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Columbus, OH – Bernie Moreno has faced lawsuit after lawsuit for mistreating his employees and has been scrutinized for making multiple false claims about the “at least 50” lawsuits he’s faced – including a dozen lawsuits for refusing to pay his employees what they were owed and deliberately destroying evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of paying them.

Five Times Bernie Moreno Lied To Ohioans About His Record Of Mistreating Workers:

1. MORENO: “In Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Supreme Court changed [the law] and then made that ruling retroactive… but [the media] keep reporting it as wage theft… And then after I looked at it, I threw it away. The judge said, ‘Well, you should have kept that document.’ Well, I didn’t realize that that document had anything to do with this…” [52:15, 09/05/24]

2. MORENO: “[Moreno’s employees] claimed that they worked overtime, they had no proof of it. The judge didn’t like the fact that we were even trying the case so he tried everything possible to prejudice the jury, including telling them that we destroyed documents which is absolutely not true.” [05:26, 9/11/24]

3. MORENO: “[The Massachusetts Supreme Court] ruled that, in Massachusetts, commission salespeople are entitled to overtime… they went backwards and said, ‘hey, if you don’t agree with our interpretation of wage law, you owe all this overtime’… if you put radical lunatics in these courts, they’re going to destroy this country.” [02:39, 9/14/24]

4. MORENO: “… ​​the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that commission salespeople are entitled to overtime… they made the ruling retroactive, which was totally insane.” [03:09, 9/16/24]

5. MORENO: “Well, the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that they should be entitled to overtime… Unfortunately, the lunatics in Massachusetts made that ruling retroactive.” [14:09, 09/23/24]

Read The Truth About The Lawsuits Clouding Moreno’s Campaign:

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

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

• WKYC: How many times was Ohio US Senate candidate Bernie Moreno sued during his business career? VERIFY

• Cleveland.com: Bernie Moreno got sued by an employee who said he didn’t get paid what he was promised. Here’s what happened.

• Mother Jones: Bernie Moreno Owed a Contractor $300K—Then Ignored Legal Rulings to Promptly Pay Up

• Mother Jones: A GOP Senate Candidate Blames “Liberal” Judges for His Labor Violations. Just One Problem With That. The Judges Were Largely Appointed By Republicans.

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

• Mahoning Matters: Mahoning, Trumbull union members discuss Bernie Moreno’s anti-worker allegations

• Spectrum News: Bernie Moreno’s business record takes center stage in Senate bid

• Spectrum News: Senate candidate Bernie Moreno sold SUVs made in China for years, but tells Ohio voters he refused to do so

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Columbus, OH-  In case you missed it, reporting from the Ohio Capital Journal highlighted how Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose shared an “exclusive announcement” on election integrity with Ohio Right to Life, an extreme anti-abortion group. 

In the video, LaRose describes how elections in Ohio are run- information that should be available to all Ohioans, not shared first with extremist groups that backed his campaign. He’s previously described his role as Secretary of State as an impartial “referee” but this latest move shows he’s anything, but.

And this isn’t the first time LaRose has brought blatantly extreme and partisan activity into the Secretary of State’s office. Last year, he openly admitted that he consulted with Right to Life and other extreme anti-abortion groups to set the ballot language to describe the constitutional amendment to enshrine abortion rights in Ohio’s constitution. Unsurprisingly, it was biased and inaccurate. 

“We’re less than a month from a historic election and our Secretary of State is spending his time giving exclusives to extreme anti-choice groups,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “At this point, it’s not really surprising that LaRose is more interested in playing politics than serving Ohioans, but voters deserve better from their Secretary of State.

Bernie Moreno: “We Would Have Replaced [The Affordable Care Act] Had It Not Been For Again, Republicans.”

Columbus, OH – In an unreported radio interview, Bernie Moreno blamed Republicans for failing to repeal the Affordable Care Act. This is the latest example of Moreno making it clear that he would vote to repeal the ACA, putting 857,000 Ohioans at risk of losing their health care coverage and facing higher costs while also jeopardizing care for nearly 2 million Ohioans with a pre-existing condition. 

What Ohioans Need To Know About Moreno’s Plans To Put Ohioans’ Health Care In Jeopardy:

• *NEW* During an unreported radio interview, Bernie Moreno blamed Republicans for “block[ing]” the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Bernie Moreno: “We would have replaced [the Affordable Care Act] had it not been for again, Republicans… It’s Republicans that go along with Democrats that block the conservative agenda.”

• Moreno has “criticized” the ACA, saying it has “zero to do with affordability” and “m[ade] health care much more expensive.”

• Moreno also opposes the bill that capped insulin costs for seniors and allowed Medicare to negotiate drug prices to lower drug costs.

• Ohioans know that Moreno would “strip health care access” away from Ohioans and that he “opposed the bill that has lowered prescription drug prices for Ohioans” because he sides with special interests, not Ohioans.

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Columbus, OH – With three weeks until Election Day, Bernie Moreno’s record of looking out for himself remains on full display: from “stiffing workers” and “destroy[ing] evidence” to get out of paying his employees the wages they earned, to his recent comments mocking Ohio women for caring about making their own health care decisions and supporting a national abortion ban that would overturn the will of Ohioans who voted to protect abortion rights last year.

What To Know About Bernie Moreno:

1. Moreno’s campaign has been “clouded” by a “slew of lawsuits for workers’ wages and workplace discrimination,” including over a dozen lawsuits where Moreno refused to pay his workers the overtime they earned, and deliberately destroyed evidence he was legally required to keep to get out of it. Moreno was found liable for wage theft by a jury – forcing Moreno to pay over $400,000 in damages to his employees and settle over a dozen similar wage theft cases. After he got caught, Moreno repeatedly lied about the case and multiple fact-checks found his excuses “false.”

2. Moreno called Ohioans “a little crazy” for caring about a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, said he is “100 percent pro-life with no exceptions,” and would vote for a national abortion ban that would overturn the will of Ohioans. Moreno also called the overturning of Roe v. Wade a “monumental victory,” and opposes protecting a woman’s right to access contraception, including birth control pills. Moreno is endorsed by SBA Pro-Life America, an organization that pledged to only back candidates who support a national abortion ban.

3. Moreno has been caught in lie after lie on the campaign trail and has faced scrutiny for the “string of inconsistencies that have dogged his campaign.” Moreno was caught repeatedly lying about selling the Chinese-made Buick Envision which contributed to “Ohio jobs being shipped overseas,” lying about his phony “rags-to-riches” story as the “signature pitch” of his campaign, and lying about “s[elling] off all of his businesses” while spending nearly $50 million to open a new car dealership.

4. Moreno opposed the bipartisan bill to secure the border, opposed Sherrod’s bill to crack down on dangerous fentanyl, and said he won’t work across the aisle to fight for Ohio. Moreno opposed the bipartisan border security bill – which was backed by border patrol agents – and said he “would have opposed” the bipartisan FEND Off Fentanyl Act. When asked how he would work across the aisle, Moreno said he “reject[ed]” the question. In response, Moreno was slammed for having “no real interest” in advocating for Ohioans and being “intent on adding to [the] problem” in Washington.

5. Moreno isn’t the self-made outsider he claims to be. Despite claiming he “built his car dealer empire all on his own,” Moreno actually received “much-needed handout[s],” “special favors,” and “financial assistance” and “leveraged his family connections” and the “Moreno Family cash reserves” to enrich himself. Moreno has exploited his insider political connections to boost his businesses and is “heavily invested” in and profited off of a family enrichment scheme with his brothers by funneling U.S. taxpayer money into banks that financed projects his family oversaw.

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Columbus, OH – It’s been nothing but bad news for Bernie Moreno as he continues to face scrutiny for his record “stiffing workers” and unreported public records show that he failed to disclose the businesses associated with his new car dealership. Plus, recent reporting exposed that Bernie Moreno wants the Department of Education to be “eliminated” and his campaign and affiliated committees accepted $46,000 in contributions from Betsy DeVos and her family.

NEED-TO-KNOW THIS WEEK:

• Bernie Moreno continues to face scrutiny for his record “stiffing workers” and “destroy[ing] evidence” to get out of paying his employees the wages they earned.

• Over 1,200 women penned a letter to Bernie Moreno speaking out against his recent comments “mocking” Ohio women and his support for a national abortion ban that will overturn the will of Ohioans who voted to protect abortion rights last year.

• Unreported public records show that Moreno failed to disclose the businesses associated with his new car dealership on his personal financial disclosure for years despite being required by law to do so.

• Bernie Moreno wants the Department of Education to be “eliminated” by 2025 if he is elected to office, and his campaign and affiliated committees accepted $46,000 in contributions from Betsy DeVos and her family.

💰 CAR DEALER OUT FOR HIMSELF: Bernie Moreno’s record of looking out for himself remains on full display: from “stiffing workers” and “destroy[ing] evidence” to get out of paying his employees the wages they earned to facing multiple lawsuits for mistreating his employees. Read more from WKYC here:

• WKYC: “During the course of the campaign, Moreno has dealt with several questions about his past business dealings.”

