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Columbus, OH – Between new reporting this week that revealed yet another lawsuit against Bernie Moreno and the continued scrutiny he faces for shredding evidence and refusing to pay his employees the overtime they earned, Moreno’s record continues to complicate the image he’s trying to sell Ohioans.

Read / watch / listen to what they’re saying about Bernie Moreno’s lawsuits:

• Frank LaRose: “Mr. Moreno has had a problem not even paying people the wages that they earned in his business and had to settle a lawsuit as a result of that.”

• Daily Beast: “Bernie Moreno is running for Senate largely based on his business success story. But a lawsuit from an old employee is bringing into question Moreno’s version of that story. Despres claimed he was pushed out by Moreno before the sale of any dealerships, not because of his performance but because his old friend did not want to pay him.”

• WCPN: “LaRose attacked Moreno over a wage theft lawsuit in Massachusetts… ‘Mr. Moreno has had a problem not even paying people the wages that they earned in his business and had to settle a lawsuit as a result of that.’”

• Statehouse News Bureau: “…LaRose brought up a lawsuit in which Moreno was ordered to pay $400,000 to some former employees who claimed he didn’t pay them earned overtime. More than a dozen similar cases were settled for undisclosed amounts.”

• WVXU: “When talking about the minimum wage, Frank LaRose got personal. ‘Mr. Moreno has had a problem not even paying people the wages that they earned in his business and had to settle a lawsuit as a result of that.’”

• Ohio Capital Journal: “[LaRose] criticized Moreno over a Massachusetts wage theft lawsuit […] In that case, a judge determined Moreno destroyed evidence despite a court order to preserve it.”

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Columbus, OH – Today, the Cleveland.com editorial board endorsed Judge Lisa Forbes for the Democratic Supreme Court primary election, noting: “It is hard to imagine a more qualified background than the one Forbes presents to voters.” The Ohio Democratic Party endorsed Judge Forbes after an impartial screening committee recommended Forbes for the party’s endorsement last month. Early voting begins today for the March 19 primary election. 

“In this head-to-head race, we believe it is Forbes whose background and wide-ranging experience would make her the best justice and the best choice for Democratic voters to challenge for that position in November,” writes the Cleveland.com editorial board. 

“For too long, the Ohio Supreme Court has put politics over people. This November, we’re restoring fairness, equality and justice back to the state’s highest court by electing Judge Forbes and re-electing Justices Stewart and Donnelly. Nothing short of our fundamental rights are on the ballot,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Ohio is the only state in the nation with the opportunity to flip its Supreme Court this year, as the Court is set to take up key issues in the months and years ahead, including abortion rights, gerrymandering and voting rights. 

Read more from the Cleveland.com editorial board HERE and below: 

• In this head-to-head race, we believe it is Forbes whose background and wide-ranging experience would make her the best justice and the best choice for Democratic voters to challenge for that position in November.
  
• It is hard to imagine a more qualified background than the one Forbes presents to voters. She has a stellar academic record after winning scholarships to Cornell University and then Case Western Reserve University School of Law, where she graduated summa cum laude and was notes editor of the law review.
  
• That launched a 27-year career as an attorney in which Forbes was steeped in both trial and appellate law. She has practiced at all levels throughout Ohio, including the Ohio Supreme Court, with particular expertise in estate and probate work. She was a litigator and partner in the law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease until 2020, when she won election to the court of appeals. In that 2020 race, the local “Judge4Yourself” judicial ratings coalition gave Forbes four “Excellent” ratings and one “Good.” The coalition did not issue ratings in this primary, but Forbes has been endorsed by the Ohio Democratic Party.
  
• Forbes’ community involvement is also impressive. Besides volunteering her time in a host of civic organizations, she is board chair of The Centers, an affiliation of the Centers for Family and Children, Circle Health and the Cleveland Christian Home which provides vital services to vulnerable residents of Cuyahoga County.
  
• Forbes says she sees the Supreme Court as needing to be “an effective firewall” to protect democracy and the rule of law. But she added she worries about the erosion of public respect for the judiciary.
  
• “When questions arise about the political motivations behind judicial decisions, it weakens respect for all judges and courts in general,” she said.
  
• Democratic voters should nominate Lisa Forbes for the unexpired Dec. 31, 2026, term on the Ohio Supreme Court. Early voting begins today.

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Columbus, OH – As early voting begins today for Ohio’s March 19th primary, here’s what Ohioans need to know about the #OHSEN field as this “bruising,” “expensive,” “three-way brawl” of a Senate slugfest finally comes to a head.

Before heading to the polls, here’s what Ohioans need to know about the field:

• All three candidates support a national abortion ban which would overrule the will of Ohioans who overwhelmingly voted to protect reproductive rights last November. 

• All three candidates opposed the bipartisan border security bill that was backed by border patrol agents and would have curbed the flow of fentanyl across our southern border. 

• All three candidates “are willing to repeal” the Affordable Care Act.

• All three candidates don’t believe there should be a minimum wage.

• All three candidates are wealthy, out-of-touch, and using their massive personal fortunes, money from out-of-state billionaires, and parents’ cash to try to buy Ohio’s Senate seat. 

