By BRIAN SLODYSKO and AARON KESSLER (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ohio presents a great opportunity for Republicans to gain a crucial Senate seat as they aim to regain the majority this year.
Before the primary election on Tuesday, there is growing worry among Republicans that Bernie Moreno could win the nomination. After receiving a valuable endorsement from Donald Trump, Moreno, who used to support LGBTQ rights but now strongly opposes them, is facing questions about a 2008 profile seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex” on a casual sexual encounters website called Adult Friend Finder.
A caption on a photo-less profile under the username “nardo19672” says, “Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling,” according to records obtained by the Associated Press. Records also show that the profile was last accessed about six hours after it was created.
An investigation by the Associated Press confirmed that someone with access to Moreno’s email account created the profile, although it could not definitively confirm whether Moreno himself created it. Questions about the profile have been circulating within the GOP for the past month. Two days after the AP asked Moreno’s campaign about the account, the candidate’s lawyer stated that a former intern created the account as a prank. The lawyer provided a statement from the intern, Dan Ricci, who admitted to creating the account “as part of a juvenile prank.”
Ricci said, “I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago.” The AP could not independently verify Ricci’s statement, and he did not immediately respond to messages left for him on multiple phone numbers listed to him. He donated $6,599 to Moreno’s campaign last year, according to campaign finance records.
Moreno’s lawyer, Charles Harder, insisted that Moreno “had nothing to do with the AFF account.”
Once a key swing state, Ohio has shifted significantly to the right in recent years. Trump easily won the state in 2016 and 2020, and the GOP now holds top statewide offices along with both chambers of the legislature. This has given Republicans hope that Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown will struggle to overcome the headwinds that have swept his party out of power in Ohio.
With Republicans just one seat short of a Senate majority if they also win the presidency, the results in Ohio could have significant implications for the balance of power in Washington.
The situation has increased the importance of Trump's support for Moreno in a competitive race that also includes Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan. Trump is set to appear alongside Moreno at a rally in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday.
GOP frustration
Moreno’s potential susceptibility has triggered frustration among senior Republican operatives and elected officials in Washington and Ohio, according to seven people familiar with discussions about how to handle the situation. The people requested anonymity to avoid clashing with Trump and his allies. They described concerns about Moreno’s candidacy as so serious that some party officials sought a review of data to establish his potential involvement.
Someone who knows about the situation said that the review connected the profile to Moreno’s work email address.
The AP's separate examination came to the same result. The AP got information from the Adult Friend Finder leak and from data that's still available on the company’s website. Looking at that info, it's clear that the profile was made and verified by someone who could access Moreno’s work email account.
Other than the work email, the profile has Moreno’s right birthdate, and the geolocation data suggests that it was meant to be used in a part of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Moreno’s parents had a home at the time. The username — nardo19672 — seems to refer to Moreno’s full first name, Bernardo, and his birth year and month in February 1967.
Jake Williams, a well-known cybersecurity researcher, confirmed independently that Moreno’s work email address was in a copy of the leaked data from Adult Friend Finder and said, “This is a telling example of how this data doesn’t just go away.”
Harder also provided a statement from Helder Rosa, a former vice president for Bernie Moreno Companies, that said Ricci was an intern in November 2008 and that people in such roles had duties that included checking emails. Rosa has donated $12,400 to Moreno’s two campaigns for Senate, according to campaign finance records. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moreno, 57, was born in Colombia to a wealthy family before moving to Florida as a child and becoming a U.S. citizen at 18, according to a biography on his website. He bought his first car dealership in 2005 and used his money to build an empire that included high-end dealerships in multiple states.
Changing opinions
Before Moreno started expressing anti-LGBTQ views during his campaigns, he made comments that seemed to show acceptance of homosexuality.
When Cleveland and Akron won their bid to host the 2014 Gay Games, an Olympics-like international competition with LGBTQ athletes, Moreno was a strong supporter while his auto dealership company was a financial sponsor, according to an opinion article he wrote for the business publication Crain’s Cleveland Business.
In an event posted on his company’s YouTube page in 2016, Moreno mentioned that his oldest son is gay, and gave credit to the TV show “Modern Family” for changing perceptions about same-sex marriage.
He said, “We watched these two guys and, we say: ’You know what? They’re good guys, they’re great people. … They are not this distorted thing that is out there.’ And I think those are the kinds of ways that you can break down stereotypes,” during the event.
In October 2017, fliers were found on the campus of Cleveland State University. They urged gay and transgender students to commit suicide. At that time, Moreno was the chairman of the school’s board of trustees. He was the top signer of a letter criticizing the “abhorrent message” as “an attack on our whole campus.”
In 2020, his companies were listed as supporters of a law against discrimination of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people in Ohio. Equality Ohio, a prominent LGBTQ rights group, stated that Moreno joined the campaign after talking to the organization’s leadership in 2017 during an event promoting the bill.
When Moreno first ran for Senate in 2021, he changed his stance. He distanced himself from his previous activism and claimed to be unfamiliar with the anti-discrimination legislation, as reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
During his current Senate campaign, Moreno accused advocates for LGBTQ rights of promoting a “radical” agenda of “indoctrination.” He has the support of Ohio Value Voters, a group against LGBTQ rights, including same-sex marriage. His campaign’s social media accounts have attacked his opponents, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Sen. Matt Dolan, as supporters of a “radical trans agenda.
A recent TV ad paid for by Buckeye Values, a pro-Moreno super PAC, shows a picture of LaRose over a rainbow flag, criticizing him as “a champion for trans equality.” The ad mentions LaRose’s past endorsement for a bill that Moreno’s company also backed — a bill that would have banned discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
A narrator in a recent TV ad questions if Frank LaRose can be trusted, while also criticizing him for making positive statements in the past about Equality Ohio, a well-known gay rights group. Moreno supported the same legislation through his companies.
Donald Trump Jr. later posted the ad to X, a social media site formerly known as Twitter, stating “I have no doubt” Ohio voters will elect “the real conservative @berniemoreno over leftwing, pro-trans Frank LaRose.”
Maria Bruno, the public policy director for Equality Ohio, expressed disappointment in Moreno’s changing stance on LGBTQ issues. She said, ”Anyone who is going to be compromising their value system just to win an election, they lose a lot of credibility.”
Bernie Moreno is facing questions about a 2008 profile seeking “Men for 1-on-1 sex” on a casual sexual encounters website called Adult Friend Finder.
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