Sen. Sherrod Brown tells Ohio voters not to trust GOP ‘car salesman’ Moreno — while awash in Big Auto donations

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) is repeatedly running ads urging Ohioans not to vote for a “car salesman” — while swimming in Big Auto donations himself.

The campaign commercial has been ubiquitous in the state since May, and all it does is show a man, Republican Bernie Moreno, who happens to sell cars for a living at work — selling cars.

“As a car salesman, Bernie Moreno would say anything to sell a car,” the ad begins before quoting old ads with Moreno saying things such as “We offer excellent sales guarantees” and “52 car washes a year.”

#OHSen: The Sherrod Brown campaign is going negative, 173 days out. They're up on TV with this spot — pic.twitter.com/rE35AXLrNC

— Medium Buying (@MediumBuying) May 16, 2024

A voice intones, “You couldn’t trust him as a car dealer. So why would you trust him as your senator?”

Viewers may expect some damning line or strange contradiction from Moreno in the ad — but no.

He’s just selling cars. He’s just doing his job.

The ad’s implication? Ohioans should not vote for Moreno because of his profession.

But while the Brown campaign may not fully trust the auto business, it sure has benefited from it.

Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown is running an ad urging voters to not vote for his “car salesman” opponent Bernie Moreno. Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images

According to campaign-finance disclosures:

• Sherrod Brown has taken $68,500 from Ford Motor Company’s political action committee.

• Brown has received $38,000 from General Motors’ PAC.

• Brown has gotten more than $60,000 from lobbyists who as recently as last year lobbied for Ford, GM or Stellantis.

Brown, previously a fierce opponent of PACs, recently recanted his vow never to take money from one, made while attempting to mount a presidential run that ultimately fizzled.

“This is a pattern for Brown,” a senior Republican strategist said. “For years he’s cultivated this image as an honest, pro-worker candidate . . . but taking all this [PAC] money certainly makes that much tougher for people to believe.”

Brown’s ad includes clips of Moreno appearing in car commericals. X/@MediumBuying

“Sherrod Brown, a 50-year career politician, is who Ohio voters should distrust. His despicable ad mocking auto dealers and their tens of thousands of hardworking employees is wildly out-of-touch,” Moreno said after seeing Brown’s ad. The senator “owes a sincere apology to thousands of hardworking Ohioans for this disgusting, cheap insult.”

Moreno’s fellow salespeople and auto dealers around the state expressed their own outrage, which his campaign circulated.

“Sherrod Brown has never had a job outside of government and has no idea what it takes. He should apologize to all of us for these despicable comments,” said Joseph Chapman of Marysville’s Chapman Ford.

“Sherrod Brown’s latest ad is as out of touch as a politician can be,” said David Wyler of Jeff Wyler Automotive Family in Winchester’s. “His comments are insulting to the hundreds of thousands of hardworking employees who work for auto dealers.”

Asked to confirm or deny taking donations from auto-manufacturer PACs and whether he considers blue-collar workers to make good leaders, Brown’s campaign responded: “No one has fought harder for Ohio auto workers than Sherrod Brown — who is making sure more cars are made in America, and especially in Ohio, by Ohio workers.”

Brown leads Moreno by as many as five points, according to recent polls. AP Photo/David Dermer

The campaign noted Moreno’s record is far from spotless, highlighting a Spectrum News report that found Moreno repeatedly lied about refusing to sell the Buick Envision — an SUV manufactured in China — at any of his dealerships.

Auto-futurism is a key issue for Brown, who is one of a very small number of Democratic senators yet to embrace his party’s eagerness to hasten America’s transition from gas- to electric-powered vehicles.

Polls show Brown leads Moreno by as many as 5 points — a recent boost many attribute to a steady stream of contradictions the Democrat has highlighted from the Republican’s early campaign literature, such as the details of his childhood and immigration from Columbia.

Brown has already spent more than $48.1 million on campaigns ads, according to the real-time advertising-analytics tracker Ad Impact Politics.

That’s more than any other sitting senator has spent so far this election cycle.