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Frank LaRose entered Ohio’s 2024 slugfest this week and Ohioans are still wondering: What is LaRose really doing for us? 
 
What you need to know about Frank LaRose: 

• LaRose is at the center of an August special election and has made a series of missteps including sending incorrect ballot language out to county Boards of Elections days before the deadline to mail absentee ballots, potentially costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
   
• LaRose is also facing legal questions and ethics concerns along with reports that his Super PAC is being run by the same operatives behind the largest corruption scandal in state history.
   
• LaRose was caught downplaying the value of a Trump endorsement and has not endorsed the former president’s campaign. Trump praised Bernie Moreno less than 48 hours before Frank LaRose announced his campaign. 

Here’s what Ohioans are reading and watching about Frank LaRose’s announcement: 
 
Cleveland.com: “Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s Senate primary race will be preceded by his tough race to get Issue 1 passed in a special August election.”
 

WBNS: “Secretary of State Frank LaRose, for example, included a clip of his jog past a ‘Vote Yes’ sign in his yard in yesterday’s Senate campaign announcement.”
 

READ MORE: 

• Statehouse News Bureau: LaRose enters race for the U.S. Senate while being at the forefront of a controversial ballot issue
   
• Ohio Capital Journal: “Over the next four months, LaRose will have to balance Senate fundraising and campaigning with running two elections… LaRose is one of the proposal’s chief advocates and after initially speaking against August elections when lawmakers eliminated them last year, LaRose supported bringing back this August election to consider Issue 1.”
   
• WLWT: “Party primaries often leave blood on the ground as the one in 2022 demonstrated.”
   
• WSYX: “The campaign is expected to be brutal. Can the Republicans survive more than nine months of bashing each other in attack ads?”
   
• Tribune Chronicle: “Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who announced he’s running for the U.S. Senate next year, finds himself needing to make up ground financially against the two other Republicans seeking the party’s nomination.”
   
• Columbus Dispatch: LaRose announcement sets up messy GOP primary
   
• Cleveland.com: “If LaRose is signaling plans to paint his primary opponents as rich and out-of-town, Moreno issued a statement on Monday calling LaRose a career politician.”
   
• The Messenger: Another competitive and expensive GOP primary is brewing in the Buckeye State
   
• NBC: “an already fractious primary field”
   
• Axios: Republican Frank LaRose joins crowded Ohio Senate primary
   
• Politico: Ohio’s messy GOP Senate primary gets a third candidate

Frank LaRose not only launched his widely panned campaign yesterday – he also kicked off the Ohio Senate “slugfest” Republicans were hoping to avoid. The attacks between LaRose, Trump-approved Bernie Moreno and Matt Dolan began immediately and signal what to expect over the next few months: the politicians in this race are in for an expensive, contentious, bruising fight that will leave whichever politician emerges from this primary damaged with Ohioans as they head into the general.

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THE BRUISING SLUGFEST AHEAD
 
For months, Republicans fretted about having a “messy primary where we kill each other” and warned against another costly, damaging “slugfest.” Now, that’s exactly what they’ve got. Within hours of LaRose’s kickoff, Moreno went on the attack, dubbing LaRose “a true career politician:” 

LaRose hit back and also took a swipe at Dolan: 

With Dolan’s campaign then entering the fray: 

Here’s a look at what Ohioans are reading this morning: 

• Columbus Dispatch: LaRose announcement sets up messy GOP primary
• Cleveland.com: “If LaRose is signaling plans to paint his primary opponents as rich and out-of-town, Moreno issued a statement on Monday calling LaRose a career politician.”
• The Messenger: Another competitive and expensive GOP primary is brewing in the Buckeye State
• NBC: “an already fractious primary field”
• Axios: Republican Frank LaRose joins crowded Ohio Senate primary
• Politico: Ohio’s messy GOP Senate primary gets a third candidate
• Statehouse News Bureau: LaRose enters race for the U.S. Senate while being at the forefront of a controversial ballot issue

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NO “SLAM DUNK” CANDIDATES: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT MORENO, LAROSE & DOLAN 
 
With no “slam dunk” options, even Republicans admit they have an uphill battle ahead. Here’s a quick overview of their candidates: 
 
Bernie Moreno is one of two millionaires in the race and entered with accolades from Donald Trump – who again praised Moreno just days before LaRose launched his campaign. Moreno has also been endorsed by J.D. Vance, who has a close relationship with Trump.
 
