Senate spotlight: A Trump Republican's China problem

November's election will not only determine which party controls the White House but also the United States Senate. Currently, the Democratic caucus holds a narrow 51-49 advantage. Control of the chamber will come down to a handful of competitive races. This is the first installment in a series that takes a deep dive into the issues shaping these campaigns. 

In Ohio, businessman Bernie Moreno (R) is attempting to unseat Senator Sherrod Brown (D). Ohio, once a swing state, has been trending Republican. Moreno's campaign strategy is to attach himself at the hip to Donald Trump. He refers to himself as the "Trump endorsed Republican nominee for US Senate from Ohio." This helped him easily win the Republican primary against a field of more politically experienced opponents.  

In a potential second term, Trump is vowing to declare economic war on China, promising to "tax China to build America up." Trump's plan is to revoke China's most favored nation trading status and impose a tariff on Chinese goods of up to 60%. (The policy would cost the typical American household thousands of dollars annually and increase inflation.) Imports of "essential goods" from China, including electronics, steel, and pharmaceuticals, would be completely banned. 

Moreno has taken a similar approach, saying he is running for Senate to "Beat Communist China." To bolster his anti-China credentials, Moreno claims to have a history of combating Chinese power. These stories, however, don't stand up to scrutiny.

Moreno made his fortune through buying and selling car dealerships. As his wealth increased, so did his interest in Republican politics. In 2011, former Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) appointed him to the board of trustees at Cleveland State, one of Ohio's public universities. Moreno served as chairman of the Cleveland State board from 2016 to 2018.

Confucius Institutes, which offer "Chinese language and culture programs," were established at numerous U.S. universities beginning in 2005. They were partially funded by the Chinese government. Over time, there were bipartisan concerns that Confucius Institutes were being used to promote Chinese government propaganda or even to facilitate espionage. On the campaign trail, Moreno has repeatedly claimed that, in his role as chair of Cleveland State's Board of Trustees, he eliminated the university's Confucius Institute.

Here is how Moreno described his role in a March 2023 campaign event:

I chaired the board of trustees at Cleveland State University, and I’m very proud of the fact that when I was there, we got rid of our Confucius Institute. We made certain that we focused everybody on student achievement, and we respected free speech on campus.

He made a nearly identical claim in October 2023. But it is a lie.

Moreno's service on the board ended in May 2018. Cleveland State did not shut down its Confucius Institute until 2021. The truth is, while Moreno was on the board, he repeatedly approved funding for Cleveland State's Confucius Institute. In 2016, when Moreno was still vice chairman, he voted to approve $38,000 in funding for the school's Confucius Institute. The following year, as chairman, Moreno voted to re-up the funding. Minutes from these meetings show that Moreno did not express any concerns about the Confucius Institute. 

Moreno told the Columbus Dispatch that he deserves credit for the elimination of the Confucius Institute at Cleveland State because of "his role in the hiring of Harlan Sands, who was Cleveland State's president when the institute closed." There are a couple of issues with this response. First, this is not what Moreno said previously. He clearly said that the board "got rid" of the Confucius Institute while he was chair. Second, Cleveland State did not eliminate the Confucius Institute because of the initiative of President Sands. Cleveland State, along with nearly all other universities, closed its Confucius Institute after Congress passed legislation in 2018 and 2020 limiting federal funding for universities that maintained the Confucius Institutes. From 2019 to 2023, the number of Confucius Institutes operating in the United States went from about 100 to fewer than 5.

The truth about Moreno and Chinese-made SUVs

"When I was a General Motors dealer, I sold Buicks. The Buick Envision was made in China. I told General Motors I wouldn't sell one of them, don't even ship it to me," Moreno said during a February 10, 2024 radio interview. "They threatened me and sent me all kinds of nasty notes… we have to actually take this stand…"

That story, which Moreno also told during his brief run for Senate in 2021, is a lie. 

In reality, Moreno sold the Buick Envision at his dealership for at least five years — from 2014 to 2019 — and promoted the vehicle repeatedly on its social media channels, an investigation by NY1 revealed. 

A December 13, 2016 video published on the "Bernie Moreno Companies" YouTube page begins with this testimonial: "My name is Kayla McCullough. I purchased a 2017 Buick Envision from Buick GMC of Beachwood… I highly recommend you visit the team at Buick GMC of Beachwood, a Bernie Moreno company."

Moreno's campaign "acknowledged to Spectrum News that his dealership did sell the Chinese-made SUVs." It claimed that "in response to the closure of the Lordstown Plant here in Ohio [in March 2019],  Bernie made a decision to stop any new inventory of Envision's from being sold at his dealership. After he sold off the inventory he already had on the lot, he refused to take orders for more Envisions." This explanation, however, makes little sense as the Envision was also produced in China and never at Ohio's Lordstown Plant. Moreno's dealerships also continued to advertise for the Envision months after the closure of the plant.