United States Senate Race: Sherrod Brown vs. Bernie Moreno

This year, Ohioans have the opportunity to elect a new senator to represent them nationwide. Whoever is elected will serve a six-year term in the United States Senate. The candidates are incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown, who has held this seat since 2007, and Republican Bernie Moreno, a businessman and politician who beat Frank LaRose and Matt Dolan in the Republican primary election.

Both Brown and Moreno agree that the border needs to be secured, law enforcement needs to be supported and illicit fentanyl supply chains need to be destroyed. They also prioritize the local economy, with Moreno stressing manufacturing, energy independence and ending inflation. However, Brown focuses more on supporting farmers, bringing back semiconductor production and supporting unions.

Moreno and Brown also both focus on taking on big business, with Moreno focusing on regulating “big tech” and “big media,” and Brown planning to increase taxes on stock buybacks and lower Medicare drug prices.

Moreno’s platform also includes domestic policy issues such as allowing parents to choose their child’s education, election integrity, 2nd Amendment rights, cutting government spending and enacting term limits for members of Congress. The foreign policy issues he focuses on include “beating Communist China” and supporting Israel. He also highlights cultural issues, such as ending “wokeness and cancel culture” and “socialism in America.”

Brown focuses on healthcare for seniors, veterans and women, including prescription drug price caps, fighting the opioid epidemic and supporting the Affordable Care Act. He stresses investment in Medicare and Social Security and the importance of allowing seniors to retire. He also supports LGBTQ+ rights and restoring the Voting Rights Act. A key point of Brown’s campaign is his appeal to rural interests, including supporting farming, infrastructure and manufacturing jobs.

The Brown vs. Moreno race has involved extensive attack advertisements from both sides. Attacks against Brown lean strongly into transphobia, claiming Brown voted in support of sex-change operations for children or for biological males to play on women’s sports teams. Instead, the Brown campaign said it opposes political intervention in transgender health care.

“A child's health care decisions are between them, their parents, their families, their doctors, not politicians,” Brown said. “I will never agree with anybody that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care, period."

Attacks against Moreno have focused on Moreno’s record as a businessman. He has frequently been attacked over a 2015 lawsuit where Moreno was accused of allegedly not paying his employees’ overtime payments. The judge in the lawsuit ruled that Moreno destroyed documents holding potential evidence, despite insistence from the Moreno campaign that the documents did not hold any evidence.

sullivei@miamioh.edu