This story will be updated when additional results are reported by the Ohio Secretary of State.
Ohio voters are deciding on one of the most consequential U.S. Senate races in the country.
All eyes are on the race in Ohio because, along with Montana, it is a state where Democratic incumbents are running for reelection in states twice won by former President Donald Trump. The results will help determine which party controls the closely divided U.S. Senate, where Democrats and independents that caucus with them hold a 51-49 majority.
Ohio’s race has attracted enormous attention and spending on advertising and is the most expensive U.S. Senate race on record, according to AdImpact, an advertising tracking firm. Spending by the Ohio U.S. Senate candidates, their allies and outside groups totals $427 million, according to OpenSecrets, a research group that tracks money in politics. The previous most expensive U.S. Senate race was Georgia’s in 2020, when spending totaled $412 million, according to AdImpact.
Brown has been a U.S. senator since 2007 and chairs the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. Brown previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Ohio House of Representatives and was Ohio Secretary of State.
Moreno is president of Bernie Moreno Companies. He previously owned multiple luxury car dealerships, which he later sold, and co-founded a blockchain company called ChampTitles that he also sold. A Columbian immigrant, Moreno became a U.S. citizen at age 18. Moreno, who has not held elective office, withdrew from the 2022 Republican U.S. Senate primary, but in this year’s bid was endorsed by Trump over two other candidates.
Kissick did not respond to requests for comment or submit answers to the Dayton Daily News Voter Guide.
Moreno’s campaign says he wants to restore American manufacturing, cut regulations and government spending, empower parents to make education choices and empower local law enforcement, hold tech companies accountable, “break up big media,” defend the 2nd Amendment, term limit members of Congress, “End Wokeness and Cancel Culture,” “End Socialism in America,” support Israel and “fight to put a stop to all forms of antisemitism in the United States.”
Abortion and immigration are two major issues in the race. Brown supports the reproductive rights constitutional amendment Ohio voters approved last year and says he supports a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.
Moreno opposed Ohio’s reproductive rights constitutional amendment and said in January that he supports a federal ban on abortion at 15 weeks. His campaign now says he believes abortion rules should be left to the states.
Moreno wants to improve border security and supports mass deportation of immigrants who entered the country illegally. He’s said the Haitian immigrants in Springfield should be deported starting in 2025 and he supports ending the Temporary Protected Status program that allows them to legally live and work in the U.S. Moreno opposed the bipartisan border security bill that failed to advance in Congress this year.
Brown supported the bipartisan border security bill and is also focused on battling drug trafficking, co-introducing bills that expanded sanctions against fentanyl traffickers and provided equipment to detect fentanyl at the border.
Brown said he will continue working to protect jobs and missions at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and the Ohio Air National Guard Base in Springfield and push for legislation to lower costs for housing, prescriptions and groceries, help workers and boost manufacturing. He wants to make it easier to join a union and permanently expand the child care tax credit. Brown voted for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which placed a $35 per month cap on insulin for Medicare recipients and for the first time allows Medicare to negotiate some prescription drug prices. Brown wants to expand the insulin price cap to everyone.
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