This week, vulnerable Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio released an ad that has been panned for engaging in negative stereotypes about auto dealers. His Republican opponent, Bernie Moreno, was a successful auto dealer whose campaign bio notes he "purchased his first car dealership in 2005 and grew that one dealership into one of the largest dealership groups in America, eventually employing over 1,000 Ohioans."
Brown's ad, however, instead peddles negative sentiments, with Cleveland.com describing the ad as including a narrator "against a cheesy, promotional audio backdrop." The article also features comments from three auto dealers in the business, who take great offense at Brown smearing their industry and fellow Ohioans in the process:
While not using these exact words, they say it traffics in exhausted stereotypes about car salesmen, and called for Brown to shift gears from his tireless attacks on the industry.
“Sherrod Brown’s comments – aimed at earning cheap political points – are a slap in the face to hardworking Ohioans in the auto sales industry across our state,” fumed Tim Glockner of Portsmouth.
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Moreno’s campaign on Friday shared statements with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer from three auto dealers who say the ads are insulting to auto dealers and their employees. Two of them – Joseph Chapman of Marysville and David Wyler of Canal Winchester – have given thousands to Moreno’s campaign while Glockner gave to a Political Action Committee supporting one of Moreno’s vanquished GOP primary opponents, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
“His comments are insulting to the hundreds of thousands of hardworking employees who work for auto dealers,” Wyler said.
“Thousands of Ohioans are employed in various capacities across the auto industry, and our senior senator chose to mock our jobs on the airwaves. Sherrod Brown has never had a job outside of government and has no idea what it takes,” Chapman said.
A press release from Moreno's campaign featured extended remarks from those fellow auto dealers, Jeff Wyler and Joseph Chapman.
"Sherrod Brown's latest ad is as out of touch as a politician can be. His comments are insulting to the hundreds of thousands of hardworking employees who work for auto dealers. As he represents our state in Washington, he would do well to learn how hard Ohio auto dealers work instead of using our work as a political punchline," Wyler insisted.
Chapman also declared that Brown "should apologize to all of us for these despicable comments."
A statement from Moreno also turned the claims of untrustworthiness against Brown himself. "Sherrod Brown, a 50-year career politician, is who Ohio voters should distrust. His despicable ad mocking auto dealers and their tens of thousands of hardworking employees is wildly out-of-touch," he said. "Brown owes a sincere apology to thousands of hardworking Ohioans for this disgusting, cheap insult."
The ad is not just noteworthy for how it has been panned as "despicable," but also for the amount of money Brown has spent to go for such a negative angle. "The ad attacking Moreno is the first negative ad of this campaign from Brown, a longtime Democrat who has reserved more than $41 million in ads through the November election, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political ads," with the ad airing statewide. It's "the largest investment out of any incumbent Senator this cycle," per AdImpact.
Brown is running in one of the "Toss-Up" races for the 2024 Senate cycle. Control of the Senate could very well come down to this race. Former and potentially future President Donald Trump endorsed Moreno early on in the race, doing so last December. Trump won Ohio by about 8 points in 2016 and 2020 and is expected to potentially win the state by an even larger margin in 2024, with Moreno likely benefiting from Trump also appearing on the ballot.
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