Unlike some of the other Senate races that the Republican Party is targeting this cycle, the Senate Republicans’ campaign arm declined to back any candidate in the primary. However, after Moreno’s win, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Steve Daines (Mont.) said in a statement that he offered Moreno his “full endorsement as we fight to secure a conservative Senate majority.”
Moreno said he spoke with Trump shortly before his victory speech, and credited the former president and his allies for his success. “The reality is we have an opportunity now,” he told supporters.
Meanwhile, Democratic groups have spent money on ads on Moreno in recent weeks, as some strategists view him as an easier opponent for Brown, who faced no challengers in the primary, to defeat in a general election.
The fiercely contested primary race comes as the state has moved politically to the right in recent years and could prove to be a bellwether for Trump’s clout in a state that voted for him in 2016 and 2020. Trump and President Biden, who have amassed the delegates needed to clinch their parties’ nominations, continued their winning streaks in other primary states Tuesday.
In the days leading up to the costly, contentious Senate race, political jabs among LaRose, Dolan and Moreno became increasingly personal. Republicans’ ad spending in the race reached more than $42 million, according to tracking firm AdImpact, with most targeted spending painting opponents as being liberal.
In one ad, Moreno’s super PAC accused LaRose of being too sympathetic to gay and transgender causes, superimposing a rainbow flag behind him and surfacing a supportive message LaRose previously shared with an LGBTQ+ rights group.
In the final stretch of the campaign, Moreno dismissed an Associated Press report that an account on Adult Friend Finder, a website for casual sexual encounters, was created with Moreno’s work email address and posted on the site in 2008 seeking “men for 1-on-1 sex.” The Washington Post has not independently verified the AP report. The candidate’s lawyer provided the AP with a statement from a former Moreno intern, who said he created the account as “part of a juvenile prank.”
Meanwhile, in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, state Rep. Derek Merrin was projected to win the Republican primary. He would face off against vulnerable Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D), the longest-serving woman in Congress.
Trump endorsed Merrin hours before polling places opened in the Toledo-area congressional district, the latest development in a roller coaster of a primary in which 2022 Republican nominee J.R. Majewski considered stepping aside, insisted he would stay in and then dropped out earlier this month amid a backlash over disparaging comments he made about people with mental disabilities.
Also on Tuesday, Trump won the uncontested Republican primaries in Ohio, Arizona, Illinois, Kansas and Florida. Biden notched wins in those states’ Democratic primaries, except Florida, where Democrats canceled the primary. About 1 in 5 voters in Florida’s Republican primary, which is closed, cast their ballots for a candidate other than Trump, indicating a lack of interest in the presumptive nominee among some GOP voters in Trump’s home state.
In Illinois’s heavily Democratic 7th Congressional District, longtime Rep. Danny K. Davis (D) was projected to win, defeating challengers including Kina Collins, a community organizer who narrowly lost to Davis in 2022, and Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the treasurer of Chicago, who wanted to replace the 82-year-old.
In California’s 20th District, Republican Vince Fong advanced to a special runoff election to complete the term of former speaker Kevin McCarthy (R), but the race for the second candidate who will advance to the runoff had not yet been called. Fong is a State Assembly member and McCarthy’s former aide.
