Democrats are meddling in Ohio’s Senate GOP primary at the 11th hour to boost Bernie Moreno, the candidate former President Donald Trump endorsed to face vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Duty and Country PAC, a group affiliated with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is spending over $2.5 million to air with a TV ad that heavily touts Moreno’s support from Trump and calls him “too conservative for Ohio.” It will begin airing on Thursday and is set to run through Tuesday’s primary.
The group is funded by Senate Majority PAC, the top Democratic outside group focused on Senate races. The apparent goal of the ad is to boost Moreno with GOP voters, and their interference in the race is a sign that they believe he would be the weakest candidate in the general election.
In a statement, Moreno campaign spokesperson Reagan McCarthy invoked Democrats’ general feeling in 2016 that Trump would be the easiest candidate for Hillary Clinton to beat. “The same thing is going to happen to Sherrod Brown this year,” McCarthy said.
This is such a playing-with-fire tactic…
If y’all wonder why we’re constantly seeing races between the DNC candidates and extremist Trumpers, know that it’s at least in part because the DNC is boosting them. “Don’t vote for white supremacists” works better as a talking point if you make sure your opponents are white supremacists, but badly if your gambit doesn’t pay off.
And guess what… they got what they wanted.
Trump’s endorsee, auto-dealer magnate Bernie Moreno, beat State Senator (and Cleveland Guardians co-owner) Matt Dolan and Secretary of State Frank LaRose decisively on March 19. With over 96 percent percent of the expected vote in, Moreno is winning just over half the total votes and leading by Dolan by 18 percent. It’s a broad-based victory, since Moreno is ahead in all of Ohio’s 88 counties.
Of course Ohio has 88 counties…
“Now it’s on you, Ohio Democrat voters, to vote super hard to make sure a white supremacist isn’t elected in the General!” - Sincerely, the SuperPAC that helped put a white supremacist in the General
And guess what… they got what they wanted.
even without boosting, it is exceedingly likely Moreno would have won since he was Trump’s pick and got 50% of the vote in an FPTP race. it’s clearly not just the DNC who wanted this guy, but the base of Ohio Republicans
Sure, but the issue is that the DNC wants more extremist opponents at all.
They clearly care more about increasing their own election chances (as they see it), than not putting the country in greater danger of these people getting elected.
They are explicitly and intentionally trying to put people in greater danger, so they can offer themselves up as the saviours from said danger. Moreno getting elected with more GOP votes doesn’t somehow increase the Democrat’s chances in the General, so they clearly wanted him over the other candidates who were less extreme.
The DNC is choosing the possibility of a possibility of a more likely win in November, over the assuredly worse outcome if they lose. And make no mistake, if they lose in November, they will suddenly forget that they ever boosted Moreno, and be very offended at the suggestion of such.
They are explicitly and intentionally trying to put people in greater danger,
how? again: in what ways would these people who aren’t Moreno differ in voting on legislation–which is the basis upon which people are in danger?
like, do you think Frank LaRose—who has a history of infringing on the right to vote, who has made it harder for people to vote, who defended the right of Republicans to gerrymander their way into power in perpetuity, and who wants abortion rights to be restricted in the same ways Trump does (and went out of his way to try and make this possible against the will of voters)—is a moderate? do you think he’d break with the party if asked? because i don’t. i think LaRose would be exactly like Moreno, just harder to beat because even people like you who are conscious of the creeping extremism incorrectly perceive him as more moderate even though he won’t be in any way that will matter if he’s elected.
or do you think that Matt Dolan—who, despite criticizing Trump for January 6th also said explicitly the last time he ran that he would not convict Trump if he ever had to vote on impeachment against him—is a moderate? do you think he’d break with the party if asked? because i don’t. i think Dolan would also be exactly like Moreno, just harder to beat for the same reasons i just described.
Yes, I actually do believe that many of the “moderate” Republicans are less ready and willing and downright excited to actually turn the government over to Trump, even if only because they know it doesn’t actually benefit them in any way to do so.
do you think he’d break with the party if asked? because i don’t.
You could easily have said this about Mike Pence, but, much as I hate him, he did break with Trump when it actually came time to do the insurrection. Do I know for sure that Dolan or LaRose would do less harm then Moreno? No. Do I know for sure that Moreno will happily strive to be more extreme and harmful than them? Yes.
That’s literally their whole wing’s platform.
What it says is “Our candidate is so lackluster and uninspiring that they can only beat the most out there fringe lunatic”.
ignoring that i don’t think this applies to Sherrod Brown: Ohio is firmly a red state at this point which has trended rightwards in the past three presidential elections (and which voted for Trump by 10 points twice–presumably it will do so again in 2024) so… yeah. the path to victory here at this point just runs through winning over some Republicans and most Independents. pretending otherwise would be malpractice–the “base” is not sufficient anymore to win Ohio. so the easiest way to win now is to run against a fringe lunatic. and it’s not like there’s a meaningful difference in voting record in the Senate between so-called “moderate Republicans” and the “fringes” anyways–Murkowski and Collins still vote with their party on any actually good legislation and refuse to gut the filibuster that would allow for things to be passed by simple majority
The real issue here is that this has been a strategy of the DNC for years. As much as they’d like to deny it, they are responsible for the rise of Trump and extremism. But we’ll be asked to pretend that didn’t happen, again.
When you endorse racist fascists to win, you’re no better than those wh osupport them.
As much as they’d like to deny it, they are responsible for the rise of Trump and extremism.
reducing voters to brainless automata who have no agency in the rise of fascism is a good way to completely neuter your ability to actually combat fascism because many Americans are active participants to the project of building fascism, not idly going along because of partisan voting. bluntly: if fascism had no base, elevating it wouldn’t work in the first place
the path to victory here at this point just runs through winning over some Republicans and most Independents.
Which is going to be impossible when those very Republicans and Independents think,
“Hey, didn’t they campaign against the more ‘moderate’ candidates like Dolan and LaRose, who I might actually have voted for?”
“Aren’t they part of the reason I don’t have a GOP candidate I support?”
“Did they force me into this position to ‘have’ to vote for them, on purpose? Well fuck that!”
Which is going to be impossible when those very Republicans and Independents think,
i’m sorry but, at the scale of the general electorate essentially nobody thinks this way and you might as well be making someone up accordingly. most voters–probably a minimum of half or more in almost all states–simply do not pay attention to or care about primaries (and indeed most election cycles only see majority interest in the general election beginning in August or later), and most people who show up in November will likely have not have voted in a primary at all.
additionally, it is well established that extremist candidates pay a penalty for being extremist or perceived as extremist: see for example Split Ticket’s electoral wins above replacement model
