Ohio’s Republican secretary of state, Frank LaRose, launches his campaign for US Senate

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose launched a bid for the U.S. Senate on Monday, describing himself as a “battle-tested” conservative who represents the Republican Party’s best chance to unseat third-term Democrat Sherrod Brown next year and win back the closely divided chamber.

“To be blunt, we’ve got a country to save,” LaRose said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And I’m not an alarmist or a sky-is-falling type of person, but I see the direction our country’s heading and it’s concerning, and I think other Ohioans are concerned, too.”

In his second term as Ohio’s election’s chief, one of the state’s highest-profile jobs, LaRose kicked off his campaign with stops in Cleveland, Toledo, Lima, Dayton and Cincinnati.

The 44-year-old former state senator and U.S. Army Green Beret managed to walk a delicate line between GOP factions that were divided by falsehoods about election integrity sewn by former President Donald Trump, which helped LaRose score a convincing 59% of the statewide vote in his 2022 reelection bid. He won his first statewide race in 2018 with just over 50% of the vote.

Democrats predicted another “slugfest” ahead — like the bitter and expensive 2022 Republican primary that at one point came to near blows — which would damage its winner and allow Brown to prevail.

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“In the days ahead, the people of Ohio should ask themselves: What is Frank LaRose really doing for us?” Reeves Oyster, Brown’s campaign spokesperson, said in a statement.

LaRose already faces competition for the GOP nomination, including from State Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, and Bernie Moreno, a wealthy Cleveland business owner whose bid Trump has encouraged.

During his first Senate run last year, Dolan invested nearly $11 million of his own money, making him the seventh-highest among self-funders nationally, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Although he joined the protracted contest relatively late, he managed to finish third amid a crowded field. Republican J.D. Vance, a venture capitalist noted for his memoir-turned-movie “Hillbilly Elegy,” ultimately won the seat.

Moreno is the father-in-law of Trump-endorsed Republican U.S. Rep. Max Miller, and was the 17th highest among self-funders nationally — in a 2022 Senate primary packed with millionaires. He ultimately dropped out of the race.

LaRose said he’s received encouragement from many fellow Republicans to run, and can outwork his self-funding opponents with hard work and organization.

Moreno called LaRose “a true career politician” who’s spent the last 13 years running for higher office, while Moreno is “a pro-America First political outsider” whom Ohioans are ready to elect. He said LaRose should be focusing on passing Issue 1, the August ballot proposal that would make it more difficult to amend Ohio’s constitution.

“Unfortunately, LaRose has taken his eye off the ball in his attempt to climb the political ladder,” Moreno said in a statement.

LaRose said he remains committed to helping get Issue 1 passed —“let there be no doubt about that.”

Next year’s successful GOP nominee will take on one of Ohio’s winningest and longest-serving politicians. Voters first sent Brown to the U.S. Senate in 2007 after 14 years as a congressman, two terms as secretary of state and eight years as a state representative.

But Brown, with among the Senate’s most liberal voting records, is viewed as more vulnerable than ever this time around. That’s because the once-reliable bellwether state now appears to be firmly Republican.

Voters twice elected Trump by wide margins and, outside the state Supreme Court, Brown is the only Democrat to win election statewide since 2006.

LaRose called Brown “out of touch” and said he’s “too far left even for most Democrats.”

As for Trump, LaRose said he would neither base his candidacy on a single person’s endorsement nor distance himself from Trump if he winds up being the party’s nominee for president.

“I earned his endorsement (for secretary of state) last year, not by changing who I am, but just by running good, honest elections in Ohio and kind of providing an example for the rest of the country to follow as relates to election integrity,” LaRose said.