CLEVELAND — Republicans are dominating the airwaves this month in Ohio’s Senate race, erasing an advantage that Sen. Sherrod Brown and his Democratic allies enjoyed all spring and much of the summer in a battle that could see control of the Senate tilt.
Republican candidate Bernie Moreno and the outside groups backing him have spent double what Brown and Democrats have spent on TV, radio and digital advertising since Sept. 1 — about $70 million to $35 million through Wednesday, according to the tracking firm AdImpact .
By comparison, from the Ohio primary in March through August, Democrats maintained the lead, dropping $78.5 million in ads to Republicans’ $59 million.
“Red flashing lights must flash everywhere [Brown’s] campaign headquarters,” said Jai Chabria, a GOP strategist in Ohio who helped run Sen. J.D. Vance’s successful 2022 campaign. “The Republican money is just getting spent, and they’re going to take this seriously because this is the race they need for the majority.”
The attack, which comes amid a turmoil in the battleground Senate, coincides with a tough week for Moreno, whose hardline positions on abortion have put his campaign under scrutiny.
“Bernie’s special allies are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this race to try to defeat Sherrod because they know Sherrod will always stand up to them to do what’s right for Ohio,” Brown spokesman Matt Keyes said in a statement.
Democrats, who hold a one-seat majority in the Senate, are growing increasingly nervous about Senator Jon Tester’s re-election bid in Montana. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on Thursday announced investments in races in Florida and Texas, with two Republican Party-held seats seen as carrying more burdens.
Republicans, meanwhile, have more options to reach a majority. The open seat of West Virginia is widely expected to swing their way. And along with Montana and Ohio, they have pick-up options in the battleground states of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as in deep blue Maryland, where popular former GOP Governor Larry Hogan is running.
“We must continue to invest in Ohio,” DSCC Chairman Senator Gary Peters of Michigan said Thursday during an event at the National Press Club in Washington. “We’re not done investing in Ohio yet, and it’s going to take more money. “But right now… we have many outside groups dumping tens of millions of dollars on Sherrod in an effort to prop up another deeply flawed candidate.”
Philip Letsou, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, countered that Brown had “sold out his working-class base to toe the Democratic Party line and vote in lockstep” with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate.
“After 50 years in politics, Ohio voters are ready to send him home,” Letsou added.
Brown, seeking a fourth term, is the only Democrat, aside from former President Barack Obama, to win more than one statewide election in Ohio over the past quarter century. Former President Donald Trump, who is on the ballot again this year and has endorsed Moreno, won the state twice by 8 percentage points. The few recent public polls in the state indicate a close race in the Senate.
“It’s an unprecedented level of spending against Sherrod,” said a Democrat covering Senate races who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the uphill battle. “It speaks to his resilience that this is still a toss-up because most people would be ready.”
Early voting begins on October 8. Both sides are fighting as if the race is close and could be changed by a single mistake. While Brown and Moreno have each expressed casual interest in having a debate, neither has asked for one — an unusual dynamic in a state where Brown debated each of his previous general election opponents multiple times. As of this week, nothing was close to being planned, officials from both campaigns said.
Democrats had a clear advertising advantage following a contentious March primary that cost Moreno’s campaign millions of dollars to win.
Brown, who had significantly outpaced his Republican opponent in July even after the independently wealthy Moreno loaned his campaign more than $4 million, took advantage of his cash lead and began airing ads to positively define himself — as an apolitical friend of the working class. Eventually, Brown and outside groups unleashed spots portraying Moreno as a ruthless businessman and an unreliable car dealer.
But the Republican barrage intensified in mid-August, and by September the Democratic lead had disappeared.
“Sherrod acted like the true liberal that he is and spent an entire summer — and wasted it, frankly — doing God knows what with his money,” said Chris Grant, Moreno’s general campaign adviser. “So whatever cash advantage they had is gone and they haven’t moved anything.”
The Republican ads were a mix: They promoted Moreno’s background as a businessman and characterized Brown as a career politician beholden to Harris and President Joe Biden.
Defend American Jobs, a pro-Moreno group with ties to the cryptocurrency industry, and the Republican Party-aligned Senate Leadership Fund each spent more than $25 million on ads in Ohio this month, making them the two largest are players of the race. Close behind is WinSenate, a political action committee affiliated with Democrats’ Senate Majority PAC, which has spent more than $22 million this month.
Democrats have been able to stretch their dollars a little further than the spending disparity suggests, in part because candidates can buy ads at lower rates than super PACs and Brown’s campaign has spent more than Moreno’s on the air. Brown’s campaign on its own spent $10.5 million on ads this month, while Moreno’s along with the National Republican Senatorial Committee spent about $5 million.
As of Thursday, Election Day ad reservations were on more even footing, with Republicans set to spend $64 million to Democrats’ $58 million. However, reservations are subject to change as groups and campaigns can cancel or purchase more airtime.
“Bernie is moving in the right direction and has momentum,” said Scott Guthrie, a Republican strategist who has worked on Senate campaigns in Ohio but is not associated with Moreno’s team. “Several polls have shown him tied or ahead in the last few weeks before the election, and overall spending over the past six weeks is overwhelmingly in Bernie’s favor.”
Peters declined Thursday to specify how much money the DSCC will spend in Texas and Florida, but he stressed to reporters that the new investments will not drain resources from other states, such as Montana and Ohio.
“There is no world where, as far as you can imagine, I won’t be in Montana until the end,” Peters said. “Jon Tester will have everything he needs to win.”
Peters was also optimistic about Ohio: “There’s no way I’m losing Ohio.”
Ohio Democrats plan to draw more attention to Moreno’s recent disparaging comments about women who base their votes on access to abortion. Moreno described the idea of being such a single-issue voter as “a bit crazy… especially for women who are already over 50.”
Moreno spokesman Reagan McCarthy said the comments were “an ironic joke” intended to chastise Brown and the media for their heavy emphasis on the abortion issue. But it could be a major event in Ohio, where voters last year overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative that protected abortion rights in the state constitution. Moreno was a prominent opponent of the measure and continued to voice support for federal abortion restrictions.
WinSenate published an ad Thursday in which Mary Ann, a Toledo woman, recalls an emergency abortion performed years ago during her ectopic pregnancy. She says her doctors “would have had to let me die” if a federal abortion ban had been in effect at the time.
“It’s about my granddaughter and all the women I know and love, and future generations,” Mary Ann says in the ad. “Our lives do not belong in the hands of Bernie Moreno.”
Chabria, Vance’s strategist, argued that last year’s successful ballot initiative made the abortion issue a “discussion point” in Ohio.
“The electoral consequences,” he added, “will be marginal.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com