Last week, Moreno bragged about being an “American First political outsider” while campaigning from the Bahamas. Moreno has also said he is “unequivocally pro-life” and does not support exceptions for rape, incest, or life of the mother.
 
Frank LaRose is at the center of an August special election and has made a series of missteps – including sending incorrect ballot language out to county Boards of Elections days before the deadline to mail absentee ballots, potentially costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. He’s facing legal questions and ethics concerns along with reports that his Super PAC is being run by the same operatives behind the largest corruption scandal in state history. As LaRose asks for a promotion, Ohioans are left wondering: what is Frank LaRose really doing for us? 
 
Notably, LaRose was caught downplaying the value of a Trump endorsement and has not endorsed the former president’s campaign. 
 
Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians, has been consistently attacked by the conservative base for “capitulat[ing] to the woke mob” and has already been forced to lend his campaign $4 million because he has no grassroots support. Dolan’s opponents have criticized him for trying to buy a Senate seat and being “Democrat-light.”
 

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“WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A VERY BRUTAL PRIMARY IN THE STATE OF OHIO, JUST LIKE WE DID IN 2022.”

With two wealthy candidates in the race, this primary could be even costlier and more damaging than what Ohioans saw unfold in 2022. As candidates are forced to take the infighting to the airwaves while neglecting the most important issues facing Ohioans, this primary will leave whoever emerges bruised, battered, and unpopular. 
 

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THE BOTTOM LINE
 
A long, brutal, and expensive primary is taking shape in Ohio and no matter who emerges, they will have spent months focused on infighting – instead of fighting for Ohioans – leaving them bruised and badly damaged entering the general election.

“Fractious primary clash” … “Messy GOP primary” … “GOP Battle Royale”

The Ohio Senate “2024 slugfest” is devolving into chaos with Frank LaRose’s announcement today making this already bruising battle even messier, more crowded, and more expensive.
 
LaRose’s announcement is not being welcomed favorably by grassroots conservatives and he is already being slammed by his opponents. Hours after his announcement, one conservative radio host in Ohio said he is “not sure that [LaRose] has a chance.” Bernie Moreno’s campaign is also already attacking LaRose, saying he should “focus on the job he has,” with LaRose punching back.
 

Read more about how Ohio’s “2024 slugfest” is devolving into chaos:
 
NBC: Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose launches GOP Senate bid
Henry Gomez
July 17, 2023

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose launched a long-anticipated Senate bid Monday, becoming the third prominent Republican to run in an already fractious primary clash that will determine who takes on Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown in 2024.
• His formal announcement comes during a summer in which he has championed a ballot initiative that would require a 60% vote — as opposed to a simple majority — to amend the Ohio Constitution. If that measure passes at an August special election, the higher threshold would be in place for an amendment to protect abortion rights that’s expected to be on the November ballot.
• Bernie Moreno — a businessman running with Trump’s encouragement, but for now without an official endorsement from him — is running as a loyalist of the former president. 
• But LaRose also enters the 2024 race as the most meagerly funded of the three. Unlike Moreno and Dolan, he lacks vast personal wealth to draw from and has spent recent months urging donors to support a nonprofit group that his political allies started to keep him on competitive footing. 
• One appearance that drew particular scrutiny was a spring gathering with Ohio Republicans where LaRose downplayed Trump’s influence in GOP primaries. 
• More recently, LaRose put distance between himself and Trump after the former president was indicted over his alleged handling of classified documents. A spokesperson, Rob Nichols, offered a statement that gently rebuked Trump — though not by name — and included criticism of how the Department of Justice is handling the case. 
• Moreno, on the other hand, attended Trump’s defiant speech at his New Jersey golf club the evening after his arraignment. 

Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose announces 2024 U.S. Senate run
Haley BeMiller
July 17, 2023

• LaRose announcement sets up messy GOP primary
• The GOP primary and general election against Brown are expected to be messy and expensive.
• National Republicans see Ohio as key to reclaiming control of the Senate in 2024. Ohio has trended red in recent statewide elections, and Brown is one of few Democrats up for reelection in a state that Trump won in 2020. Political analysts have labeled the race a tossup.

