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Bernie Moreno

U.S. Senate · OH · Republicans · since 2025

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Candidate for U.S. Senate · OH

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Biography

Overview

Bernie Moreno is a Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio who took office on January 3, 2025. He was born in Bogotá, Colombia in 1967 and immigrated to the United States at age five. Before his Senate election, Moreno built a business career as a car dealership operator in Ohio and later moved into blockchain technology. In 2024, he defeated three-term incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown. When JD Vance resigned to become Vice President in January 2025, Moreno became Ohio's senior senator. He is the first Hispanic American senator from Ohio and one of the first two Colombian American U.S. senators.

Career

Since taking office in January 2025, Moreno negotiated a one-year delay in the closure of the Chillicothe Paper Mill with H.I.G. Capital in April 2025. He introduced the Exclusive Citizenship Act requiring dual citizens to renounce other citizenship. Prior to Senate service, he established the Sales Center for Excellence at Cleveland State University in 2018 and was elected to the Cleveland Business Hall of Fame in 2019. Before entering electoral politics, he founded Ownum, a blockchain technology company. In 2023, he settled over a dozen wage theft lawsuits at his dealerships for over $400,000.

Prior political experience

Moreno first ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 to replace retiring incumbent Rob Portman but withdrew on February 3, 2022, after reportedly meeting with Donald Trump. In 2024, he ran again for Ohio's Senate seat. He won the Republican primary on March 19, 2024, defeating Matt Dolan and Frank LaRose. In the general election, he defeated three-term incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown. During the general election campaign, the cryptocurrency industry spent more than $40 million supporting his candidacy. He was sworn in on January 3, 2025, and became Ohio's senior senator on January 10, 2025, when JD Vance resigned to become Vice President.

Biographical material adapted from the Wikipedia article (retrieved April 29, 2026), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ideology

Liberal–Conservative (DW-NOMINATE dim 1)

Liberal
Conservative
119th Congress+0.740

Secondary axis (DW-NOMINATE dim 2)(?)

−1
+1
+0.236
Source: Voteview DW-NOMINATE · 676 scored votes

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Officeholding history

TermSeatTerm datesTerminationPredecessorSuccessor
1stU.S. Senate OH Class 12025–presentIn progress——

Committee assignments

Current term legislation

Bills sponsored this term10

Bills cosponsored this term10

Elections

YearSeatResultVote shareField
2024U.S. Senate OH Class 1Pending50.09%