A Democratic group airs a TV ad in Ohio’s contentious Republican Senate race. The ad highlights Bernie Moreno’s conservative stances and endorsement from Donald Trump. Moreno’s opponents perceive this as an attempt to sway the outcome of Tuesday’s primary.
The narrator states in the ad from Duty and Country PAC, affiliated with Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic super PAC linked to Chuck Schumer. The ad suggests that Moreno would champion Trump’s MAGA agenda.
It outlines plans to repeal Obamacare and implement a nationwide abortion ban. The narrator concludes, “Donald Trump needs Bernie Moreno.” They emphasize, “Bernie Moreno does not.”
AdImpact, a firm tracking political ad spending, first spotted the 30-second ad on Thursday morning. It aired on a local CBS station in Toledo. Duty and Country PAC has $2.7 million reserved for ad spending from Thursday through next week’s primary. Ohio’s Senate race is anticipated to be highly competitive and costly.
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Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown seeks re-election in a state Trump has won twice, each time by 8 points. The GOP primary is concluding amid heightened tension and hostility.
Moreno, a businessman, is facing a fierce challenge from state Sen. Matt Dolan, who has invested millions of his personal funds into his campaign.
Trump plans to host a rally for Moreno on Saturday night near Dayton. Dolan has secured late endorsements from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman. Additionally, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is competing for the Republican nomination.
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“Seen those ads supporting Bernie Moreno? Know who is paying for them? It’s Chuck Schumer,” Dolan posted on X Thursday. “Schumer just got CAUGHT meddling in our primary because he wants the weakest opponent for Sherrod Brown. Enough is enough,” he added. LaRose took a similar approach.
“Chuck Schumer is funding pro-Moreno ads because he knows Bernie’s background makes him the weakest candidate to face Sherrod Brown,” LaRose wrote in an X post late Wednesday. “The more Ohioans learn about Moreno, the less they trust him.”
The Duty and Country ad, first reported on by Politico, frames Moreno’s credentials as a negative at the beginning and the end. However, it otherwise scans as a highlight reel that could appeal to right-leaning voters in the three-way primary.
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The meddling strategy has become increasingly common in campaigns, especially by Democrats seeking to draw a more favorable general election matchup.
Then-Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., vulnerable in her 2012 re-election campaign, famously ran ads to elevate Todd Akin, a weaker candidate, in the GOP primary. Akin won the nomination, but his campaign later imploded after inflammatory comments about “legitimate rape” and abortion rights.
More recently, Democrat Josh Shapiro aired an ad spotlighting the conservative credentials of Republican Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania’s 2022 GOP primary for governor. Mastriano won the nomination, and Shapiro beat him easily in the general election.
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