Sen. J.D. Vance’s Silicon Valley network will play a pivotal role in the upcoming general election as Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno seeks to oust vulnerable Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. There is a possibility that it will be fulfilled.
Moreno, a Cleveland-based businessman and major luxury car dealer, was endorsed by Vance last year, and the first-term senator’s endorsement is seen as a prelude to former President Donald Trump’s endorsement of Moreno earlier this year. was.
“We will win. We will unite this party. And Bernie will be a great United States senator,” Vance said, accompanying Moreno to a rally on the eve of last week’s Ohio primary. He predicted this to FOX News Digital. Suspended his campaign in suburban Cleveland.
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Sen. J.D. Vance speaks with party activists on behalf of Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno on March 19, 2024 in Independence, Ohio. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
With support from President Trump, along with support from Vance and other prominent allies of the former president, Moreno ultimately won the primary by nearly 20 points over his two rivals. Moreno now faces Brown in a huge showdown that will determine whether Republicans regain the Senate majority in November.
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But Mr. Vance didn’t just go toe-to-toe with Mr. Moreno nonstop on the campaign trail in Ohio in the final stages of the primary.
Republicans involved in the campaign confirmed to Fox News that the senator was responsible for bringing in more than $1 million in fundraising contributions to the pro-Moreno super PAC Buckeye Values. That includes raising $500,000 in just 24 hours to help pay for President Trump’s headline-making rally just three days before the primary.
Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno (center) joins Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance at a campaign event in Milford, Ohio, March 17, 2024. (Fox News – Jamie Verra)
After serving in the Iraq War as a Marine, Vance moved to San Francisco for several years and worked as a venture capitalist in the technology industry.
And Mr. Vance, the author of the best-selling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was made into a Netflix movie, won a crowded and combustible Republican Senate primary for himself two years ago thanks to President Trump’s late endorsement. I got it.
“JD has a Rolodex of contacts in Silicon Valley that few Republican officials have access to, and he has used some of them on Moreno’s behalf,” a political associate of Mr. Vance told Fox News. .
Mr. Vance also received $375,000 from a top Republican donor, billionaire Blackstone Group founder and CEO Steve Schwartzman, to a super PAC aligned with Mr. Moreno. He worked hard to obtain donations.
Senator J.D. Vance campaigns on behalf of former President Trump in Kingston, New Hampshire, on January 19, 2024. (Fox News – James Levinson)
In addition, the senator said that Trump was speaking with State Representative Frank LaRose of Ohio, according to people familiar with the meeting between Trump and Vance at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. He said he insisted on supporting Mr. Moreno rather than the secretary. Backed by the former president.
Mr. Vance is expected to continue fundraising efforts to support Mr. Moreno. Vance, who campaigned on Trump’s behalf in New Hampshire in January ahead of the nation’s first primary, plans to continue helping raise funds for Trump’s return to the White House.
As Mr. Moreno’s campaign shifts its focus to the general election, the Republican businessman faces an onslaught of attack ads and the millions of dollars raised by Mr. Brown. The longtime senator’s campaign had $14.6 million in cash at the beginning of this year and has raised more than $12 million combined for the last two quarters of 2023.
Fox News Digital reached out to Brown’s campaign about Vance’s fundraising abilities.
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