On a clear afternoon last week, Bernie Moreno’s gigantic red bus pulled into the parking lot of Genoa Baptist Church. The Republican Party’s U.S. Senate candidate was on hand for his “Battleground Talkers Tour” featuring conservative radio personalities such as Hugh Hewitt and Bruce Hooley. But before he went inside, Moreno spoke to several dozen fans preparing to come out and knock on doors. Dressed in a patterned blue suit with a red tie and matching socks, he described visiting an elementary school on Columbus’ west side.
“I said, what would you like to know about me? One kid raised his hand and said, “I don’t need to know anything about you, sir, all I know is that Sherrod Brown is too liberal for Ohio,” parroting the campaign ads that have dominated television for weeks.
“If a six-year-old can get it, I think the rest of the electorate can get it, too,” he said, joking that the campaign may have “overdone it” with ad purchases on Disney+.
The canvassing campaign was organized by Americans for Prosperity Action, the political arm of the Koch-funded 501(c)(4) Americans for Prosperity. AFP Action also operates two sister organizations – Libre Action, which focuses on Latino communities, and CVA Action, which focuses on veterans. Libre’s Lair Marin-Marcum praised Moreno.
“Bernie is the best choice right now,” she told the salespeople. “Not just for the Latino community, for all communities to really make the changes that are sorely needed in Ohio.”
The next day, Moreno was in Summit County with CVA Action, which Brown supporters criticized for supporting a plan that would close the Chillicothe VA hospital.
AFP Action senior adviser Donovan O’Neil explained that the group had already knocked on around 770,000 doors, with plans to cross the 1 million mark by Election Day.
Lighting a fire
Moreno was joined by Secretary of State Frank LaRose and U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall, a Republican from Kansas. LaRose favored early voting, which, according to the party’s banner, has not always been part of the Republican formula.
“I think the word has gotten out that if the other side votes for four weeks and we only vote for one day, it will be a problem for us,” he said.
He added that this is a good way to remove salespeople from the lists in the form of a kind of stage whisper that can reach voters’ doors. LaRose also highlighted the fact that just a few months ago he was Moreno’s opponent in the GOP primary.
“I can tell you that you don’t know how tough someone is until you go a few rounds with them,” LaRose said. “And this man is tough. This is the guy we need to send to Washington.”
He argued that Moreno would better represent “Ohio values” and support ensure a Republican majority that would fire Chuck Schumer and implement Donald Trump’s agenda.
Senator Marshall was there to add weight to the anti-trans attack ads that Moreno’s supporters relied on in the final weeks of the campaign. Marshall co-authored the amendments cited in these ads and argued that “95% of Buckeyes” oppose allowing transgender people to play sports or employ restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
“I haven’t met anyone yet who would look me in the eye and say, ‘Oh, I’m totally okay with that,’” he said.
Recent Baldwin Wallace Poll suggests that a gigantic majority of Ohioans are uncomfortable providing gender-affirming care to minors, allowing trans athletes to play sports or employ public restrooms consistent with their identity. However, while this majority was high, ranging from 64% to 73% (with a 4-point margin of error), it was not even close to the 95% suggested by Marshall.
Fact checkers did this too he rejected his characterization Senator Brown’s votes for allowing trans athletes to participate in girls’ sports. Youth sports eligibility is not really Congress’ job. Instead, Brown voted against amendments to broader budget bills that would have tied money for schools to policies prohibiting such participation.
Notably, Ohio has passed legislation imposing the bans that Marshall and other Republicans are calling for.
Marshall pointed to “more important issues” like the economy and jobs, but insisted that trans athletes’ participation in youth sports was a litmus test of sorts.
“If a person can’t handle something quite simple, in my opinion, like boys and girls sports, then he has no interest in being the next president of the United States and he has no interest in representing the Buckeyes,” Marshall argued. “It is indeed, indeed, that Sherrod Brown is too liberal for Ohio.”
Moreno argued that Brown had not campaigned as intensely, listing a list of fall festivals and punctuating each one with “Sherrod Brown, nowhere to be seen.” But like Marshall, he worked strenuous to explain and justify his position.
Brown repeatedly attacked Moreno on the abortion issue. In response, Moreno insisted: “My opponent is not interested in uniting the country. He is only interested in this issue as a political weapon and we will not allow him to do so.”
Moreno previously described himself as “100% pro-life, no exceptions,” but recently embraced the idea of a 15-week ban nationwide, with the exception of incest involving rape or the life of the mother. His campaign is also gaining momentum after a video surfaced in which he called it “kind of crazy” that older women are basing their votes on abortion policy.
In an interview with Washington Times.he tried to defuse the controversy by diagramming the sentence – madness was about an idea, he said, not a person.
Preaching to the choir
When the politicians finished speaking to them, O’Neil took the microphone and reminded the crowd that they were an action organization and encouraged everyone to “grab your door hangers, get out and knock on doors.”
O’Neil himself started in a neighborhood a few minutes away that had relatively fresh, high-end homes. Trees planted at regular intervals began to take on color, and the sidewalks were covered with red and gold leaves.
Holding a gigantic stack of pro-Moreno door hangers, O’Neil explained that the voters they were targeting were not strongly oriented toward one party or the other.
“Yes, these are people who can be persuaded,” he said, “and from the conversations we had at the door, you get that impression.”
They arrive at their lists by reviewing voter history, election results and demographic information to narrow the pool of voters to those who can be persuaded. But at this behind schedule stage, O’Neil acknowledged that voters’ perceptions of the candidates had likely begun to crystallize.
When he started knocking on the door, it became obvious.
After hanging posters in several houses where there were no people, he arrived at Paul Stokell’s house. Stokell was warm and willing to chat, but at least explained to him that O’Neil had arrived too behind schedule – Stokell had already voted. O’Neil was actually looking for Stokell’s wife and children, neither of whom were home, but Stokell assured him that his wife planned to vote early and was encouraging her children to do so as well.
O’Neil asked if Stokell would be willing to share who he voted for, to which Stokell replied that he voted for the regular Republican ticket.
“You know, I think changes were definitely needed with the Senate race,” he said, adding later in the vote: “I think we basically had to be consistent.”
A few doors down, a woman named Connie, who didn’t want to give her last name, explained that she had already voted, too. She described herself as someone who has supported Democrats in the past but has been rejected by the current administration.
“Biden and Harris went in there and she ruined everything,” she said. – I think so.
It wasn’t entirely clear, but it looked like Connie voted for Barack Obama but quickly became bitter with the party. She was hesitant to vote for Brown in previous U.S. Senate races and was adamant that she did not support Bill Clinton.
“Like I said, before the Obama administration, we didn’t vote exclusively Republican,” she explained. “And then he didn’t do anything and it just changed our minds. We didn’t vote for him and nothing has been done since then.”
She didn’t express any particular praise for Moreno, but said, “I’m going to vote for anyone who follows Trump because I like what Trump represents.”
“No matter what anyone says about him, I think he has a good heart,” Connie said of Donald Trump. “He stands up for the nation, and foreign leaders fear him. This is what we need.”
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