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By Pulse Staff
Businessman Bernie Moreno-R will square off with incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown-D in November. The Ohio Primary Election on Tuesday, March 19 ended with Moreno garnering nearly 50 percent of the vote.
The Ohio U.S. Senate GOP matchup was a big race nationally with many calling it a “divisive proxy race between Trump loyalists and the state’s more traditional conservatives,” according to CBS news. CNN calls the Brown vs Moreno race “ground zero” for control of the U.S. Senate.
Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and businessman Bernie Moreno faced each other three times before the vote in two debates and one forum, which was hosted at the University of Findlay and produced by Spectrum News 1. The forum at UF was on Feb. 19, two days before early voting started in Ohio.
There are 8 million registered voters in Ohio. The Secretary of State’s office posted early voting numbers last week showing data collected through Monday, March 11 in all 88 county boards of elections. There was a 75 percent return rate on absentee ballots with 347,489 requested and 259,988 returned.
Early voting in-person leaned heavily on the republican side with 82,264 of them voting early, 52,743 democrats voting early and 2,376 non-partisan or independent voters.
Moreno was endorsed by former president Donald Trump who made a campaign stop in Dayton, Ohio this past Saturday. Dolan had the support of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine-R, former senator Rob Portman-R and Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn-R.
State Rep. Derek Merrin-R will take on U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur-D, for the Congressional Ninth Dist., in November. Kaptur has been representing the Toledo area since 1983 making her the longest-serving woman in congressional history, according to Ohio Capital Journal.
Merrin ran against former Napoleon mayor Steve Lankenau and former state Rep. Craig Riedel for the GOP nomination.
You can find more election results at the Ohio Secretary of State website. The general election is Nov. 5.
