OXFORD, Ohio — The three Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate took center stage in their final debate before the March 19 Ohio primary election.
State Senator Matt Dolan, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and businessman Bernie Moreno are seeking the Republican nomination. The winner of the primary will challenge three-term incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in the November General Election.
Dolan, Moreno and LaRose sprinkled barbs at each other throughout the 60-minute debate at Miami University in Oxford, but largely focused on their stances on the issues, including securing the southern border.
"Three military divisions could secure the border," LaRose said. "They don't need to be there very long, eight months maybe 12 until the wall can be completed. We must make it clear that if you are here illegally, you will be deported."
"If you cross into the country illegally, you are immediately returned," Moreno said. "You aren't arrested. You're not detained. You're just immediately returned, and you forfeit your right to make that asylum claim for life."
"I'm the only one in this race who has called for securing and sealing the border, which means we are temporarily closing the border to immigration because we need to build a wall, we need to get technology, we need to give border patrol more authority to act," Dolan said.
All three Republicans bill themselves as "pro-life" but have varying stances on abortion.
"Let's get to a 15-week standard where after 15 weeks, there are some common sense restrictions so that in this country, the greatest country on earth, we don't have elective late-term abortions," Moreno said.
"I have never deviated from the fact that we need to have three exceptions; life of the mother, rape and incest," Dolan said.
"We need to be supportive of women that are making difficult choices to make sure that they can make those life-affirming choices like having a child and giving that child up for adoption," LaRose said. "We also need to make sure the cost of starting a family isn't so prohibitive for people."
With prices of so many things, such as groceries, still high, they also have different ideas on how to help people with the everyday cost of living.
"What we need to do in Washington is what we did here in Ohio, and that's put more money in the taxpayers' pockets," Dolan said. "That means helping small businesses."
"We need to cut taxes, streamline regulations," LaRose said. "We need to be not just energy independent, but energy dominant. That means drill for oil, drill for gas, mine for coal."
"We have to unleash the engine of prosperity, which is our marketplace," Moreno said. "We have to make sure we have a regulatory environment that doesn't crush businesses,"
When asked what is one hot-button issue on which they could reach across the aisle to get something done, Dolan pointed to securing the border, LaRose said cutting spending and Moreno said enacting term limits.