LANCASTER, Ohio (AP) — Republican Bernie Moreno sharply attacked Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown as he followed his campaign bus on a tour of Ohio on Friday, accusing his rival of trying to distance himself from Vice President Kamala Harris despite many shared policy positions.
During a conversation with about 75 people over coffee and donuts in the city of Lancaster, the Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Brown’s intention not to campaign with Harris while she runs for president runs counter to the pair’s long-term political alliance, which included Harris visiting Ohio to raise money for Brown’s 2018 Senate campaign and considering making Brown her running mate during her abbreviated 2020 presidential campaign.
This year, Moreno said, Brown is instead presenting himself to voters as a moderate, bipartisan Trump supporter.
“When Kamala Harris enters Ohio, Sherrod Brown will run to his basement and tell Connie (his wife Schultz) not to open the door,” Moreno said to laughter.
Brown’s campaign team said it supports Harris and her campaign.
“Sherrod supports her and is pleased to see so many people getting involved in the process,” campaign spokesman Reeves Oyster said in an email. “He is glad we are having a conversation about the dignity of work and standing up for hard-working Americans.” The “dignity of work” is a central theme of Brown’s campaign.
Since Brown’s last candidacy, the former leading state has moved sharply to the right and deviated from the national result in 2020 for the first time in half a century by supportive Republican Donald Trump is president by a wide margin. Moreno criticized Trump’s claims that the election was rigged at the time, posting on social media that such claims without evidence could cause “potentially irreparable damage” to the country.
Amid the political shift in the state, Brown had already begun distancing himself from President Joe Biden’s administration before Harris became the nominee, by highlighting his work – including with the state’s junior senator, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance – to bipartisan bills and legislative proposals that he supported and that Trump signed and enacted.
Brown – a third-term senator, former congressman and former Ohio secretary of state – is banking on his long track record and high name recognition to secure votes from other candidates in November. Moreno has not previously held public office. He first ran for Senate in the 2022 race, which Vance won, but withdrew at Trump’s behest.
Given the short time frame of this year’s presidential campaign and the current political situation in Ohio, it is unlikely that Harris will campaign in the state.
Moreno told supporters on Friday that the contrast between Republicans and Democrats could not be clearer this year, particularly on immigration policy, the economy, energy and social security.
“This election is unlike any other in American history,” he said.
Democrats have accompanied Moreno’s tour of the state and organized protests to portray him as an anti-worker “bigwig,” citing lawsuits filed over the years against his companies over wage and overtime issues.
Moreno also reiterated at Friday’s event that he does not expect his campaign to be treated fairly by journalists. He said the media “do everything in their power to distort the facts.”
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Among other things, he criticized the media’s portrayal of Vance because he was from Ohio selected as Trump’s vice presidential candidateHe said Vance, known for his bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” was not “strange” – a term coined by the Democrats and attributed to the press by Moreno – but rather “the nicest, friendliest person with an incredible story.”
Laurie Groves, a local Republican who attended Friday’s event, said she feels the energy building for Moreno and looks forward to helping raise his profile as the election approaches.
“I’m an entrepreneur and I like people who are entrepreneurs, who have made it through the sweat of their brow and who know what it means to work hard,” she said. “And I think that’s Bernie Moreno.”
