Bernie Moreno ... not Trump-y enough for Ohio

Bernie Moreno should have been a contender. Instead, he has dropped out of the race for Ohio’s Senate seat after spending millions of his own money and never reaching even fifth place in polls of the Republican primary. It’s a story with a lesson, a very sad lesson.

Moreno, age 54, declared last year for the seat now held by Ohio Republican Rob Portman. Portman’s seat had previously been held by former Cleveland Mayor George Voinovich, another Republican; before Voinovich, by the former astronaut John Glenn, a Democrat; before John Glenn, by the real-estate developer Howard Metzenbaum, also a Democrat.

Moreno was a candidate in the mold of those predecessors. Like them, he was hugely accomplished in private life. In his case, he built one of the nation’s largest networks of auto dealerships, then in 2018 founded an Ohio-based technology incubator, Ownum. Before joining the Republican primary, Moreno, like those previous Ohio senators, espoused fundamentally moderate politics. He backed John Kasich for governor in 2010 and 2014, then Marco Rubio for president in 2016. Only at the last minute did Moreno realize he needed to jump aboard the train of Trump radicalism and nihilism. His catchup leap was spectacular, and spectacularly unsuccessful.

On November 7, 2020, Moreno tweeted congratulations to newly elected President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for their “hard fought victory.” In a separate tweet, he urged fellow Republicans to accept the decision of 140 million votes cast. He used the hashtag #ElectionisOver, and urged unity and an eye to rebuilding for the future. Moreno has since deleted those tweets. But he could never quite bring himself to endorse Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

More

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/bernie-moreno-republican-ohio-senate-race/621490/