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Sen. JD Vance’s Silicon Valley network could play a pivotal role in the upcoming general election as GOP Senate nominee Bernie Moreno looks to oust vulnerable three-term Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio.
Moreno, a Cleveland-based business leader and luxury auto dealership giant, was endorsed by Vance last year, and the first-term senator’s support was seen as a prelude to former President Donald Trump’s backing of Moreno earlier this year.
“We’re going to win. We’re going to unite this party. And Bernie’s going to make a great U.S. senator,” Vance predicted to Fox News Digital on the eve of last week’s primary in Ohio, as he accompanied Moreno at a campaign stop in suburban Cleveland.
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Sen. JD Vance campaigns on behalf of GOP Senate candidate Bernie Moreno as they speak with party activists in Independence, Ohio, on March 19, 2024. (Fox News – Paul Steinhauser)
Thanks in part to Trump’s endorsement, combined with the support from Vance and other top allies of the former president, Moreno ended up winning the primary over two rivals by nearly 20 points. Moreno now faces off in November against Brown in a titanic showdown that may decide whether the GOP wins back the Senate majority.
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But Vance did much more than just stump non-stop with Moreno on the Ohio campaign trail in the closing days ahead of the primary.
Republicans involved in the race confirm 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 hauling in half a million dollars in just 24 hours to help pay for a rally headlined by Trump just three days before the primary.
Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, center, is joined by Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and Sen. JD Vance at a campaign event in Milford, Ohio, on March 17, 2024. (Fox News – Jamie Vera)
Vance, after serving as a Marine in the Iraq War, moved for a handful of years to San Francisco to work as a venture capitalist in the tech industry.
And Vance – the author of the bestselling memoir “Hillbilly Elegy,” which was made into a Netflix film – two years ago won his own crowded and combustible GOP Senate primary thanks in part to Trump’s late-in-the-game endorsement.
“JD has a Rolodex of Silicon Valley contacts that very few Republican figures can get to. And he put some of those to use on behalf of Moreno,” a source in Vance’s political orbit told Fox News.
Vance was instrumental in landing a $375,000 contribution to the Moreno-aligned super PAC from Steve Schwarzman, the billionaire founder and CEO of Blackstone Group, who’s a top GOP donor.
Sen. JD Vance campaigns on behalf of former President Trump, on Jan. 19, 2024, in Kingston, New Hampshire. (Fox News – James Levinson)
And sources familiar with a meeting between Trump and Vance at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, say the senator made the case for Trump to endorse Moreno rather than Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who was angling for the former president’s backing.
Moving forward, Vance is expected to continue his fundraising efforts in support of Moreno. And Vance, who campaigned on behalf of Trump in New Hampshire in January ahead of the first-in-the-nation primary, will continue to help to raise money for the former president’s bid to return to the White House.
As Moreno’s campaign shifts its focus to the general election, the Republican businessman will be up against an onslaught of attack ads and millions of dollars raised by Brown. The longtime senator’s campaign had $14.6 million cash on hand at the beginning of this year and raised over $12 million combined during the last two quarters of 2023.
Fox News Digital reached out to Brown’s campaign about Vance’s fundraising prowess.
Paul Steinhauser is a politics reporter based in New Hampshire.
