Tipsheet

Moreno Campaign Pushes Back on ‘Disgusting Lie’ From LaRose Campaign

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  January 28, 2024 8:00 AM

The Ohio Republican Primary will be taking place on March 19, and while it's possible Donald Trump may already be the presidential nominee by then, Ohioans still have to select the Republican nominee they're looking for to retire Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, state Sen. Matt Dolan, and businessman Bernie Moreno are all in the running, with LaRose and Moreno both going at it on the pro-life issue.

As Paula Bolyard at our sister site of PJ Media highlighted, pointing to coverage from the Buckeye Reporter, 990 forms for the time that Moreno sat on the board of the Cleveland Foundation, show that the foundation donated millions of dollars to Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, the Center for Reproductive Rights, the Equality Ohio Education Fund, the ACLU of Ohio, and the J Street Education Fund. As Paul also noted, the Cleveland Foundation, "which issues hundreds of grants every year, donated to conservative causes as well."

A spokeswoman for the Moreno campaign, Reagan McCarthy, provided a statement to PJ Media as well as Townhall. "This is a disgusting lie from a desperate career politician. In the words of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, Frank LaRose will lie through his teeth to get political power. Board members do not get voting power over grant decisions in a donor-advised fund," she said. Vance is Ohio's Republican senator who replaced former Sen. Rob Portman, a fellow Republican who declined to run again for the 2022 election and who has endorsed Moreno. "Unequivocally, Bernie never voted for any of the grants mentioned," she added.

LaRose spokesperson Ben Kindel also provided a statement, noting "Bernie Moreno is a fraud who caved to his woke corporate elite buddies. He sat on the board of a foundation for six years as they funneled money into dangerous liberal woke pet projects without his protest. He’s either an ineffective pushover or a liar — neither of which would make a good senator."

The LaRose War Room account has been highlighting the supposedly less than pro-life positions of Dolan and Moreno. This included highlighting those concerns outlined by the Buckeye Reporter.

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When it comes to these donor-advised funds, they are there to allocate funds at the wishes of the donors, and the board members themselves do not get a vote. "A donor-advised fund is a private fund administered by a third party and created for the purpose of managing charitable donations on behalf of an organization, a family, or an individual," Investopedia explained.

Moreno has not held public office before, and he's used his political outsider status as a positive, including and especially in his campaign ads. He's also expressed pro-life views during the campaign.

He spoke at Ohio's Right to Life last October, and spoke out against a pro-abortion ballot initative. He also celebrated the one-year anniversary of the Dobbs v. Jackson decision last June, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

LaRose has also championed himself as a pro-life advocate, including and especially when it came to opposing the same pro-aborion initative, known as Issue 1, which ultimately passed last November. He also had a pro-life record, which including sponsoring pro-life legislation to ban abortions targeting unborn babies diagnosed with Down syndrome, when he served in the Ohio State Senate.

In addition to Vance and other Republican senators, Moreno has the endorsement of Trump, which came last December, after he had already been sharing positive words about him since around the time he entered the race last April.

The Ohio race is currently considered a top race, if not the top race to watch for 2024 Senate races. Republican have a particularly good chance of gaining control of the Senate when it comes to the vulnerable seats that Democrats are defending, especially in comparison to 2022. Forecasters currently consider the race to be a "Toss-Up."