Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Blames Abortion Victory on Organizers Cheating & Evangelicals Not Voting

In November, Ohio voters decisively passed Issue 1, a ballot measure to repeal the state’s abortion ban and enshrine a right to abortion in the state Constitution. But the measure faced an uphill battle: In the weeks leading up to it, Republican officials purged 27,000 voters from voter rolls, and, that summer, they tried to sneak through a referendum to substantially increase the threshold for a ballot measure to take effect. All those efforts failed, however, and the measure passed since, much to the GOP's dismay, bodily autonomy is wildly popular.

Despite this, on Wednesday, USA TODAY Network’s Ohio Bureau reported that, in newly obtained audio, Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno accused abortion rights organizers of cheating. The audio is from a July campaign event, in which Moreno, who’s running to oust three-term Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown, stresses the importance of evangelical Christians turning out the vote: “Look, we lost Issue 1 last year because only 52% of evangelical Christians bothered to show up at the ballot box,” Moreno, a businessman and self-described “conservative outsider,” said. "What did we get in exchange? We have abortion right until birth. We have no parental consent for minors getting an abortion because we didn't show up to vote. Can't do that. They can only cheat so much."

Of course, Moreno's claims that Ohio passed “abortion right until birth” is another desperate lie, and, unfortunately, Ohio’s law requiring minors to obtain parental consent for abortion care remains on the books. 

A spokesperson for Moreno’s campaign told the Columbus Dispatch that his comments were "referring to low turnout and encouraging voters to be engaged in this election, rather than sit on the sidelines.” But that doesn’t really clarify whether Moreno accepts the outcome of Issue 1. (Republicans famously tend to have a difficult time accepting the outcomes of elections.) Moreno himself donated $100,000 to a group opposing the ballot measure ahead of last year's election, per the Dispatch. So, there’s that!

This is also the same guy who, in March, suggested that in lieu of abortion rights, women just need help lugging around heavy strollers. He cited his own daughter as an anecdote: “Mom carrying what looks like an F1 team-worth of equipment—people helped her on that plane. Helped put the stroller away, helped her with her seat,” he said at a campaign event. “Those are the kinds of things that we can do. Let’s be a pro-mom, pro-family policy.”

The Ohio Senate race is one of a few key races likely to decide who wins a Senate majority this November—and, consequently, decide whether any abortion rights legislation has even half a prayer of passing. Moreno’s attempts to delegitimize the Ohio ballot measure come as, more publicly, he’s tried to dodge abortion-related questions despite the issue's towering presence in his Senate race. Ohio was one of the first states that activated its abortion trigger ban in June 2022, and consequently, a 10-year-old rape victim in the state was forced to travel to Indiana for care. Moreno seems personally unmoved by stories like this. In August, he accused the media of weaponizing abortion to "gaslight Democrat voters” and suggested Issue 1 was a settled matter we should all move past, and "stop picking at wounds that are 52 years old." 

When it comes to abortion ballot measures, anti-abortion officials have spent the last two years throwing the kitchen sink at the wall and resorting to deeply dishonest methods to try to stop these measures from even getting on the ballot. They’ve lied that the anti-abortion side of ballot measures is actually “pro-choice,” doxxed abortion rights organizers, and had their volunteers pose as government officials to intimidate voters. But, according to Moreno, it’s Ohio abortion rights organizers who are “cheating.”