CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — Republican U.S. Senate nominee Bernie Moreno has been barnstorming across Ohio this week as part of his "Defend America" bus tour. He kicked things off in Chillicothe Monday morning, with a stump speech hammering Democrats' policy failures, real or imagined. In his telling, unlawful immigration is a millstone around the country's neck and a threat to the ballot box. The path to success is "energy dominance," and we’ll get there by burning fossil fuels like natural gas — not incentivizing electric vehicles.
To Moreno, Washington D.C. suburbs have grown more affluent than Ohio cities not because of fundamental shifts in the U.S. economy, but "because the amount of money that is spent bribing — and yes, I said that — bribing our elected officials." He contends an abandoned Trump administration effort to move federal agencies away from the nation's capital could reverse that trend.
Who's he running against?
One topic conspicuously absent from Moreno's speech? His Democratic opponent, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. Speaking to reporters, Moreno attempted to draw a contrast with Brown's campaign. While the senator attacks him personally, Moreno said, he plans to stay above that.
"I think people are sick and tired of the politics of personal destruction," he said. "What I'm going to focus on is his voting record."
In fairness, without a voting record of his own, Moreno's opponents were bound to scrutinize his business record and personal wealth. In a statement, Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Smith wrote that "the fat cat is out of the bag when it comes to Bernie Moreno's long record putting himself ahead of workers." Referencing wage theft and discrimination lawsuits against Moreno in Massachusetts and his car dealerships selling Chinese-made cars she argued, "Ohioans see that Moreno won't fight for them because he's only out for himself."
Speaking to roughly 70 voters, Moreno did accuse Brown of covering up what he characterized as President Joe Biden's mental decline and suggested he "will hide like a scared rat" if Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris campaigns in Ohio. (Across the street, Democrats had set up a 15-foot inflatable "fat cat.") But the bulk of his ire was directed at Harris herself.
Increasing immigration? Higher prices at the grocery store? The war in Ukraine? Moreno laid it all at the feet of Harris.
"The case for me is very simple," Moreno said. "You need outsiders to fix Washington, D.C. These career politicians that want to die in office? We've got to get rid of those people."
"We have to unite this country," he argued, before adding, "You know, there's no military on Earth that could have done more destruction to this country than what the far left has done."
Peeling back Moreno's immigration claims
Immigration to the U.S. has gone up, and encounters with law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high at the end of 2023. Importantly, encounters aren't necessarily entries, and since then, they've dropped sharply. The latest figures from U.S. Customs and Border Protection saw June’s encounters dip below that month’s totals in the previous three years.
According to Moreno, undocumented people in the U.S. live a life bolstered by free services including education, health care, food and housing.
In reality, while kids get access to K-12 schools, there's no guarantee for post-secondary education. In Ohio, DACA recipients qualify for in-state tuition and some universities offer scholarships, but students are not eligible for federal financial aid. Undocumented people also face substantial hurdles getting anything other than emergency health care, because they're ineligible for Medicaid or ACA marketplace coverage. There are hurdles as well for housing assistance, but some programs can provide help. Food support, however, is unavailable for undocumented people.
Meanwhile, a report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy tallied $96.7 billion in taxes paid by undocumented workers in 2022. In Ohio, those workers paid $265 million. The authors note about a third of that total funds programs the workers themselves aren’t eligible to receive. They add that blanket work authorization could generate an additional $40 billion in tax receipts through increases in wages and reduction in under-the-table work.
Moreno went a step further, flirting with "great replacement" rhetoric.
"I'm sick and tired of watching this country reward people who broke our laws," Moreno told the Chillicothe crowd. "What does Kamala Harris want? She wants to make them citizens, right? Because of course she wants voters. She wants more people dependent on the government."
He argued immigrants are fine if they come to the U.S. "on our terms," assimilate and learn English. Notably even for those who go through the yearslong process to become a naturalized citizen, it isn't necessarily smooth sailing to the ballot box.
"What am I going to do? The same thing we would do if somebody broke in their own home," Moreno said.
"What are we going to do?” he asked the crowd, to answering chorus of "kick them out."
"I have no other choice," he told them.
Early this year, of course, Republicans scuttled a bipartisan immigration reform bill at the urging of former President Donald Trump.
Peeling back his energy claims
Echoing a favorite talking point of Donald Trump, Moreno argued the way to bring down inflation is to boost energy production. U.S. oil production reached an all-time high in 2023.
