Former President Donald Trump is placing his support behind Bernie Moreno in Ohio’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate, marking a major blow to Moreno’s establishment opponents.
Trump announced his endorsement of Moreno in a Truth Social post on Tuesday evening, calling the businessman “exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate.”
“Bernie will always stand up to the Fascist “nut jobs” and the spineless RINOS in order to fight the corrupt Deep State that is destroying our Country,” he said before taking aim at Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), who will be the Democrat nominee:
Remember, we need a successful political outsider like Bernie to defeat Liberal career politician, Sherrod Brown, who has so poorly represented Ohio, and pretends that he’s all for the Policies of your Favorite President, Donald J. Trump, but then gets to the Senate and votes 100% for the horrendous Policies of Crooked Joe Biden, the worst President in the History of our Country. Don’t be fooled by Sherrod Brown. He is a Radical Left Liberal who will always let you down. He does not stand for Ohio Values, and never will. Bernie Moreno, on the other hand, will ALWAYS put America First.
Trump then called for the GOP to unite behind Moreno, who currently is in a three-way race that includes State Sen Matt Dolan (R) and Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who said Monday he did not expect the former president to endorse in the race.
“It’s time for the entire Republican Party to UNITE around Bernie’s campaign for Senate, so that we can have a BIG victory in what will be the most important Election in American History,” Trump wrote, noting Moreno is the father-in-law of Rep. Max Miller (R-OH).
“Bernie is Strong on the Border, Crime, Cutting Taxes, Election Integrity, the Military / Vets, and will always protect our under siege 2nd Amendment. Bernie Moreno will be an outstanding United States Senator, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump concluded, adding that Moreno would “never let” Ohio voters down.
Moreno took to Twitter to express his gratitude for the 45th president’s major endorsement.
“I am honored and thankful to have the endorsement of @realDonaldTrump for United States Senate from the Great State of Ohio,” he wrote. “With President Trump back in the White House, we will Make America Great Again!”
On Monday, LaRose, who reportedly vowed not to support Trump in 2016, spoke with local Fox affiliate WCMH and said Trump informed him he was not likely to weigh on the race.
“President Trump is most likely not going to endorse anybody in this race. That’s what he’s told me and others as it relates to this,” he wrote.
He had implied moments before that Moreno was bluffing to others about potentially sealing an endorsement, which he has now done.
“Moreno has been trying to convince people that he’s going to have Trump’s endorsement for months now. He’s been promising something that he can’t deliver,” he said.
One of LaRose’s first acts as a candidate in this year’s primary was to endorse Trump for president, and WOSU reported that he was seeking Trump’s support in this race. This endorsement broke with years of criticism he levied at Trump, as Breitbart News Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle detailed. According to a 2017 report from Akron Beacon Journal, LaRose said the 45th president “wasn’t worthy of the party of Lincoln.”
In 2018, he told the Cincinnati Enquirer Trump did not meet the standard of being a “role model for our children.”
“I like the idea of a president that’s a role model for our children,” LaRose said. “Our current president doesn’t really fall into that category.”
LaRose, who said he ultimately voted for Trump in 2016, followed this up by calling a Trump tweet racist in 2019, as Boyle noted:
When Trump tweeted leftist progressives like Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who is from Somalia originally, should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” LaRose leapt into action to call Trump’s tweet “racist.”
“The president says things that I would never condone, that I believe are false,” LaRose told the Cincinnati Enquirer‘s editorial board. “The most recent tweet is racist – whether it was intended that way or not, I’m not in the man’s mind and heart. I don’t know, but that’s how it sounds to me.”
Earlier this year, LaRose questioned the strength of Trump endorsements in the primary in taped private comments before Cuyahoga Valley Republicans in May that Politico reviewed, as Breitbart News noted:
Although LaRose noted Trump’s backing bears influence, he suggested that the majority of the GOP populace, 60 percent, do not “care” which candidates he endorses when choosing who they vote for, according to Politico’s analysis of the audio
He assessed that another 20 percent of GOP voters would automatically support Trump-backed candidates, while the remaining 20 percent would take his endorsement into consideration before voting.
Rob Nichols, a spokesman for LaRose, told Breitbart News at the time that “Frank simply said what we already know.”
“Endorsements are great, but you won’t unseat a 48-year incumbent [Sen. Sherrod Brown] politician with a list of endorsements,” Nichols said. “We need a candidate who can win, and we need to wage a contest of ideas and vision that not only unites the entire Republican Party but also a majority of Ohioans. If he runs, that’s what he’ll offer.”
In the 2022 GOP primaries, Trump cemented his status as kingmaker in the Buckeye State as his candidates there went a perfect 16-0, with his influence being strikingly apparent in Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-OH) ascension to the top of the GOP field.