An upstart Republican trying to unseat Ohio’s last big Democrat got a major boost when a personal friend was named as Donald Trump’s GOP presidential candidate.
Car dealership entrepreneur Bernie Moreno told The Post this week that pal Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) could be a game changer to help the party finally unseat three-term Sen. Sherrod Brown in November — and cement GOP control of the Senate.
“(Vance) is the second most important surrogate I can have in my campaign,” Moreno, 57, told The Post at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wis.
Vance and Moreno have been friends since 2017 — and ran against each other in the 2022 Senate primary until Moreno stepped down and endorsed him.
“We both love this country. We both know that we cannot accomplish what we have achieved elsewhere. We both know America can only succeed when we strengthen our middle class. And we are both sick of politicians forever who sell us out,” Moreno said.
They are now mulling over how best to deploy Vance around the country to rally for Moreno, the insider said.
“JD Vance will campaign for Bernie Moreno as much as possible and help him a lot in Ohio,” said Mike Berg, director of communications for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
Brown, 71, who has represented the red Buckeye state in the Senate since 2007, has repeatedly survived tough races there, bedeviling the state and national GOPers for years.
“He’s a coy, coy, coy, slippery little sucker. He’s a cicada, he comes out of the ground every four or five, six years — in this case, five — and now he’s a bipartisan moderate who loves Trump, which is really crazy ,” Moreno said.
He continued: “Because he is the most liberal extreme member of the United States Senate,” citing Brown’s support for the Inflation Reduction Act and Biden’s “open borders” policy.
Brown has led by as much as five points in some recent polls, but Moreno insists he’s still within the margin of error, attributing Brown’s polling to name recognition.
Berg and other Republicans believe that even with split-ticket voters, the political tide is turning in their favor.
Trump won the state in 2020 by nearly 500,000 votes, a feat he will carry into the upcoming 2024 contest. Republicans have also made the Senate a top priority.
A Moreno victory will help the GOP gain control of the chamber – which Democrats currently control 51-49.
Still, Brown may have one nuclear card to play: abortion rights.
Despite going deep red, Ohioans voted in November to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution.
When asked if he would favor a national abortion ban, Moreno said he agreed with Trump, who has advocated leaving abortion laws to individual states — but Moreno left the door open to support a federal ban.
“Banning the word is an invention of the Democrats in the media,” Moreno said, suggesting the issue could be dealt with at the federal level like alcohol. “Is it limited? okay. So we can use the same framework to say that after 15 weeks, there are some common sense limits.