Trump-backed Republican Bernie Moreno defeats incumbent US Sen. Sherrod Brown in key Ohio race

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republicans prevailed Tuesday in a must-win Senate race in Ohio, as Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno defeated Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown to help shift control of the chamber to the GOP.

With spending that hit $500 million, it was the most expensive Senate race this year and perhaps in U.S. history.

Moreno, 57, who was born in Colombia, will be the first Latino to represent Ohio in the Senate. He won in the Republican-leaning state with a campaign that cast Brown as “too liberal for Ohio,” barraging airwaves with sometimes misleading and occasionally false claims about Brown’s votes related to immigration and transgender athletes. Moreno also worked successfully to tie Brown, a third-term incumbent, to President Joe Biden and his vice president, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, on border security.

During an acceptance speech in Cleveland, Moreno pledged to serve all Ohioans and to work to win over those who voted against him.

“We talked about wanting a red wave. I think what we have tonight is a red, white and blue wave,” he said. “Because what we need in the United States of America is leaders in Washington, D.C., that actually put the interests of American citizens above all else. We're tired of being treated like second-class citizens in our own country. We're tired of leaders that think we're garbage and we're tired of being treated like garbage.”

His win was lauded by the National Rifle Association and Ohio Right to Life, which both backed his campaign.

Brown’s defeat marked another win for a candidate endorsed by the former president, whose backing in the state lifted “Hillbilly Elegy” author JD Vance into politics and on to become his vice presidential running mate. Trump appeared in ads for Moreno in the final days of the campaign, and the candidate thanked him Tuesday and praised him as the best president of his generation.

“Thank you for your sacrifices that you've made for this country,” Moreno said, addressing Trump. “This country owes Donald Trump a debt of gratitude. And the Senator JD Vance. Ohio loves you, man, Ohio loves you. I love you.”

He called Vance a “brilliant pick” for vice president, and joked of quickly becoming Ohio's senior senator if the Trump-Vance ticket wins the presidency.

About 4 in 10 voters in Ohio’s Senate election said that party control of the chamber was the single most important factor in their vote, while about half said it was an important factor, according to AP VoteCast, an expansive survey of more than 3,700 voters in the state. Voters favoring Brown were as likely to say this as voters for Moreno.

Brown, 71, one of Ohio’s longest serving and best known politicians, had sought to appeal to Trump crossover voters by emphasizing his work with presidents of both parties and to woo independents and Democrats by promoting his efforts to boost middle class workers.

He told supporters Tuesday night that his beliefs in the dignity of work and the power of people over corporate special interests will never change.

“This is a disappointment, but it is not a failure,” Brown said. “It will never be wrong to fight for organized labor, it will never be wrong to fight for the freedom of women to make their health care decisions, it surely will never be wrong to fight for civil rights and human rights. Tonight I am sad, but I am never giving up and neither is Connie.”

His wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Schultz, affirmed, “No way.”

Brown and his allies pounced on cellphone video that emerged late in the campaign showing Moreno criticizing suburban women who base their votes on abortion rights to paint the Republican as out of step with the 57% of Ohioans who supported a 2023 amendment that enshrined access to abortion into the state’s constitution.

But abortion, the issue Democrats had banked on to help them win Tuesday, ultimately did not appear to be the determining factor. Republicans’ hopes for victory hinged on the one-time bellwether state’s hard shift to the right in recent elections and a strong financial advantage.

Four in 10 Ohio voters said the economy and jobs is the top issue facing the country, according to the 110,000 voters surveyed for AP VoteCast, which included more than 3,700 voters in Ohio. About 2 in 10 Ohio voters said immigration is the most pressing issue, while only about 1 in 10 named abortion.

Still, the abortion-rights group Reproductive Freedom for All thanked Brown for taking up the cause, both during the campaign and in the Senate.

“While we had hoped for another outcome, we’re proud to have mobilized by his side in this race,” President and CEO Mini Timmaraju said in a statement. "We know that Bernie Moreno is an urgent threat to abortion rights and access — and we won’t back down from holding him accountable for it.”

As Moreno and his Republican allies consistently outspent Democrats during the race, they significantly chipped away at Brown’s favorability ratings among Ohio voters, erasing an advantage that Brown had enjoyed in the polls throughout most of the campaign and depriving him of a fourth term.

Brown was the only Democrat to hold a nonjudicial statewide office in Ohio. Also Tuesday, all three Democrats running for the Ohio Supreme Court — an arena where the party had experienced rare statewide successes in recent elections — lost their races. The court's new majority will be 6-1 in Republicans' favor.

Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown speaks during a watch party on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio, next to his wife Connie Schultz, left, and his daughter Elizabeth Brown, right. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno during a watch party on election night, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Westlake, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Voters line up to enter their polling place at the Cincinnati Observatory on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A voter fills out a ballot at the Pleasant Township Fire Department on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Catawba, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Voters check in as they arrive to vote at the Pleasant Township Fire Department on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Catawba, Ohio. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A corgy named Daisy waits for her owner to vote at the Cincinnati Observatory on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, fills out his ballot with his grandson, Milo Molina, left, 8, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

Bernie Moreno, Republican senatorial candidate for Ohio, speaks to constituents during a bus tour stop for the Ohio Senate race in Columbus, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Joe Maiorana)

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Shomari Figures, a former top aide to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, on Tuesday won election to Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, which was redrawn by a federal court to give Black voters a greater voice in selecting their representative.

Figures, a Democrat, defeated Republican Caroleene Dobson to win the open seat, flipping the district that had been a GOP stronghold until it was redrawn last year. A federal court ruled that Alabama had illegally diluted the influence of Black voters — who make up 27% of the state’s population — and reshaped the district to give Black voters a fair opportunity to elect a congressional candidate of their choosing.

Figures, an attorney, served as deputy chief of staff and counselor to Garland and also served as an aide to former President Barrack Obama, serving as domestic director of the Presidential Personnel Office. Obama recorded robocalls encouraging voters to support Figures. U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries also traveled to Alabama to support Figures, underscoring the role the district could play in which party has control of Congress.

In his victory speech, Figures said voters were making a statement that it was time to do something different.

"Tonight, it’s not about me. It is about us. It is about us as a district. It is about us as a people. It is about us as a state,” Figures said.

He said he was grateful for the support he received during the hard-fought race, but added that this was the “beginning of the work.”

“Today is great. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to sit here today and be elected and be put into a position to go do the work. But now we've got to do the work," Figures said.

Figures’ win will give Alabama a second Black representative in its congressional delegation for the first time in the state’s history. Figures joins Rep. Terri Sewell who won reelection.

Figures on the campaign trail discussed the district’s profound needs in infrastructure, education and healthcare. He said Alabama’s refusal to expand its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act helped contribute to a wave of rural hospital closures in the state.

On the campaign trail, he often invoked the storied civil rights history of the district, which includes Montgomery, Tuskegee and parts of the state’s rural Black Belt. The 39-year-old Mobile native also has deep ties to state politics. His mother is a state senator, and his late father was a legislative leader and attorney who sued the Ku Klux Klan over the 1981 murder of a Black teenager.

In his election night speech, he paid tribute to his parents, telling the emotional story of his father's sudden death in 1996 and how his mother picked up the pieces to continue raise the young family.

The redrawn district was one of several that Democrats had targeted for a flip. The non-partisan Cook Political Report had rated the reshaped district as “likely Democrat” but both campaigns stressed that it was a competitive race.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee named Figures to its “Red to Blue” program, a slate of priority candidates they believed could flip districts from Republican control. The National Republican Congressional Committee similarly named Dobson to its list of priority candidates called the “Young Guns.”

Dobson, a real estate attorney and political newcomer, had criticized Figures as “Washington D.C. insider” because of his lengthy Washington resume and connections to the Obama and Biden administrations. Dobson, 37, emphasized concerns about border security, inflation, and crime — issues that she said are worries for families across the political spectrum.

Dobson, as she conceded the race, encouraged those who have considered running for office, to take that step.

"We need more citizen servants who run not because they want to make Washington their career but because they are dedicated to serve others and working toward a better day for all Alabamians,” Dobson said.

The new district came after a lengthy court battle in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Black Alabamians who had challenged the state’s existing congressional districts.

Federal judges approved new district lines in October after ruling that Alabama’s previous map — which had only one majority-Black district out of seven — was likely racially gerrymandered to limit the influence of the state’s Black voters. The three-judge panel said Alabama should have a second district where Black voters make up a substantial portion of the voting-age population and have a reasonable opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

The new district, where Black residents make up nearly 49% of the voting-age population, spans the width of the state and includes the capital city of Montgomery, parts of the port city of Mobile as well as rural counties.

Figures’ win was a bright spot for state Democrats. With the exception of his race and Sewell's, Republicans swept other major contested races in the state.

Republican Rep. Barry Moore, who currently represents the 2nd District will be returning to Congress after being elected to the 1st Congressional District. Moore was but was drawn out of his district in the new map. Moore successfully challenged the GOP incumbent in the primary and defeated Democratic nominee Tom Holmes on Tuesday. Incumbent Republican Rep. Gary Palmer also won reelection to the 6th Congressional District.

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Sarah Stewart, a Republican, was elected as chief justice after defeating Montgomery Circuit Judge Greg Griffin, the Democratic nominee.

Voters line up to cast their ballots at The Church at Brook Hills on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

Voters line up to cast their ballots at Shelby County Services Building 280 on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)

Republican Caroleene Dobson, candidate for Alabama's 2nd Congressional District, speaks with reporters after voting in Montgomery, Ala., on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, (AP Photo/Kim Chandler)

Shomari Figures, Democratic candidate for Alabama's 2nd congressional district, greets and takes a photo with Abbie Felder, of Montgomery, at the Frazer Church voting precinct, on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Vasha Hunt)