A glimpse at the headlines Ohioans have been reading about Bernie Moreno’s record of refusing to pay his employees and shredding key evidence to get out of it, Frank LaRose’s schemes to put his political ambitions ahead of Ohioans, and Matt Dolan’s attempts to buy Ohio’s Senate seat:

• Associated Press: Bernie Moreno running for Senate as outsider, but public entities he served boosted his business

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

• WCMH: Fact check: Did Senate candidate Bernie Moreno shred documents 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

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

• Cleveland.com: Secretary of State Frank LaRose says abortion opponents helped craft ballot language to aid defeat of Issue 1

• Columbus Dispatch: As Frank LaRose eyes U.S. Senate, turnover plagues Ohio secretary of state’s office

• Ohio Capital Journal: Even before office move is complete, Ohio Sec. of State LaRose appears to blur ethical lines

• Mother Jones: Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Frank LaRose Just Blew Another Deadline to Disclose His Finances

• Axios: LaRose becomes political target after Issue 1 flop

• Cleveland.com: Moreno, Dolan sitting on multi-million dollar fortunes that could bankroll Senate campaigns, disclosures show

• Cleveland.com: How a multimillionaire U.S. Senate candidate financed his race with a cheap loan

• Columbus Dispatch: This 2024 Ohio Senate candidate pledged to help GOP with a new PAC. Did he deliver?

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The New Republic: “[Moreno] Believes That Women Don’t Actually Need Abortions, Just Someone To Lift Heavy Things Such As Strollers For Them” 

Columbus, OH – At last night’s GOP Senate primary debate, Bernie Moreno claimed that women don’t need access to abortion, “just someone to lift heavy things such as strollers for them.” Moreno also doubled down in support of a national abortion ban – which would overrule the majority of Ohioans who “overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution” last year.

Read more:

The New Republic: GOP Candidate: Women Don’t Need Abortion, They Need Help With Strollers

Tori Otten

February 20, 2024

• A Republican candidate for Ohio senator believes that women don’t actually need abortions, just someone to lift heavy things such as strollers for them.

• During a discussion with all Republican primary candidates Monday night, the moderator asked the men for their stance on abortion and reproductive rights.

• Moreno said his daughter had recently flown home after visiting him. “Mom carrying what looks like an F1 team-worth of equipment,” Moreno said. “People helped her on that plane. Helped put the stroller away, helped her with her seat.” “Those are the kinds of things that we can do,” he said. “Let’s be a pro-mom, pro-family policy.”

• Moreno may also find that his opposition to abortion is pretty unpopular with Ohio voters. In November, people overwhelmingly voted to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. 

See also:

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The Daily Beast: “The fundamental content of the case and key pieces of evidence provided by the plaintiff complicate the feel-good story about Moreno’s rise that has featured so prominently in his biography.”

Columbus, OH – New reporting from the Daily Beast finds that yet another lawsuit is clouding Bernie Moreno’s record. It’s the latest in a series of revelations that complicate the image Moreno tries to present to voters and follows revelations that he was sued by his employees for refusing to pay them the overtime they earned, destroyed evidence and was sanctioned by a judge, and then repeatedly lied when faced with questions. 

Read more:

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

Sam Brodey

February 20, 2024

• Bernie Moreno has leaned on his personal story…But there’s been something missing from that story: Moreno’s falling-out with his longtime friend and business associate, Gabriel Despres, a man he once credited as central to his success.

• The core allegation from Despres was that Moreno scuttled an agreement entitling him to 10 percent of the net proceeds from the sale of any of his dealerships in exchange for Despres giving up a large share of his annual salary for Moreno to use as capital to expand the business.

• Despres claimed he was pushed out by Moreno before the sale of any dealerships, not because of his performance but because his old friend did not want to pay him.

• While Despres could not put an exact number on the amount of money he believes he lost as a result, his attorneys estimated it was in the millions.

• “This case is about what turned out to be Moreno’s greed and duplicity towards the person who was most there for him from the beginning and who was instrumental to his own success,” Despres’ attorneys wrote in their initial complaint.

• Between 2015 and 2017, three lawsuits were filed against Moreno by employees at his Cleveland-area dealerships which alleged race, gender, and age discrimination, the Associated Press reported last month. A female employee with children, for instance, alleged that Moreno told her to “put your kids in fucking daycare” after she asked about flexibility in her work schedule. According to the AP, all three lawsuits were settled out of court.

• In 2017, Moreno was sued by two former employees at his Massachusetts dealership who claimed that he failed to pay them overtime wages, under a state law that mandates employers must compensate their workers for extra hours worked even if their pay structures are commission-based.

• In 2020, while the case was ongoing, Moreno destroyed overtime pay records, earning a sanction from the Massachusetts judge who instructed jurors to assume the evidence was damaging to Moreno. Ultimately, he lost the case and was ordered to pay over $416,000 to the former employees. In the months before launching his 2024 Senate bid, Moreno settled more than a dozen similar lawsuits out of court, according to Business Insider.

• In 2012, as their relationship deteriorated, according to the lawsuit, Moreno sent Despres an email offering him two choices. One was to accept a worse pay structure with “a warm embrace, get your head out of your ass, straighten out your financial affairs once and for all, and we move forward.”

• Whatever the legal merits of the specific case, or what Despres could have done differently, his lawsuit made clear that if [Depres] regretted anything, it was trusting Moreno to treat him fairly.

• “As Mr. Despres much later realized but did not recognize at the time,” his suit read, “Moreno was the kind of friend and business partner who willingly made promises of great rewards during the good times, but who disappeared when times were not so good.”

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