The Messenger: Ohio Republican Frank LaRose Launches Senate Bid, Setting Up Second Straight GOP Battle Royal
Matt Holt 
July 17, 2023

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose on Monday launched his long-anticipated Senate campaign, setting up what is likely to be another bruising Republican primary in the Buckeye State.
• Former President Donald Trump has also made positive public statements about Moreno’s candidacy, a precursor to a potential endorsement. On Truth Social, Trump said Moreno “would not be easy to beat.”
• In 2022, over $50 million was spent in the GOP primary alone, as the candidates and their allied outside groups relentlessly attacked one another. Vance emerged victorious from a field of five candidates after he secured Trump’s endorsement. But the primary left Vance weakened and low on cash, which meant the Senate Leadership Fund — the leading super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — had to commit $40 million to boost Vance, precious resources that could have been used in tighter races. He ended up winning by around six percentage points.

CNN: Ohio secretary of state enters crowded GOP Senate primary to challenge Democrat Sherrod Brown
Gregory Krieg
July 17, 2023

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose formally announced his candidacy for US Senate on Monday, joining a crowded Republican field hoping to challenge Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown.
• Ohio Republicans are now preparing for an expensive and potentially nasty primary, much like the contest in 2022 that ultimately sent J.D. Vance to the Senate, ahead of an even more costly general election campaign. 
• LaRose is a leading proponent of a ballot measure that Ohioans will consider in August, which would make it more difficult to amend the state constitution.
• LaRose and Dolan, though, could face some headwinds among Republicans over their hesitance to embrace Trump… LaRose said at a closed-door event reported on by Politico in May that the influence of Trump’s support had diminished. He estimated that as much as 60% of the party “doesn’t care who he endorses.” 
• Despite LaRose’s more recent actions, Moreno is more closely allied with the former president, who touted the Colombian immigrant’s entry into the race this spring. 

WFMJ: Ohio Secretary of State LaRose announces challenge to incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown
Mike Gaunter
July 17, 2023

• A politician who finds himself figuring prominently in a TV commercial urging the defeat of Ohio Issue One has officially announced his candidacy to run as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown.

Axios: Republican Frank LaRose joins crowded Ohio Senate primary
Andrew Solender
July 17, 2023

• Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is jumping into the well-populated Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Ohio.
• Why it matters: It complicates yet another Senate primary as competitive intra-party contests heat up across the country.

Today, Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Reeves Oyster released the following statement on Frank LaRose entering Ohio’s “2024 slugfest” – one of the “messiest,” “most expensive” and “bruising” primary battles in the country. 
 
“The Republican ‘slugfest’ for Ohio’s Senate seat is shaping up to be another long, contentious battle that will leave whoever emerges damaged in the eyes of Ohio voters. In the days ahead, the people of Ohio should ask themselves: what is Frank LaRose really doing for us?”
 
What you need to know about Frank LaRose:

• LaRose has put himself at the center of the August and November elections and has made a series of missteps – including sending incorrect ballot language out to county Boards of Elections, potentially costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
• LaRose has been running a shadow campaign out of his office for months, raising legal questions and ethics concerns – including that his super PAC is being run by the same operatives behind the largest corruption scandal in state history. Ohioans have been slamming LaRose for weeks for “campaigning out of his office” and being more focused on his political agenda than doing his job. 
• LaRose was caught downplaying the value of a Trump endorsement at a closed-door political event while attacking Bernie Moreno – who Trump has repeatedly praised. LaRose doubled down in a separate interview. 

What they’re saying about the “2024 slugfest” for Ohio’s senate seat:

• J.D. Vance on the 2024 primary: “We’re going to have a very brutal primary in the State of Ohio, just like we did in 2022.” 
   
• Sabato’s Crystal Ball: “We wouldn’t describe any of the potential Republican Senate nominees in Ohio as slam dunk candidates…”
   
• Chronicle Telegram: GOP Senate Primary Will Be A Fight
   
• WVXU Analysis: Ohio’s 2024 Senate primary is shaping up to be a repeat of 2022 
   
• NBC: Another bruising Senate race brews in Ohio as Republicans target Sherrod Brown

Trump praises Bernie Moreno ahead of anticipated Frank LaRose announcement

Donald Trump is throwing more gasoline on Ohio’s dumpster fire primary after praising Bernie Moreno – again – ahead of an anticipated Frank LaRose announcement this week. This is the latest indication of just how damaging this primary, which has already been called one of the “messiest,” “most expensive” and “bruising” battles in the country, will become.
 
Donald Trump: “We love Ohio and we love Bernie Moreno.”