Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno floats reparations for white people

Bernie Moreno, a Republican looking to challenge US Sen. Sherrod Brown, suggested the white descendants of northern Civil War soldiers should be eligible for some form of compensation.

“We stand at the shoulders of giants, don’t we? We stand on shoulders of people like John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington. That this group of people took on the largest empire in history. They said no, we will not stand for this. And won,” Moreno told supporters at a campaign event in the Buckeye State this week.

“That same group of people later, white people, died to free black people. It’s never happened in human history before, but it happened here in America. That’s not taught a lot in schools much is it?” he added.

“They make it sound like America is a racist, broken country. You name a country that did that: that freed slaves, died to do that. You know, they talk about reparations. Where are the reparations for the people in the North who died to save the lives of black people?”

Moreno, a business owner, is the second GOP candidate to jump into the race and faces a primary from Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan. The 2024 Ohio Senate race is a top target for Republicans looking to reclaim the upper chamber.

Though Ohio has a long history as a battleground, it has trended red in recent years. Incumbent Brown is the last major elected statewide Democrat. Ohio strongly backed former president Trump in 2016 and 2020 and sent his preferred candidate, J.D. Vance, to the Senate last year.