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Columbus, OH – After Bernie Moreno said he doesn’t believe there should be a minimum wage  on the debate stage last week, Moreno doubled down to Cleveland.com. When asked whether he opposes the minimum wage, Moreno “did not clarify” his stance. 

Read more: 

Cleveland.com: Ohio Senate race: Where do the Republican candidates stand on minimum wage hike?

Andrew Tobias

February 27, 2024

• During a televised candidate forum last week…Bernie Moreno [was] asked about the minimum wage and whether they thought there even should be a minimum wage.

• Moreno said that “markets are the best way to determine what a wage should be,” adding that employers can choose to offer good wages and benefits to get good workers.

• “And at the end of the day, the markets will flush that out…”

• Moreno did not clarify afterward whether he was making a political argument against the merits of minimum wage laws in general. 

SEE ALSO: NEW: Bernie Moreno Opposes Existence Of Minimum Wage

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Series Of Fact Checks Found Moreno’s Excuses “False”

Columbus, OH – Despite multiple fact checks finding Bernie Moreno’s excuses “false” after reports showed he destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying his employees the overtime they’d earned, Moreno is still repeating lies he knows aren’t true. 

Moreno’s lies follow another lawsuit surfacing against him last week – further complicating the image he is trying to sell Ohioans.

Read Moreno’s lies, and the facts, for yourself:

MORENO’S LIE: “…a regulation change…made the ruling retroactive.” [WOSU, 15:11, 2/26/24]

FACT CHECK: “[N]othing new and unexpected was retroactively required of employers, in either court’s verdict. Once the 2015 state regulation went into effect, employers were required to pay for overtime worked, even for workers who earn commission on sales.” [WKYC, 2/12/24]

MORENO’S LIE: “We didn’t have any records that showed that [my employees] worked overtime…” [WOSU, 15:50, 2/26/24]

FACT CHECK: “Moreno conceded that in late 2020, he had destroyed paper copies of monthly reports containing information about overtime hours worked by some employees…a jury found in August 2022 that [Moreno’s employees] had proven ‘by a preponderance of the evidence’ that they had worked overtime hours, and that his employers knew that.” [Business Insider, 1/19/24]

Refresh your memory on the lawsuits and lies clouding Bernie Moreno’s candidacy:

• Business Insider: Trump-backed Ohio Senate candidate shredded documents as he faced a lawsuit accusing him of wage theft

• Mother Jones: A GOP Senate Candidate Blames “Liberal” Judges for His Labor Violations. Just One Problem With That.

• WKYC: No, Bernie Moreno’s claims that Massachusetts courts overturned federal law in wage theft lawsuits and made rulings retroactive are not true: VERIFY

• WCMH: Fact check: Did Senate candidate Bernie Moreno shred documents accusing him of wage theft?

• Daily Beast: This GOP Senate Hopeful’s Self-Made Story Has a Darker Side

SEE ALSO: ICYMI: Scrutiny on Lawsuits Clouds Bernie Moreno’s Record; NEW: Yet Another Lawsuit Clouds Bernie Moreno’s Record; In Radio Interview, Moreno Repeats Lies He Knows Aren’t True About Wage Theft Lawsuits; FACT CHECK: Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Committing Wage Theft Ruled “FALSE”; MUST WATCH CLIP: Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Committing Wage Theft Ruled “FALSE”; WATCH: Bernie Moreno Faces Scrutiny For Destroying Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; New Report Finds Bernie Moreno’s Defense For Destroying Evidence Isn’t True; Bernie Moreno Facing Further Attacks After Reports Show He Shredded Documents To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; Bernie Moreno Dogged By Reports That He Shredded Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Overtime; FACT CHECK: Bernie Moreno Destroyed Evidence He Had “Obligation” To Keep To Get Out Of Paying Employees; GOP Debate Clouded By Reports Moreno Destroyed Evidence: Here Are The Facts; Bernie Moreno Destroyed Key Evidence To Get Out Of Paying His Employees Wages They’d Earned

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Ohio Capital Journal: “All Ohio Republican U.S. Senate candidates opposed November amendment passed by 57% of Ohio voters that guaranteed rights to fertility treatment”

Columbus, OH – Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan already voted against  protections for IVF by opposing November’s Issue 1, which would have “protect[ed] access to in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.” 

“Ohioans don’t have to guess where Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, or Matt Dolan stand on protecting fertility treatments like IVF – because they’ve already voted against it,” said ODP spokesperson Katie Smith. 

Here’s what you need to know:

Bernie Moreno, Frank LaRose, and Matt Dolan all opposed Issue 1 – which contained protections for in-vitro fertilization treatments – and now support overruling Ohioans by passing a national abortion ban.

• Bernie Moreno opposed Issue 1 and donated $100,000 to Protect Women Ohio – the group leading the campaign to defeat November’s Issue 1 last year.

