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
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.
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.
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.
then respectfully: i think you are catastrophically naive. i do not believe this, i do not think “moderate Republicans” believe this, and i think the case for this is unimaginably weak given the history of the Republican Party and how they have governed across the board. in any just country i think we would ban the party outright and disqualify all current Republican officeholders as we briefly did with secessionists after the Civil War
The case for this was literally proven on J6. They did break with Trump. They did certify the election. What case are you basing your argument on? Are Republicans all authoritarians? Yes, that is inherent to Conservatism. Do they all want Trump to be that authority figure? Absolutely not.
if your bar for “Republicans demonstrating their desire to overthrow democracy” cannot realistically be met until they actually do that then i think your bar is bad and hopelessly naive, because at that point neither you nor i will live in a democracy and the bar will cease to be relevant.
but even entertaining this bar for some reason: please remind me how many of these people then supported actually prosecuting Trump for extremely unambiguously committing several crimes, including attempting to overthrow the election and inciting a mob that threatened to kill all of Congress.[1] and let’s then take stock of how many Republicans who feigned shock and gall at the event subsequently act like all that never happened, openly apologize for it, or state they would refuse to hold Trump accountable for/actively support similar criminal actions in 2024. to say nothing of how many state Republican parties (Wisconsin, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona), even pre-Trump, had fallen completely into believing that land should vote and that the only elections which count are ones they win. or how any initiative to ban gerrymandering or to abolish the undemocratic Electoral College is Democratic-led, because Republicans benefit from their continuation?
17 of 261, for anyone wondering. only six are still in Congress in large part because Republicans and the Republican base have purged them from the party ↩︎
The mistake you’re making is not thinking that Republicans want to abolish democracy, it’s thinking that they want Trump in charge afterwards. Authoritarian governments eat themselves because there are always many people chomping at the bit to become the boss. I have no doubt that many republicans would abolish democracy in a heartbeat if they themselves could, without risk, become the autarch… but as long as it doesn’t threaten themselves to oppose someone else’s ascension, they will. Removing or publicly attacking Trump, right after they had just certified his replacement by Biden, would have (in their eyes) gained them nothing but risk.
There’s a reason that it’s right after these Republican shitbags retire that they start criticizing Trump openly; authoritarianism is the domain of cowards. Expect Pence and Haley and Christie to put it all in their memoirs.
but then you’re making my argument even more compelling for why literally none of these people should be trusted and none of them are moderate or should be treated that way (i.e. that it doesn’t matter which one you elect, so the ones who are most open and unelectable should be elevated)–they’re just Fascists In Waiting too; treating them as banal when by your analysis they aren’t would be akin to ignoring your HIV because it hasn’t started blatantly killing you yet
Or they just work for the same bosses to give us the illusion of choice.