GOP Bernie Moreno Takes Down Dem Incumbent For OH Senate

Republicans flipped another seat in the race for the upper chamber Tuesday night after Ohio businessman Bernie Moreno defeated three-term incumbent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, The Associated Press, The New York Times, and Fox News projected.

After midnight, with more than 95 percent of the vote in, Moreno had more than a 220,000 vote lead over Brown, according to The New York Times.

The GOP triumph marked the second Senate seat reclaimed by Republicans after Gov. Jim Justice was projected to replace retiring Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin in West Virginia.

“Bernie Moreno ran a great campaign,” Traci Saliba, a veteran Republican strategist in Ohio, told The Federalist. “Ohioans have spoken, and it’s clear they’re ready to get our country back on track. Bernie Moreno will be a powerful voice, fighting for what matters to families and communities across our state.”

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal editorial board published an explainer on the stakes in the Senate if Vice President Kamala Harris were to clinch the Oval Office.

“She has endorsed overriding the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster rule to enact a national abortion law that in practice would go beyond Roe v. Wade,” the board reported. “Democrats in 2022 tried to bypass the filibuster to nationalize election rules, including on California-style ballot harvesting, but Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema balked.”

Manchin and Sinema, however, both retired. The exit of the two lawmakers could have opened the door for Democrats to nuke the filibuster in the next Congress pending the survival of their majority.

“If Republicans retake the Senate, it will halt this progressive vision to transform America, at least for two years,” the board wrote.

Republicans reclaimed the Senate majority for the first time in four years after Republican incumbent Sen. Deb Fischer maintained her seat in Nebraska, the Associated Press projected after midnight following Election Day.

Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America celebrated Moreno’s win Tuesday night as a victory for the pro-life movement.

“We congratulate Senator-elect Bernie Moreno and look forward to working together to protect children before birth and help moms reach the root causes of abortion with life-affirming solutions,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser. “[Ohioans] aren’t on board with the Democrats’ platform of a national all-trimester abortion mandate and even leaving babies born alive after failed abortions to die. That’s the message voters sent tonight as Sherrod Brown and Kamala Harris proved too extreme for the Buckeye State.”

The Associated Press projected former President Donald Trump will win Ohio for the third time shortly after 9 p.m. The presidential race, however, remains too close to call across tipping point states as of this writing.

The New York Times also projected Ohio voters rejected a ballot initiative to hand over legislative district maps to a 15-member commission. With over 95 percent of the votes counted late into election night, 53 percent of voters opposed the measure, according to the New York Times.