The Opportunistic De-Evolution Of Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno-- From Worm To MAGAt

Before either DEVO or I was signed by Warner Bros Records, the band released a fantastic self-produced single, “Mongoloid” b/w “Jocko Homo” on their own Booji Boy label (1977). I loved it and played it whenever I got on the radio. When the band came to play their first show in San Francisco, they slept on the floor of my office, covered in newspapers. This was the original video they released at the time:

I got a rhyme that comes in a riddle

O-Hi-O

What's round on the end and high in the middle?

O-Hi-O

And yet, polling shows that Ohioans are trending towards reelecting Sherrod Brown against any of the Republicans running against him. Each of them polls 37% to Brown’s 38 or 39%. That same poll, also shows the GOP primary a close race between the two far right candidates Bernie Moreno (22%) and LaRose (21%).

Yesterday, CNN reported that Moreno “once said there was ‘no scenario’ in which he would support Donald Trump. He’s called Trump a ‘fake Republican’ who stokes ‘hatred and fear’ and suggested that the former president’s popularity is the result of ‘ignorance in our society.” He told a radio host that “If Trump is the nominee, I think the Republican party is now a different party and not a party that I want to be a part of.” Moreno has since remodeled himself into a full-on MAGAt, deleted his Trump-hostile tweets and has been endorsed by Trump to boot.

Moreno now attacks the “wine-sipping country club Republicans” who are “offended by President Trump’s words.” He characterizes individuals imprisoned for Capitol riot-related offenses as “political prisoners,” claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and alleges collaboration between “big tech,” “the swamp,” the corporate media, and Democrats to rig the election.

Despite this, he previously congratulated President Joe Biden on his 2020 presidential win and after the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, Moreno posted “[Trump] deserves lots and lots of blame for this,” adding, “He didn’t calm tensions; no one (and certainly not me) has excuses [sic] that behavior.”

Moreno’s about-face is stark, but also reflects a broader trend among Republicans across the country, many of whom have been critical of Trump in the past only to later embrace him.

That includes Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, who Trump endorsed instead of Moreno in 2022’s Senate primary. Vance once said publicly he did not vote for Trump in 2016 and suggested in private messages that year that the former president might be “America’s Hitler.” He later called him a “moral disaster” in 2017.  While running for Senate that year, Vance said he regretted his past comments criticizing Trump and has since come to loudly praise the former president.

As Trump closes in on securing the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, allegiance to Trump and his agenda have once again become a litmus test for party loyalty. Both Moreno’s Republican opponents, state Sen. Matt Dolan and Ohio’s Secretary of State Frank LaRose have themselves a history of past Trump criticism. While Dolan has stood by much of his criticism, LaRose has made public gestures to appeal to Trump, including seeking his endorsement and firing a staffer critical of the former president.

…In October 2016, Moreno posted on Twitter in a reply that he wrote-in a vote for Republican Florida Sen. Marco Rubio— a tweet his campaign spokesman Conor McGuinness tells CNN was meant in “jest,” and that Moreno “absolutely voted for Trump in 2016.”

…Moreno deleted tweets he posted before the 2020 presidential election urging Americans to “accept the results,” and deleted tweets praising mail-in voting— which Trump has falsely claimed is rife with fraud. Moreno removed a post saying he would accept the results himself.

In one removed tweet from November 29, 2020, more than three weeks after the election, Moreno attacked Trump directly.

“For @realDonaldTrump  to make claims of a fraudulent election without proof. Potentially irreparable harm to US,” he said.

Also among Moreno’s deleted posts is a November 7, 2020 tweet, where he acknowledged Biden’s win and called for unity. He purged tweets where he urged conservatives to accept the outcome and debunked fraud allegations by highlighting Republican gains in the House. He also said that he himself voted by mail in 2020, calling it “safe” and “convenient.”

As rioters poured into the Capitol on January 6, 2021 and in its aftermath— Moreno again broke with Trump. He praised Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a prominent Trump supporter in the Senate, who declared “count me out” in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor the night of the riot.

“Lindsay [sic] brought the heat! Nicely said,” wrote Moreno.

In another since-removed tweet from January 7, 2021, Moreno wrote that the rioters “made a “quite a horrific embarrassment for our country.”

McGuinness, Moreno’s spokesman, said he did not see contradiction in Moreno’s past comments.

“Bernie has also been tremendously clear that January 6th has exposed a two-tiered justice system in this country,” he said. “People who burned down buildings in June of 2020 faced minimal retribution; grandmothers who walked down the wrong hallway on January 6th are still sitting in federal prison. That is appalling.”