The race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican candidate Bernie Moreno will likely help determine control of the U.S. Senate.
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Election 2024: Ohio Senate race could determine control of the U.S. Senate
The race between Senator Sherrod Brown and Bernie Moreno will likely be the most expensive Senate race in the country this year.
Ohioans can’t afford to sit this out.
The race between incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown and Republican candidate Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland car dealership owner backed by former President Donald Trump, will likely help determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Below, we compare the candidates’ positions on the top three issues Ohioans told them about Rasmussen Report were most important to them: the economy, border security and abortion.
As you will see, there are major differences between the two men vying to represent Ohio.
First we will look at the priorities and recent achievements
MORENOS team did not respond to a request for an interview with our editors.
The first five priorities of 16 Moreno’s campaign site includes: empowering parents to make educational choices; securing America’s borders, ending amnesties and destroying Mexico’s drug cartels; restoring the integrity of our elections; massively rolling back anti-growth regulations, cutting government spending and ending inflation; and defeating communist China.
BROWN told members of our board that, if re-elected, he will continue to work on investments in housing, transportation and transportation – issues of particular importance to Columbus, the center of economic and population growth in Ohio.
“The housing challenges in this community are as great as any community in the Midwest,” he said. “I do a lot with the (Columbus) Partnership. I do a lot with the working-class community on how to anticipate growth. That means housing. That means transportation. That means public schools, hospitals and health care.”
Brown chairs the Senate Banking Committee, which also focuses on insurance, financial markets, securities, housing, urban development and public transportation, international trade and finance, and economic policy.
He told us that the Banking Committee wants to work in a bipartisan manner, something he has long sought.
His supporters reflect this.
Brown has been endorsed by a list of prominent Ohio Republicans, including former Ohio Governor Bob Taft, who is a guest Dayton Daily News column support from Bruin.
Taft wrote:
“While I disagree with Senator Brown on every policy issue, I believe that the people of Ohio desperately need a highly effective, experienced attorney in the United States Senate – someone who is completely focused on the needs of both Ohio and America ” wrote Taft. “He has worked diligently on behalf of the interests of the Dayton area where I live, working with Republican Congressman Mike Turner and others to advance the interests of Wright Patterson Air Force Base, the largest single-site employer in the state of Ohio to look after.”
Brown teamed up with fellow Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate on the GOP ticket, to advocate for residents of East Palestine affected by the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment.
Brown said his committee received support from ranking member Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., on issues that included the REPRESENT Fentanyl Bill. and the RECOUP Act According to Brown, bankers are responsible for letting their banks fail.
Brown co-wrote the FEND Off Fentanyl law, which targets Chinese illegal fentanyl suppliers and Mexican drug cartels.
He says the Low Income Tax Credit Act, and the Stop the predatory investment law are critical to solving Ohio’s housing problems.
“I introduced (the Stop the predatory investment law) to go after the predatory investors coming into the neighborhood. (We see) that a lot in Cincinnati and Cleveland – and that’s starting to happen in Columbus,” he said. “They’re buying up large numbers of houses – mostly rental properties – and they’re evicting people.”
The investors add a new coat of paint and make minor improvements, such as basic carpeting, before raising rents.
Brown also serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee Agriculture, Food and Forestry, as well as committees veterans affairs and finance.
Restoring the child tax credit is one of Brown’s priorities.
“I was the main sponsor of that and it changed people’s lives,” he said.
Opinion: Brown: They ‘bury’ you for mistakes. Banks and Wall Street executives should not receive bonuses for bankruptcies
The economy
BROWN helped secure $42 million for the Central Ohio Transit Authority’s planned LinkUS bus rapid transit project, and was instrumental in passing bills that directly impact the region, including the CHIPS Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, which have proven critical to Intel’s semiconductor plant in Licking County and Honda’s new battery plant in Fayette County.
He has advocated for workers’ rights.
“I have spent my entire career fighting for Ohio and for the dignity of work – the idea that hard work should pay off for everyone, no matter who you are, where you live or what job you do,” he wrote. in a recent Columbus Dispatch guest column. “When presidents of my own party have pushed bad trade deals that would hurt Ohio workers and send jobs abroad — from NAFTA to the Trans-Pacific Partnership — I have always stood up and fought to keep jobs where they belong: here in Ohio. “
MORENO placed blame for the economy on Brown and the Biden administration in responses filed with the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau.
He wrote:
“Thanks to the Biden administration’s reckless spending that Sherrod Brown voted for, we have seen record high inflation. This administration’s signature Inflation Reduction Act was another weighty spending bill that took no steps to reduce costs for Americans. Instead of reducing the inflation created by Biden, Harris and Brown, this bill was a down payment on the Green New Deal.”
Between 2015 and 2017 Moreno faced three lawsuits alleging discrimination against employees at his luxury car dealership in Cleveland.
More recently, Moreno was sued for failing to properly pay salespeople’s overtime while managing a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Burlington, Massachusetts, near Boston.
In one case, he had to pay two employees more than $400,000. Fourteen other cases were settled in January 2023 for an undisclosed amount.
Border security
BROWN backed a bipartisan $118 billion package to address security at the southern border and provide aid to Ukraine and Israel. The border security portion of the package includes about $20 billion to expand the Department of Homeland Security’s capabilities to find those smuggling fentanyl and other drugs and to capture, process, house and transport migrants.
The bill was panned by Trump and rejected by Senate Republicans.
MORENO supports the renewal of Trump’s Remain in Mexico policy and the reform of the policy Temporary protected status program and deportation of 10 million illegal immigrants.
Abortion
BROWN says he joins the majority of Ohioans who believe decisions about women’s health care should be left up to women and their doctors.
When our editors asked about population decline projections in the state, Brown said the passage of the 2023 abortion rights amendment was one of the factors important to Ohio’s future.
Before voters approved the amendment to replace Ohio’s ultra-restrictive abortion law, Brown said he heard from many young doctors who were afraid to raise their children — especially daughters — in Ohio.
MORENOS Opinions on abortion have evolved several times.
He told a radio host in Cincinnati he was “absolutely pro-life, no exceptions” in 2022.
Moreno tried to walk backs his support for a national abortion ban.
He now says abortion should be handled by each state. But just weeks before launching his Senate campaign, Moreno said the Founding Fathers would “kill you” for supporting abortion rights.
“You don’t get pregnant because you were at the checkout line at Kroger,” he said. “It doesn’t happen that way. At least that’s what my mother and father told me. So you have to take personal responsibility. Abortion is a heinous crime. It’s certainly not health care. It’s certainly not contraception. But we still do it here.” .”
In recent weeks he has been grilled when he questioned on camera why older women are concerned about abortion at a town hall in September.
He said: “There are a lot of single-issue voters – you know, the left has a lot of single-issue voters. Unfortunately, by the way, there are a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women who say, ‘listen, that’s abortion? If I can’t have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for someone else.” Okay, a bit crazy by the way. But especially for women who are already over fifty, I think to myself, I don’t think that’s a problem for you. Thank God my wife didn’t hear that. One: I would get in trouble.”
The nation will be watching Ohio on November 5.
Make sure your voice is heard.
This analysis was written on behalf of the editors of The Columbus Dispatch. Op-eds are fact-based assessments of issues important to the communities we serve. These are not the opinions of our reporting staff, who strive for neutrality in their reporting.