COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican businessman Bernie Moreno is projected by the Associated Press to win the highly contested U.S. Senate race in Ohio against incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Moreno will now take Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat which Brown has held since 2007.
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Trump-backed Moreno came back this year for his second attempt at winning the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate after falling short in 2022 to JD Vance. In March, he defeated Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in the Republican primary to secure his spot in the general election.
In the race, Moreno has pitched himself as a political outsider and immigrant whose family built its way out of rudimentary beginnings in the U.S. thanks to the American dream.
Moreno built his fortune as a luxury car dealer and blockchain entrepreneur. He will be among the top eight wealthiest U.S. senators, based on the most recent data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, with an estimated net worth between $25.5 million and $105.7 million.
Moreno’s business background and wealth helped him win over Trump during a contentious GOP primary this spring that included questions about a profile created with Moreno’s email account on an adult website – a profile Moreno’s lawyer said was created by a former intern as a prank. Moreno retained support from Trump during the controversy and was given a coveted speaking spot at the Republican National Convention.
The Morenos started their family in the U.S., where Bernardo Sr. did his surgical residency at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1950s. Their first three children were born in Philadelphia but raised in Bogota, where Bernardo was a medical school dean, a leading advocate for Colombia’s surgeons and then the equivalent of Colombian secretary of health.
Bernie, or Bernardo Jr., the youngest of seven children, was about five when the family moved to Florida. Before entering politics, Bernie Moreno described his mother as coming from “outsized privilege” and says she emigrated because she didn’t want her children to be raised in ”an entitled way.” Bernie Moreno became a U.S. citizen at 18.