Gov. Ron DeSantis will enter the fray on Friday in a brutal, historically expensive Ohio Senate race between a popular Democrat incumbent and a new conservative hopeful locked in a dead heat race that could decide the Senate majority party.
The Florida Governor will attend Republican candidate Bernie Moreno's 2:30 p.m. rally in Defiance, Ohio in hopes of throwing just enough of his political weight behind the Columbian businessman to tip the scales against Sen. Sherrod Brown, the progressive incumbent backed by former Republican Ohio Governor Bob Taft (descendant of President William Howard Taft).
This will be DeSantis' first trip to the state since his failed presidential bid. Of note, and perhaps why Moreno invited him to speak, he has Midwestern roots and was generally widely liked in the Buckeye State.
“This is a person that we can adopt here in Ohio as our own,” said Summit County GOP Chairman Bryan Williams, introducing him before an audience of several hundred at the county's Lincoln Day breakfast, NBC reported last April, one month before he threw his hat in the presidential ring.
The Brown v. Moreno clash has drawn more ad spending than any other Senate race in history, set to soon exceed $500 million, according to AdImpact. Brown has just over $4.4 million in cash on hand after raising over $84 million, compared to Moreno's $2.6 million cash on hand and raked-in $24.6 million. However, Moreno has the MAGA world support willing to help finance his campaign.
Brown does not. Why?
Because Ohio, a former battleground state like Florida that went red for former President Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020, is expected to throw its 17 electoral votes behind the Republican nominee once more. And Brown is a liberal anomaly in the red machine; besides former President Barack Obama, the 71-year-old is the only Democrat to have won multiple statewide elections in Ohio in the last 30 years.
This speaks to one of his new campaign tactics: running ads highlighting where he and Trump have common ground, like anti-fentanyl legislation, NBC reported. Trump, for his part, has insisted that Brown is "not his friend."
57-year-old Moreno, meanwhile, is busy campaigning with the MAGAville troupe of Donald Trump, Jr. and Sen. Lindsay Graham (the oft-tugged-around Senate majority leader who has—once again—fallen in line with Trump). He has blasted Brown for support of preferred pronouns, using a similar attack that Trump has used against Vice President Kamala Harris:
"Sherrod is for they/them, and I'm for Ohio," he said in a Tuesday interview, echoing the Trump line "Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you."
There are 34 Senate seats up for election this year—which may jeopardize Democrats' razor-thin majority of 51 to 49 (including the four liberal-aligned Independents). Republicans need only flip three of these to win control of the Senate, and considering nearly all polling shows the Ohio race is a statistical tie, the vulnerable Brown and Senate Democrats may be in trouble.
Other possible Republican flips include the West Virginia seat of the retiring Independent Joe Manchin, which is expected to go to the Republicans. Another is three-term Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) who is trying to beat back Navy Seal Tim Sheehy in the Trump-loving state.
Overall, nine incumbent Senators are not seeking reelection this year: five Democrats, two Republicans, and two Independents. While the Democrat Senator leaving office in California can likely rest assured that her seat is safe from the Republicans, closer states like Arizona and Michigan will present a tough battle for Democrats.
In Florida, Democrats are hopeful that former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell can unseat incumbent Republican Rick Scott in the reddened state, pointing to striking distance poll margins that may pave the way for an upset.
The election is Nov. 5.
