Former President Donald Trump endorsed Bernie Moreno in Ohio’s Republican primary, wading into a three-way contest that could help determine the Senate majority next fall.
Trump’s endorsement of Moreno, a businessman, further scrambles a complicated field, which also includes state Sen. Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose. The National Republican Senatorial Committee has remained neutral in the race, with Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) arguing in an interview last week that any of the three candidates could win a general election.
Beating Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) will require “a successful political outsider,” Trump argued in his social media post on Tuesday afternoon. Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) endorsed Moreno earlier this year and argues that the party needs to coalesce its disparate wings around Moreno.
“I do think we’re eventually gonna be able to get the party more fully supportive behind Bernie,” Vance said in a recent interview. “We’ll have more Senate folks coming out behind Bernie in the next few weeks.”
Vance knows the power of a Trump endorsement: The former president helped boost the junior senator through a difficult primary last year against a slew of candidates, including Dolan and Moreno, who withdrew. The polls in the 2024 primary are all over the place, with Moreno leading one last week and LaRose handily leading one this week.
