COLUMBUS, Ohio — After weeks of positioning and some not-so-subtle-tweets teasing a bid, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose officially says he is running for the U.S. Senate.
His campaign released a statement Monday morning that announced he’s filed required paperwork with federal election officials.
“When I see the fundamental changes the left is trying to make to this country, I fear they’re ruining the country we love, and taking the country in a real dangerous direction,” LaRose said in an interview. “And I can’t allow that to happen.”
LaRose, 44, is the third Republican candidate to enter the race, joining Chagrin Falls state Sen. Matt Dolan and Westlake businessman Bernie Moreno. Whoever wins the Republican primary in March will be set to face Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in the November election.
The race, in which Brown is seeking a fourth six-year term, is expected to be one of the most closely watched contests in the country as Republicans try to retake control of the U.S. Senate, where Democrats currently hold a razor-thin majority. Brown, meanwhile, holds one of three Democratic senators representing a seat that ex-President Donald Trump won in 2016 and 2020, and is one of the few remaining statewide elected Democrats.
LaRose has been Ohio’s Secretary of State, the state’s top elections official, since 2019. Before that, he was a state senator, representing a suburban Akron district. He’s made his interest in the race known for months, saying he planned to make a decision sometime in the summer, and teasing a run recently on social media, including a recent post showing a pixelated “LaRose for Senate” image and a “loading” symbol. His announcement comes after the close of the campaign finance reporting period for the second quarter of the year, allowing LaRose to avoid making a public report until mid-October giving him more time to raise money.
Fundraising is a major question for LaRose, though. Unlike Dolan and Moreno, who have the ability to self-fund their campaign, LaRose is not independently wealthy, and he’s previously said he would run only if he thought he could raise enough money to be competitive.
“I think it’s the entrepreneurial model of campaign organization to go out there and raise money from average Ohioans,” LaRose said. “I always want to be somebody who looks like them and believes what they believe.”
Brown, meanwhile, reported on Friday that he had $8.7 million in his campaign bank account after raising $5 million and spending $2.14 million during the second quarter of 2022. Dolan reported raising $1.3 million — $1 million of which was a personal loan — giving his campaign $3.89 million in the bank. Moreno reported raising $2.2 million and spending $745,000, leaving him with $1.5 million in cash on hand. Unlike Dolan, Moreno hasn’t yet tapped into his own personal wealth.
If LaRose is signaling plans to paint his primary opponents as rich and out-of-town, Moreno issued a statement on Monday calling LaRose a career politician.
“With the all-important Issue 1 vote coming up in August, he should instead focus on the job he has,” Moreno campaign spokesperson Conor McGuinness said. “Unfortunately, LaRose has taken his eye off the ball in his attempt to climb the political ladder.”
LaRose enters the race with no prohibitive frontrunner. However, Democrats have telegraphed that they view LaRose as the most formidable challenger, repeatedly criticizing him by name in press releases related to the campaign. LaRose, a U.S. Army veteran with a young family, has the profile of a textbook candidate, and he’s the only Republican candidate in the field who’s won a statewide race. Moreno’s name hasn’t even appeared on a ballot.
Reeves Oyster, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party, issued a statement to accompany an expected announcement from LaRose.
“The Republican ‘slugfest’ for Ohio’s Senate seat is shaping up to be another long, contentious battle that will leave whoever emerges damaged in the eyes of Ohio voters,” Oyster said. “As he teases his announcement, the people of Ohio should ask themselves: what is Frank LaRose really doing for us?”
In early polling, LaRose has held a narrow lead over Dolan, with Moreno tracking in third. But a vast majority of voters are undecided, and a wild card is the potential for ex-President Donald Trump to issue an endorsement in the race. Trump, who continues to hold sway with Republican primary voters despite losing the 2020 election, has been closely linked to Moreno.
LaRose, who was recorded at a private political event earlier this year privately downplaying the significance of a Trump endorsement, said he would be grateful if he got it for this race. But of Moreno, he said “I think you’ve got to base your candidacy on more than just one thing.”
This year’s Republican U.S. Senate primary also is notable for attracting just three major candidates. In contrast, last year’s memorably nasty and historically expensive primary saw six candidates spend millions of dollars of their own money to fuel their campaigns. Trump effectively ended the race when he endorsed now U.S. Sen. JD Vance a few weeks before the primary.
Andrew Tobias covers state politics and government for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer