Columbus, OH – With one week until Election Day, there’s one thing Ohioans know about Bernie Moreno: he only looks out for himself. From “stiffing workers” and “destroy[ing] evidence” to get out of paying his employees the wages they earned, to his comments mocking Ohio women for caring about the ability to make 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, Moreno has made it clear he won’t fight for Ohio.
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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