Trump-backed Moreno defeated incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown in the Ohio Senate race

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republicans prevailed in a must-win Ohio Senate race Tuesday as Trump-backed Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno defeated Democrats U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown to help with change Control of the chamber to the GOP.

With $500 million in spending, that was it most expensive Senate race this year and one of the most expensive in US history.

Moreno, 57, who was born in Colombiawill be the first Latino to represent Ohio in the Senate. He won in the Republican-leaning state with a campaign that called Brown “too liberal for Ohio,” using sometimes misleading and occasionally false claims about Brown's votes related to immigration and transgender athletes. Moreno also worked successfully to align Brown, a third-term incumbent, with President Joe Biden and his running mate, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, on border security.

During an acceptance speech in Cleveland, Moreno pledged to serve all Ohioans and work to win over those who voted against him.

“We talked about wanting a red wave. I think what we have tonight is a red, white and blue wave,” he said. “Because what we need in the United States of America are leaders in Washington, DC, who will actually put the interests of the American people above all else. We are tired of being treated like second class citizens in our own country. We’re tired of leaders thinking we’re trash and we’re tired of being treated like trash.”

Brown's defeat marked another victory for a candidate backed by the former president, whose support in the state buoyed the author of “Hillbilly Elegy.” JD Vance into politics and eventually became his vice presidential candidate. Trump appeared in ads for Moreno in the final days of the campaign, and the candidate thanked him on Tuesday and praised him as the best president of his generation.

“Thank you for the sacrifices you have made for this country,” Moreno said to Trump. “This country owes a debt of gratitude to Donald Trump. And Senator JD Vance. Ohio loves you, man, Ohio loves you. I love you.”

He called Vance a “brilliant choice” for vice president and joked that he would quickly become Ohio's senior senator if Trump-Vance wins the presidential election.

About four in 10 voters in Ohio's Senate races said the party's control of the chamber was the most important factor in their vote, while about half said it was an important factor, according to AP VoteCast, a comprehensive poll of more than 3,700 voters in the state. Voters who favored Brown were just as likely to say this as voters for Moreno.

Brown, 71, one of Ohio's longest-serving and best-known politicians, had sought to appeal to Trump crossover voters by emphasizing his work with presidents of both parties and to woo independents and Democrats by touting his efforts to empower middle-class workers promoted.

He told his supporters Tuesday night that his belief in the dignity of work and the power of people over corporate special interests will never change.

“This is a disappointment, but not a failure,” Brown said. “It will never be wrong to fight for organized labor, it will never be wrong to fight for women’s freedom to make their health care decisions, it will certainly never be wrong to fight for civil and human rights.” Today “I’m sad in the evening, but I never give up and neither does Connie.”

His wife, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Connie Schultz, reiterated: “Absolutely not.”

Brown and his allies pressed on Cell phone video That came to light late in the campaign and shows Moreno criticizing suburban women who base their votes on abortion rights to paint the Republican as out of step with the 57% of Ohioans who supported a 2023 constitutional amendment that would Access to abortion was enshrined in the state constitution.

But abortion, the issue Democrats had banked on to win Tuesday, ultimately did not appear to be the deciding factor. Republicans' hopes of victory depended on it former leading state hard rightward shift in the last elections and a strong financial advantage.

According to the 110,000 voters surveyed for AP VoteCast, including more than 3,700 voters in Ohio, four in 10 Ohio voters said the economy and jobs were the country's biggest problem. About two in 10 Ohio voters said immigration was the most pressing issue, while only about one in 10 mentioned abortion.

Because Moreno and his Republican allies consistently spent more than Democrats during the campaign, they significantly dented Brown's popularity ratings with Ohio voters, erasing an advantage Brown had enjoyed in the polls throughout the campaign and depriving him of a fourth Term.

Brown was the only Democrat to hold nonjudicial statewide office in Ohio.