The establishment is going all in for Ohio U.S. Senate candidate Matt Dolan while the America First movement is overwhelmingly backing conservative candidate and businessman Bernie Moreno in the upcoming Senate primary race in the Buckeye State.
The primary is less than a week away as Moreno — who is backed by former President Donald Trump and top conservatives in the movement — faces off against former globalist institute fellow State Sen. Matt Dolan. Dolan has a controversial history. He once served as a fellow for the Aspen Institute — a Soros-funded globalist institution — which the Economist described the as a “mountain retreat for the liberal elite.” He has also accused those of wanting to end the war in Ukraine of being appeasers of Vladimir Putin, appearing to put that issue above securing the United States’ southern border.
And in 2020, Dolan backed the idea of racism being a “public health crisis.”
He is backed by the likes of former U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who deviated from Trump and the America First movement by backing Dolan over Moreno in the three-way race, which also includes Frank LaRose, who has described himself as a “pragmatic moderate.”
But the America First conservative movement is all in on Moreno, and endorsements continue to roll in for the businessman.
“Thank you @ted.budd for your support and endorsement!” Moreno said on social media, announcing his latest endorsement and noting that he has over one dozen conservative senators formally backing him.
“I am honored to have 15 of the top conservative Republican US Senators supporting my campaign,” he said.
That list includes Sens. J.D. Vance (R-OH), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Tommy Tuberville (R-AR), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and John Barrasso (R-WY).
Vance backed Moreno nearly a year ago, making it clear that Moreno, whom he described as his friend, is “committed to securing our southern border, getting tough on China, and taking the fight to the woke corporations waging war against our conservative values. “
“It’s time to turn the tides on the establishment insiders who sell out our country to special interests and elect more political outsiders like Bernie, who will always put America First in Washington, DC. I’m looking forward to having Bernie as a colleague in the U.S. Senate,” he added.
Similarly, Sen. Lee endorsed Moreno later that year, describing him as a “political outsider.”
“I am proud to join my colleague J.D. Vance in endorsing Bernie for the US Senate because we both know that we desperately need to elect more principled conservatives who have the courage to stand up to the establishment in both political parties,” he said at the time, adding, “I’m confident that Bernie will do exactly that.”
Sen. Blackburn offered her endorsement in January.
“Thrilled to endorse @berniemoreno for the United States Senate in Ohio,” she said, describing Moreno as a “a true conservative, and I am confident that he will fiercely defend the American values that make our country so special”:
The clear divide between those supporting the establishment candidate and the conservative candidate became even clearer after Trump jumped into the mix. Notably, Moreno was not among those who waited to gauge the political temperature before endorsing Trump for president, doing so in February of last year.
In December, Trump formally endorsed Moreno, describing him as “exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need in the United States Senate.”
This week, Trump’s campaign announced he would appear at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, in support of Moreno, just days ahead of the Tuesday primary. And on Wednesday, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another of Moreno’s backers, announced that she will be in attendance as well:
Support for Moreno in the conservative movement does not end there, either, as former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has also campaigned for Moreno, describing him as an “America-First patriot”:
Moreno spoke to Breitbart News last July, where he predicted Trump would be the GOP nominee and also detailed his fight on taking on the establishment.
“They know that I’m not gonna go down to D.C. to just toe the line and the same old, same old. They know that I’m gonna go down there to actually change things, not just tweak things,” Moreno said, describing D.C. as “fundamentally broken.”
“We don’t have a government that’s working for us the way it should be. So we’re really going to change things,” he said, stressing the need to “blow up” the system in the swamp.
