Ohio Republican complains of self-funding candidates after self-funding his own 2022 bid

Bernie Moreno, a millionaire businessman and Republican Ohio Senate candidate, said in an interview on Monday that he believes political candidates who fund their own campaigns are bad for democracy. Moreno himself funded his own unsuccessful 2022 bid for Ohio’s other Senate seat, however, with millions of dollars he loaned to his own campaign.

Moreno is seeking his party’s nomination to run against Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2024. 

“I don’t believe in writing a check to become a senator. I think it’s bad for democracy. So we’re going to build a grassroot campaign and win,” he said during an appearance on the Bill Cunningham Show on Cincinnati radio station 700 WLW. “But I just don’t believe that people who have achieved wealth should buy themselves into public office. It’s very bad for democracy. And again, we won’t do that. We’re not doing that.”

Moreno made a similar comment on April 19, telling the Saving Liberty podcast that Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan, another millionaire running for the Republican Senate nomination who has donated $8 million to his 2024 campaign and loaned it another $2.5 million, could invest his family’s fortune into a primary.

“I don’t think it’s good for democracy, for wealthy people to write a big fat check and buy themselves a Senate seat. I will put in my resources, don’t get me wrong, but I am not going to write a check that allows me to buy a Senate seat. It’s not good for democracy,” he said.

In 2022, Moreno mounted an ultimately abandoned bid for the Republican nomination for the open seat of retiring Ohio Republican Sen. Rob Portman. Before dropping out, which former President Donald Trump had encouraged him to do, Moreno loaned his campaign $3.8 million — the majority of the $6.8 million his campaign took in.

Moreno’s personal financial disclosure filings in that race indicated his household’s net worth was more than $20 million, according to a report published in August 2021 by Cleveland.com. His assets included a boat worth at least $500,000 and a home in the Bahamas worth more than $5 million. 

After dropping out of the race, Moreno told Spectrum News 1 in Columbus in March 2022 that he would never run for office again: “In terms of you seeing me as a candidate in the future, that’s a hard no.” 

He has since changed his mind, announcing his current campaign on April 18, 2023. The same week, he made national news for suggesting white Americans were owed reparations. “You know, they talk about reparations,” he told supporters. “Where are the reparations for the people in the North who died to save the lives of Black people? And I know it’s not politically correct to say that, but you know what, we’ve gotta stop being politically correct. We gotta call it what it is.”

Moreno has framed himself as a staunch ally of Trump, who self-funded the vast majority of his own 2016 presidential primary campaign.

The Cook Political Report rates the 2024 Ohio Senate race a toss-up.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.