Bernie Moreno, a Republican running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, fits the mold of former President Donald Trump, a political outsider he has supported.
“I’m the only outsider in this race,” Moreno, a wealthy businessman from Cleveland, told Buckeye Patriots podcast host Joe Miller in October. “I’m the only outsider in this race who’s been generating business. ” he said. “I’m the only one who’s not part of the political system.”
However, Moreno sometimes played inside. Shortly before entering politics, he served on two government commissions, one for the city of Columbus and one for the city of Cleveland. An Associated Press investigation found that each of these public entities promoted Moreno’s blockchain ventures during his tenure.
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Moreno will face Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan in next month’s Republican primary. The winner will face third-term Sen. Sherrod Brown, considered one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the nation, in November.
Mr. Moreno’s campaign said Mr. Moreno’s recruitment to the executive committee of Innovate Ohio, a state government technology initiative, and to the board of directors of MetroHealth, Cleveland’s public hospital system, was a result of “a political outsider and successful candidate.” “I wanted the perspective of a businessman who has done this.” Both positions were unpaid.
Spokesman Conor McGuinness said in a statement: “He was not making a penny from them and was donating his time, energy and business expertise because he wanted to contribute to the community. ” he said. “As a result of his work, his company earned a total profit of $0.00.”
Bernie Moreno attends a rally with former President Donald Trump at the Delaware County Fairgrounds on April 23, 2022 in Delaware, Ohio. (AP Photo/Joe Maiorana, File)
Not that Moreno walked away empty-handed. When he liquidated his stake in blockchain company Ownum in April 2023 to avoid a conflict of interest, Moreno reported that the stake was worth at least $5 million. Some of the company’s early votes of confidence came from InnovateOhio and his MetroHealth.
Mr. Moreno was appointed as Innovate Ohio Executive Director by Lt. Governor Jon Husted in April 2019. When the new office was announced last September, Moreno stood next to Husted and Republican Gov. Mike DeWine as a featured guest at a technology-themed event. Inauguration celebration in January.
Moreno and Husted already had a history. Moreno donated a total of $20,000 to his political efforts over a 10-year period starting in 2007, when he was speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives and a rising star in the Republican Party, according to state campaign finance reports. Mr. Moreno donated another $25,000 to Ohio gubernatorial candidate DeWine Husted in June 2018, shortly after Onum was incorporated.
Onam was involved in developing technology products that could replace paper-based government processes through digitization. At the time of Moreno’s appointment, the company had just announced its first product, a paperless blockchain option for vehicle titling called CHAMPtitles. Moreno had already revealed that Onam plans to promote the CHAMP title to Ohio and other states.
Back in December 2019. In a speech at the Blockland Solutions Conference in Cleveland, Husted said that Innovate Ohio’s working group is developing ground transportation as the first place for the state to trial blockchain technology, which generates “blocks” of information. He said he had identified the station. Or transactions to a secure and transparent ledger. Husted said the agency had received a “proposal” (from whom he did not say) for the state to work with the private sector to fix Ohio’s vehicle title system. CHAMPtitles tweeted: “Exciting news.”
“We live in Ohio,” Onum CEO Shane Bigelow declared in an interview with the Cincinnati Business Journal about a year later. He told the magazine that Husted had “managed the situation very well” and introduced paperless titles in the state. He said Ohio is a “pioneer” in this technology and Onam now hopes to become a “50-state solution.” Neighboring West Virginia announced it will become the first state to fully digitize car titles through CHAMPtitles in 2022.
Jonah Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, said support like Husted’s, or later that of MetroHealth’s CEO, could have potential financial benefits for the company. Stated. “It could almost act as a quality signal” to other states, governors and hospital systems considering the product, he said.
“If it’s a new company that no one has heard of before, partnering with people other people trust or recommendations from people other people trust can be helpful,” he said. .
Husted spokeswoman Haley Carducci said InnovateOhio aims to make Ohio “the most innovative and entrepreneurial state in the Midwest,” and that the executive committee is “consultative in nature. “It is an agency and has no position in state contract decisions.”
“Although Bernie Moreno is not currently a member of the advisory board, he was originally included on the advisory board because of his technology and business expertise,” she said in a statement.
Mr. McGuinness described Mr. Brown, Mr. LaRose and Mr. Dolan as all “career politicians” and said it was “ridiculous” to view Mr. Moreno as a political outsider who serves on such committees. suggested that.
“Like many political outsiders, such as President Trump, Sen. J.D. Vance, and Vivek Ramaswamy, to name a few, Bernie’s successful business career has made his perspective incredibly popular with all organizations. “It’s now in demand,” he said.
In Cleveland, Democratic Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish nominated Moreno to the MetroHealth Board of Trustees in September 2019. Moreno donated $5,000 to Budish’s re-election campaign in July 2018, according to county campaign finance records. Budish did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Shontel Brown, then a Cuyahoga County legislator and now a Democrat, told The Plain Dealer at the time that Moreno’s failure to appear at his confirmation hearing was unusual. He also said the process was expedited at the request of MetroHealth CEO Dr. Akram Boutros, who sought Moreno’s approval ahead of the health system’s October board meeting. He said that he had done so.
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Six months later, Ownum’s second product, Vital Chain, which offers blockchain birth and death certificates, has landed MetroHealth as its first client. Boutros touted the development as a “major leap forward in public health efforts and more to combat infant mortality.”
Moreno resigned from the health system board in February 2021 ahead of his first run for Senate.
McGuinness said Moreno’s campaign contributions to Husted and Budish join “hundreds of thousands of dollars (he has donated) to countless Republican candidates and causes in Ohio and across the country.” He said he had no role in either appointment.
