CLEVELAND — Republican Bernie Moreno will be Ohio’s new U.S. Senator, after unseating incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown on Tuesday. Moreno won a little over 50% of the vote, flipping the seat red for the first time since 2006 and helping Republicans gain control of the entire Senate.
Justin Buchler, an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University, tells 3News he doesn’t believe the Moreno win was a big surprise.
“Sherrod Brown has a bunch of defenders who pretend that he has some sort of magic pixie dust to allow him to win a state that no Democrat can win,” said Buchler. “No, there is no such thing as magic pixie dust. He got very lucky on the timing of his campaigns, and that allowed him to win reelection in a year like 2018. This was the year the bill came due.”
Buchler points out that Ohioans have shifted further Republican over the course of Sherrod Brown’s last term, and frustrations with the Biden administration didn’t set Brown up for success as a Democrat. Still, he says the future is unclear.
“Ohio still has enough Democrats that under certain circumstances, a Democrat could win. But it clearly leans towards the Republican Party, which means that in most years, in an ordinary year, Ohio will generally vote for the Republican,” said Buchler.
Buchler argues Ohioans will elect Democrats if a certain combination of circumstances align.
“For example, going into the 2026 midterm, there will be a Republican president. If there is a very bad economy with an incumbent Republican president in a midterm election, that would mean that national conditions might strongly favor Democrats and the Democrats could win,” said Buchler.
Case Western Reserve University Professor Karen Beckwith tells 3News it’s also important to keep in mind Ohio demographics when looking at future changes.
“We're an interesting state, we’re the seventh most populated state in the United States, we have industry, we have agriculture. We have a range of educational institutions. We have probably every nationality in the state, as, as immigrants, immigrating at some point in history,” said Beckwith. “It strikes me that there's room for perhaps a different set of candidates on both sides.”
