A Republican candidate who faces a chance of winning next Tuesday’s Senate primary in Ohio has denied he had anything to do with an old profile on an adult dating website.
The advert in question, posted in 2008 on Adult Friend Finder, sought “Men for 1-on-1 sex”. It added, “Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling.” The profile user’s name was “nardo19672”. It had no photo.
The site suffered a well-publicized data breach and its records were made public. Associated Press recently conducted a data review. It reveals the account for “nardo19672” was linked to an email address of Bernie Moreno.
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Moreno, 57, is a multi-millionaire conservative outsider running for the Senate. His campaign received a boost after he was personally endorsed by Donald Trump.
In fact, Moreno’s full first name is Bernardo. He was born in 1967 and arrived in Florida aged five, with his parents, from Colombia. He became a US citizen as a teenager.
Whoever created “nardo19672” used Moreno’s work email address and his correct date of birth. A geo-tag places its location to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Moreno’s parents owned a home in the city at that time.
Intern blamed for “prank”
In response to the Associated Press report, a lawyer for Moreno denied the candidate had created the account. He said it was a former intern who had created it as a prank.
He even offered a statement from the intern in question: Dan Ricci.
“I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend, and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago,” it said.
Charles Harder, Moreno’s lawyer, insisted the candidate “had nothing to do with the AFF account.” He went on to provide a statement from Helder Rosa, a former vice president for Bernie Moreno Companies.
Rosa confirmed that Ricci was an intern for Moreno in November 2008. His duties included checking emails.
Both Rosa and Ricci have donated money to Moreno’s campaigns for Senate, according to publicly released financial information ($12,400 and $6,599 respectively).
The Ohio primary
Republicans hope to win back Ohio from Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Moreno is running against Secretary of State Frank LaRose and State Sen. Matt Dolan in the primary.
As he has no political history, Moreno is not popular with some local Republicans. Besides preferring LaRose or Dolan, some worry the gay hookup story might impact Moreno’s ability to win come November.
However, MAGA supporters appear to have dismissed the story as a smear campaign against their guy.
Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the story was merely the result of a media “obsessed with anyone who supports the America First movement.”
Mike Lee, US Senator for Utah, says “the swamp hates” Bernie Moreno. Last night, Lee implored Ohioans to vote for him.
The Swamp hates @berniemoreno—the only conservative in the Ohio U.S. Senate primary.
You can watch one of Moreno’s campaign videos below. Besides Trump, Ohio’s Junior senator to Congress, JD Vance, also endorses Moreno.
Wealth
If Moreno wins the primary and November election, he will become one of the wealthiest senators in Congress.
Axios puts Moreno’s net worth at between $25 million and $106 million. It included him in an article about Democrats seeking to highlight rich “carpetbagger” Republicans with luxury homes outside of their districts.
Moreno, who built his fortune with a chain of car dealerships, reportedly has multiple properties from Costa Rica to New York City to the Florida Keys. He bought his first dealership in 2005.
Before he turned full-on MAGA, Moreno advocated for gay rights. In 2014, Cleveland and Akron won their bid to host the 2014 Gay Games. Moreno’s car dealership sponsored the event. In an op-ed he wrote for a local business outlet, he said, “A successful Gay Games would go a long way toward boosting our images as cities that welcome all.”
In 2016, in a question and answer session posted on YouTube for his business, Moreno revealed his oldest son is gay. He said shows such as Modern Family had helped challenge perceptions about same-sex marriage.
“We watched these two guys and, we say: ´You know what? They’re good guys, they´re great people. … They are not this distorted thing that is out there.’ And I think those are the kinds of ways that you can break down stereotypes.”
In 2020, his business publicly supported a law banning discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.
Criticizing rivals for gay-friendly credentials
However, in 2021, Moreno embarked on his first run for Congress. He bowed out early, but whilst campaigning, he distanced himself from his previous pro-gay comments. He now accused LGBTQ+ advocates of pushing a “radical” agenda of “indoctrination”.
A Super-PAC supporting Moreno, Buckeye Values, recently put out an advert attacking one of his rivals. It pointed out that Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose previously supported the anti-discrimination bill. Yes, that’s the same one previously supported by Moreno’s businesses.
