moreno’s victory, Brown, who went uncontested for his party’s primary, took to Twitter to share:
“The choice ahead of Ohio is clear: Bernie Moreno has spent his career and campaign putting himself first, and would do the same if elected. I’ll always work for Ohio.”
Despite Ohio’s pattern of voting red in presidential elections, Brown has had a strong hold on his Senate seat since 2007, having been reelected multiple times by strong margins. In 2018, he beat Republican James Renacci 53.4% to 46.6%.
However, Brown is reportedly seen as one of the most vulnerable senators up for re-election this year as the party dynamic in Ohio continues to shift and questions arise of the state’s potential purple status.
Moreno’s policy stances
Born in Columbia, Moreno has highlighted his experience immigrating to the United States when he was five years old, while also talking down “career politicians” to push his “outsider” status to the forefront.
In fact, securing the nation’s borders, “stop[ping] amnesty and destroy[ing] the Mexican Drug Cartels” are among his 15 priorities on which he will focus if he is elected to the U.S. Senate.
Other priorities he outlines on his campaign website include banning late term abortions, defending gun rights, cutting government spending, ending inflation, “beat[ing] Communist China,” holding “Big Tech” accountable, and restoring manufacturing and energy independence.
Moreno also seeks to empower law enforcement and supports term limits for Congressional members.
Echoing sentiments of other Republicans, Moreno’s agenda preaches an end to “wokeness,” “cancel culture,” and “socialism,” terms which the party has often used to brand Democrats.
2020 election: stolen or not stolen?
Particularly high on his list of priois “restor[ing] the integrity of our elections.”
Indeed, Moreno’s take on the 2020 presidential election—specifically, whether or not he feels it was stolen from Trump—has become increasingly ambiguous. While he initially criticized election deniers within his party, Moreno released a campaign ad in January in which he said, “President Trump says the election was stolen, and he’s right.”
Upon his recent victory, however, he refused to offer a clear answer about it.
“Oh my gosh, are we talking about that? We’ve had like three elections since then,” Moreno shared with CNN mid-March. “The reality is, we’re gonna look to the future. The people in Ohio, what they care about is when they go to McDonald’s, they can’t afford French fries.”
Moreno’s ties to CSU
Moreno founded the Center for Sales Excellence within the Monte Ahuja College of Business in 2018 in his name “with a substantial gift to develop programming and operations.” At the time, he was serving as chair of the CSU Board of Trustees. He continues to serve on the center’s advisory board.
The mission of the center is as follows:
“The Center’s mission is to produce sales professionals who will be able to make an immediate impact on the bottom line of the organizations they serve. The Center strives to achieve these objectives through academic curriculum, continuing education and a custom training program tailored to individual industry needs.”
Prior to being chair of the Board of Trustees, he served on the Board of Directors of the Cleveland State University Foundation, Inc.
Election Day
With the endorsements of Trump, Vance, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Marco Rubio and many more, Moreno has a solid GOP backbone of support going into the contest this November.
Is his work cut out for him as he faces two-time incumbent Brown? Based on recent patterns, maybe. But the question remains up in the air as debates on the advantage of incumbency continue to challenge contemporary understanding of American elections.
Election Day is Nov. 5, 2024. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 7. Military and overseas absentee voting begins Sept. 20. Early in-person voting and absentee voting by mail for the remainder of voters begins Oct. 8.
Learn more on election deadlines, photo identification and more here.
Ele Solovyov 
csucauldron