"The price of meat and poultry and fish and pork is so crazy. I want to lower that," he said. "How do we do that? America is going to be — listen to this carefully — America is going to be the greatest, most powerful energy nation on the planet."
The argument goes, increasing output will lower energy costs, which in turn brings down the overhead for other goods producers. The problem is economists are skeptical about how much lower energy costs will impact consumer prices overall. There's the added complication that lower energy costs aren't necessarily good news for energy producers. Brookings Institute researchers explain the cost of oil is a product of global markets and producers would likely slow their output if prices fell dramatically.
Researchers focusing on oil and gas production in Appalachia meanwhile argue while the fracking boom has been good for corporate profits, the benefit to communities in terms of jobs and wages have been comparatively muted. In a recent report, the Ohio River Valley Institute noted the country's largest natural gas producers in 2020 actually had fewer employees than it did ten years earlier when it was the 25th-largest producer.
Adding to the narrow impact of energy production, Ohio charges a relatively low severance tax. Currently the state charges 10 cents for a barrel of oil and 2.5 cents for a thousand cubic feet of gas. Policy Matters Ohio lobbied for a flat 5% tax on the production value in 2014 (for comparison, Texas charges 7.5% for natural gas and 4.6% for oil). In 2021, they noted that change could've netted the state $1.2 billion.
Meanwhile, Moreno criticized the Inflation Reduction Act's $7,500 electric vehicle credits. He asked the crowd how much they wanted to spend subsidizing millionaires' car purchases. When they said nothing, Moreno replied, "We just saved a trillion dollars."
"And by the way, that's the right number,” he added. "The incentives that we’re paying out for electric vehicles, if it continues to weigh goes is a trillion dollars."
While it's true that the costs for the IRA's tax credits have far out-stripped projections, EV credits don't come anywhere close to $1 trillion. According to a Tax Foundation analysis, they clock in at about $180 billion and even that total is spread over the next 10 years. Moreno may have arrived at the $1 trillion figure by attributing the sum total of the measure's tax credits to the EV program.
As for subsidizing millionaires, it's possible they could get a break, but not if they're reporting significant annual income. The measure includes an income cutoff of $300,000 for married couples.
Red meat?
Amid the anti-immigrant and "drill baby drill" red meat, Moreno offered a comically dystopian Democratic future — one without any red meat at all. He argued, incorrectly, that Kamala Harris "wants to ban red meat."
She does not.
During a CNN town hall in 2019, Harris voiced support for changing federal dietary guidelines to encourage healthier eating habits. Even as Harris praised incentives and education on healthy diets and the environmental impact of food production, she added, "I mean just to be very honest with you, I love cheeseburgers from time to time."
Voters' reaction
The most consistent reaction from those present was support for Moreno's immigration rhetoric. Local electeds emphasized the way border policy intersects with the opioid crisis.
"We're a community that has been really, really impacted by fentanyl," Ross County Republican party chair and county commission candidate David Glass said. "We know where that stuff is being made, and where it's coming from, and border security is paramount."
State Rep. Bob Peterson, R-Selina, echoed that point arguing unlawful immigration is, "costing taxpayers in Ohio, in Ross County money. It's taking away jobs, and it’s creating crime issues that wouldn’t have existed if they weren't here illegally."
The vast majority of illicit fentanyl seized while smugglers attempt to bring it across the border happens at official ports of entry; those smugglers tend to be U.S. citizens, not illegal immigrants.
After the Moreno's speech, Philip Starr said, "We're being overrun by these illegal immigrants coming in, and I don't think this country can sustain this."
He waved off the taxes paid by undocumented people and refused to couch his opposition in concerns about drugs.
"Oh, I mind the people and the drugs," he said.
Across the street next to the inflatable fat cat, the Rev. Terry Williams argued even if Moreno and other Republicans have their eye on the right problem, they're not offering the right solutions.
"As a pastor who has sat with countless families in the fentanyl crisis, countless families who have lost children to overdoses, I can tell you the No. 1 problem we have in this community with fentanyl are people not having access to good paying jobs.
"The problem with fentanyl in this community is a lack of community resources," he added. "It's a lack of tax dollars."
Moreno's bus tour continues throughout this week and into the weekend. In addition to visiting Chillicothe, he's been to Marietta and the Mahoning Valley, as well as notching stops in Canton and along Lake Erie. Friday, he'll be in Central Ohio, before making a swing through Dayton and Lima on Saturday."