• Frank LaRose made himself the face of Issue 1 in August – saying it was “100%” about defeating the November amendment. LaRose later colluded with out-of-state special interests to try to ban abortion by rewriting the Issue 1 November ballot language to be intentionally misleading. 

• Matt Dolan said defeating the Issue 1 amendment was a “priority.”

Read more:

Ohio Capital Journal: National and Ohio Republicans desperately pretending they haven’t been attacking IVF

Marilou Johanek

February 27, 2024

• Don’t believe a word. The same extremists lining up to support a federal abortion ban, that would override hard-earned reproductive freedoms in states like Ohio, are now tripping all over themselves to profess their support for IVF and personal choice.

• Just a few months ago, Frank LaRose, Bernie Moreno, and Matt Dolan aggressively opposed a statewide issue that established a constitutional right “to one’s own reproductive medical treatment,” including the freedom to make decisions on abortion, contraception, fertility treatments, continuing one’s own pregnancy and miscarriage care.

• LaRose spearheaded the campaign against access to reproductive choices that encompassed IVF.

• Multi-millionaire Moreno fought reproductive freedoms with six-figure donations to anti-abortion groups mobilized to defeat the right of Ohioans to make their own reproductive decisions.

• Matt Dolan disparaged the constitutionally protected freedoms Ohio voters decisively approved last November as too extreme — and then disparaged voters as being too dim to really understand what they were voting for. 

• Heading into the March 19 GOP primary, all three Republicans say they’re open to canceling the will of state voters to impose federal restrictions on abortion rights and reproductive health care.

• The party owns what Dobbs has wrought in pain and suffering. No matter what…a bunch of course-correcting senatorial candidates say after fighting to deny women their reproductive rights and reproductive choice — don’t believe a word.

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Four Days Until Next Government Funding Deadline

Columbus, OH – Bernie Moreno and Frank LaRose have repeatedly called for a government shutdown despite the devastating consequences it would have on Ohioans. With just four days until another funding deadline and Congressional Republicans “predicting a shutdown,” Ohioans should know that the #OHSEN field is focused on scoring political points instead of fighting for them. 

• Bernie Moreno: “[A government shutdown] would not be something you’d take off the table…”

• Cleveland.com: Moreno is “clearly in favor of using the threat of shutting down the government…”

• The Columbus Dispatch: “…Moreno and LaRose went a step further and said they’d threaten a government shutdown if necessary.”

• Frank LaRose: “You bet I’m willing to shut down the government.”

A government shutdown would be devastating for Ohioans:

• Ohio small businesses would lose an estimated $4,627,400 in financing per business day. 

• A shutdown would negatively impact the economy, Ohio workers, and Ohio families – an estimated 6,800 active duty troops in Ohio would not receive pay and tens of thousands of civilian employees would either be furloughed or forced to work without pay. 

• Many Ohio families, including more than 93,000 Ohio children, would also lose their access to healthy food. 

• Ohioans receiving Social Security could be at risk for disruptions. 

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Moreno’s Opposition To The Minimum Wage Follows Reports That Moreno Refused to Pay His Employees’ Wages, Shredded Evidence He Was Legally Required To Keep

Columbus, OH – When asked whether the minimum wage should exist in last week’s debate, Bernie Moreno made it clear he doesn’t believe one should exist at all, saying “the market will flush that out.” Moreno’s comments follow reports that he has faced over a dozen lawsuits for refusing to pay his employees the wages they earned and went so far as to destroy evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying them.

Read more:

American Journal: Republican Bernie Moreno opposes existence of minimum wage

Jesse Valentine 

February 23, 2024

• U.S. Senate candidate Bernie Moreno doesn’t believe there should be a minimum wage.

• The moderator asked point blank if the minimum wage should exist.

• “The markets are the best way to determine what wages should be,” Moreno said. “As somebody who has employed thousands of people here in Ohio, a good business owner knows that you pay good benefits, you pay good wages, you get good people. At the end of the day the market will flush that out.”

• Moreno’s claims about being a good employer conflict with his record.

• Between 2017 and 2022, at least seventeen of Moreno’s employees sued him for wage theft, claiming Moreno failed to properly compensate them for overtime work. In 2021, a judge sanctioned Moreno for destroying financial documents pertinent to the allegations. A jury ultimately ruled that Moreno had stiffed the original plaintiffs and Moreno was ordered to pay them more than $400,000 in damages.

• Moreno settled most of the additional wage theft lawsuits out of court in the months preceding his senate campaign. 

• In 2023, Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced legislation to crack down on wage theft. In 2021, Brown celebrated a Biden administration rule raising the minimum wage for federal workers to $15.00 an hour. In a statement, Brown called for raising the minimum wage for all workers.

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