• WKYC: “In January 2024, the Associated Press reported that three discrimination suits were filed against Moreno in Cuyahoga County between 2015 and 2017.”

• WKYC: “Also in January 2024, Moreno discussed the outcome of a Massachusetts lawsuit that he lost related to overtime wage theft on a radio show. In 3News’ VERIFY series, Stephanie Haney showed that Moreno’s claims that the Massachusetts Supreme Court overturned federal law were false.”

• WKYC: “The Ohio Capital Journal also found an additional wage theft lawsuit was filed against Moreno by a former employee.”

🚫 NO ONE’S LAUGHING, BERNIE: After over 1,200 women penned a letter to Bernie Moreno speaking out against his recent comments “mocking” Ohio women for caring about a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions, Ohioans are reading that Moreno is “unfit” for the Senate because he supports a national abortion ban that will overturn the will of Ohioans who voted to protect abortion rights last year.

🚘 FAILURE TO DISCLOSE: After NBC News caught Bernie Moreno “preparing a return to the auto industry,” unreported public records show that Moreno actually failed to disclose the businesses associated with his new car dealership on his personal financial disclosure for years despite being required by law to do so – the latest in Moreno’s lies about his new car dealership. 

• *NEW* Moreno was required to disclose his ownership of M20 Motors, LLC and M20 Realty, LLC – the two businesses associated with his new car dealership –  on his 2023 personal financial disclosure but failed to do so. Despite registering these businesses in June 2022, he hid them from Ohioans for years.

• Moreno lied to Ohioans over and over again that he “sold off all of his businesses to avoid conflicts of interest” while taking steps to open a new car dealership. Reports show that Moreno is spending nearly $50 million – $9.5 million on land in Delaware County and $40 million in financing – to open a new Mercedes-Benz dealership.

• Moreno continues to be “under scrutiny” for “re-launch[ing] his family’s high-end car sales business” and lying to Ohioans “for more than a year that he sold off business interests.”

Visit MercedesBenzofSunbury.com to learn more.

🎒 MORENO SEEKS TO ELIMINATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: New reporting from Heartland Signal revealed Bernie Moreno wants the Department of Education to be “eliminated” by 2025 if he is elected to office, and his campaign and affiliated committees accepted $46,000 in contributions from Betsy DeVos and her family – DeVos is “on record saying that she thought ‘the Department of Education should not exist.’”

🗞️ WHAT OHIOANS ARE READING THIS WEEK:

• Heartland Signal: “[Moreno stated] the hope was that the Department of Education would be “eliminated” by 2025.”

• Statehouse News Bureau: “[Moreno’s campaign] did not address a question about whether Moreno would vote for a national abortion ban if it were to come before him.”

• Jenny Conrad of Mt. Orab, Statehouse News Bureau: “I was insulted by Bernie Moreno’s comment about people over 50, women over 50, being just a little crazy. I’m a 72 year-old-woman and of course I’m concerned about womens’ reproductive issues. I’ve got daughters, I’ve got sisters, I’ve got nieces, I’ve got friends, all who I care about… I care about their right to be able to make their own health care decisions.”

• Jezebel: “Last year, Ohio voters decisively passed a ballot measure to restore abortion rights in the state… So, you have to wonder why Moreno thought it wise to call the many women who supported this ballot measure ‘a little crazy’…”

• Thomas W. Billing of Springfield, The Columbus Dispatch: “I would like to advise the 57% of Ohioans who voted for abortion rights that Bernie Moreno would work for a national abortion ban and that would override the state issue we passed.”

• WCMH: “Moreno’s image is underwater, with 37% favorable and 46% unfavorable.”

• Signal Cleveland: “In a 2022 interview, Moreno described himself as ‘absolute pro-life, no exceptions.’”

• Sarah Kolick, The Columbus Dispatch: “[Women] are sick and tired of conservative politicians like Bernie Moreno telling us how we should live our lives.”

• The Columbus Dispatch: “​​Moreno also faced criticism after NBC News reported that he bought a $9.5 million parcel of land in Delaware County north of Columbus for a new Mercedes-Benz dealership. Moreno signed a $40 million mortgage agreement for the property… the purchase came after Moreno repeatedly said he sold off his businesses to focus on the Senate race and avoid potential conflicts of interest.”

🐤 TWEET OF THE WEEK:

🎶 CODA: “Ohio women do not trust Bernie Moreno.”

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