Ohio’s Republican Senate primary on Tuesday – this year’s first test of Donald Trump’s clout in a contested Senate race – will help determine a key question this fall: What is the fate of Sen. Sherrod Brown and the Democratic majority?
“Are we ready to win and retire Sherrod Brown from Ohio politics?” state Sen. Matt Dolan, one of three Republican rivals locked in the bitter primary, asked supporters Monday night in Columbus.
Yet for all of the GOP’s focus on trying to defeat Brown in November, there was far more conversation about Trump and a weekend rally near Dayton that reverberated on the eve of the election. The former president’s warnings about a “bloodbath” for the auto industry largely overshadowed the reason for his Buckeye State rally, which was to pull his preferred candidate, businessman Bernie Moreno, over the finish line.
Trump’s involvement in this race is noteworthy because national Republicans – who decided to play in primaries this year, in part to avoid the kinds of candidates who emerged as flawed general election nominees in 2022 – have stayed out of this one. Despite already having clinched the GOP presidential nomination last week, Trump has a lot on the line in Ohio on Tuesday.
Heading into Election Day, an ad airing from the Moreno campaign underscored just how much the former president has been omnipresent in their messaging. “MAGA alert: President Trump wants you to vote for outsider businessman Bernie Moreno,” the ad says. “Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno for Senate.”
But Democrats are also trying to use the former president’s popularity in this red state to their advantage. An outside group affiliated with Senate Democrats’ top super PAC waded into the already expensive primary last week, launching ads that highlight Moreno’s…
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