Ohio’s Republican candidate for US Senate started a week-long bus trip through the Monday, in the hopes of raising his profile and name recognition as he runs against well-known Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown. Northeast Ohio businessman Bernie Moreno kicked off the tour in Chillicothe talking about immigration, inflation and global instability and met with supporters and opponents.
A few dozen supporters trickled into the Ross County GOP headquarters for coffee, donuts and the launch of the bus tour by Moreno, who arrived at the event early.
Moreno spent a lot of money to win the May primary, and Brown has both raised and spent significantly more than Moreno since then. But Moreno said he’s just getting started.
“In polls right now, we're either even, down two or down four. We were down five, six and eight," Moreno said. "So now we're going to open a can of whup-ass on him and we'll see a big jump in the polls. But we’re going to do it when people are paying attention.”
After speaking to reporters outside the small building on a Chillicothe corner, Moreno crossed the street to talk to a few Democratic protestors holding signs that read "Bernie Moreno stiffed his employees", relating to a payout to he made to former employees who sued him for wage theft in 2017.
Williams said he didn’t represent his Chillicothe church, which doesn’t oppose or endorse candidates, but was speaking out for himself.
“I'm frustrated because Bernie Moreno has harmed workers. He's bad for Ohioans. He's bad for this community," Williams said. "We refuse to pretend that he's been good for workers. We refuse to pretend that he hasn't been in all kinds of legal trouble. And I just can't vote for a man like that.”
Moreno, who told the protestors that "the workers are going to vote for me", has said he paid the $400,000 to the former employees who sued him even though he disagreed with the verdict.
Moreno spoke before a few dozen supporters packed into the building, including 19-year-old Dalton Drake, who came with his grandfather. He said there’s a big issue he’s concerned about.
“Probably the war in Ukraine," Drake said. "I don't want to go fight a war like that. If someone had done something to our country, I was being more willing to go fight someplace. But not in a situation like Ukraine, when it's really just Russia and Ukraine.”
Also at the event was Tania Menedez of Chillicothe, retired from the county sheriff’s office. She showed off two Trump-themed tattoos, one of which she got after attending the Jan. 6, 2021 rally that became an attack on the US Capitol.
“I was a January 6th-er. I'm 100% Trump. I will take a bullet for that man," Menedez said.
She said Moreno’s comments supporting Trump means he has her vote.
"All I can do is hope and believe. Just listening to his, him talking to the crowd," Menedez said. "I think he's right there with it. He better be. He better be, or he’ll be voted out if he gets voted back in.”
Some of those at the event signed Moreno’s tour bus, which will criss-cross Ohio this week, going mostly to Republican areas like Chillicothe but also including a few blue-leaning areas as well. It ends with a town hall in Lucas County Saturday.
