COLUMBUS (AP) — A fractious three-way Republican primary for the chance to unseat Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown this November is culminating in Ohio, where candidates are divided more over their pasts than their policy positions.
Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan all favor some level of federal abortion restriction and tough treatment of immigrants lacking permanent legal status, among similar stances.
It’s whether voters can trust them at their words that the three and their deep-pocketed allies are disputing ahead of Ohio’s March 19 primary.
The final debate was held Wednesday at Miami University in Oxford. Early voting is already underway in Ohio’s March 19 primary.
Moreno, a wealthy former car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur endorsed by former President Donald Trump, paints LaRose and Dolan as untrustworthy “career politicians,” while casting himself as an accomplished businessman and an outsider.
LaRose, an Army veteran and former state senator twice elected statewide but viewed as diminished by his failed efforts to secure Trump’s backing, highlights that Moreno and Dolan are millionaire self-funders and “former Democrats.”
Dolan, a member of the family that owns baseball’s Cleveland Guardians who never fought for Trump’s endorsement, said he was a registered Democrat when he was younger — as was Trump himself — but has been a Republican since 1994. He said it’s his opponents who are trying to reinvent themselves.
Democrats are desperate to reelect Brown in a state where all three branches of government have long been controlled by Republicans. The party has reveled in divisions surfacing in what they brand the Republican Senate “slugfest.”