COLUMBUS, Ohio — Democratic superstar Sen. Sherrod Brown's 50-year career came to an abrupt end last week with an upset of Republican challenger Bernie Moreno. But Ohio's next senator is still waiting for the traditional call for concessions.
Moreno and people close to his campaign confirmed to the Post that Brown made no attempt to reach out to Republicans or make any concessions on election night or the next morning.
A week later, people close to Moreno again told the Post that Moreno had not received even a text message from Brown or his staff. However, the new senator called Brown on election night and was fully prepared to concede personally if he lost.
Sources say Moreno doesn't seem concerned and is instead focused on hiring and adjusting Senate staff.
This is doubly important because the impending departure from Capitol Hill of Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, also from Ohio, will propel Moreno into the position of de facto senior senator from the Buckeye State. It has become a great mission.
From there, the 57-year-old will put a very simple and public agenda at the top of his first-term agenda. It's about ripping the gavel out of the pale hands of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Senator Schumer, I have a message for you: Thank you for your help in the primary, but you're fired, buddy,” Moreno encouraged during his election night acceptance speech near Cleveland. “We're tired of politicians calling us trash. We're tired of being treated like trash.”
Ohio State seems to agree.
Voters in the state supported Mr. Moreno by nearly 4 percentage points.
That's less than the 6 percentage points Mr. Vance won in the statewide election by 2022, and far less than the almost unbelievable 11.3 percentage points that President-elect Donald Trump carried Ohio this time around.
Harder numbers show that Brown still had some serious popularity after that. However, while experts said the race was too close to judge, it appears that the defeated Democratic Party took this literally.
