Vulnerable Dem senator hit with blistering ad as record on key issue faces scrutiny: ‘F- rating’

FIRST ON FOX: Businessman Bernie Moreno, running for Senate as a Republican against incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, released a blistering ad on Wednesday hammering the longtime Democrat on his ties to President Biden’s agenda and alleged weakness on immigration.

“Biden’s politics now are not much different than mine,” a video of Brown from a 2021 interview, said in his own words at the start of the video, before claiming that “Sherrod Brown shares Biden’s open border agenda.”

The ad goes on to say that Brown “refused to fund efforts to detain and deport criminal illegal immigrants convicted of a crime” citing a 2021 roll call vote on Senate Amendment 3742.

“Sherrod Brown called the border wall ‘stupid’ and ‘wrong,'” the ad continues with a reference to a 2019 interview, when Brown dismissed the need for a border wall.

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Bernie Moreno, left, and Sen. Sherrod Brown. (Getty Images)

“He made a campaign promise, but his campaign promise was that Mexico would pay, and he seems to have forgotten that,” Brown told the Tribune Chronicle during former President Trump’s presidency. “The wall is a bad idea and taking money away from our national defense is a really bad idea with what’s called the gate relocation at YARS. It’s a stupid idea; it’s wrong.” 

Brown also referred to the border wall as “ludicrous” in a 2017 interview which is also clipped in the ad.

The ad goes on to mention that Brown received an “F-” rating on immigration and claimed that contributed to the current border situation where “drugs and crime pour through our broken border.”

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Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio and chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, D.C., on June 22, 2023. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“But Brown doesn’t think it’s a problem,” the ad says before playing a clip of Brown from a 2023 interview, when he said, “I don’t hear a lot about immigration from voters except people on the far-right that always want to gain political advantage by talking about it.”

The ad closes with a video shot by Fox News interviewing an illegal immigrant at the border who says that the American people are “right” to be concerned about who is coming across the border.

“Brown and Biden won’t keep your family safe,” the ad says.

Republican presidential candidate former President Trump, right, greets Ohio Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Bernie Moreno. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

One Nation, a group tied to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Republican leadership, ran an ad against Brown on immigration earlier this month outlining alleged inconsistencies in Brown’s record on the crisis at the border.

Brown’s record of voting with Biden nearly 100% of the time and his positions on immigration are expected to be front and center on the campaign over the next few months, while the incumbent Democrat has hit Moreno on abortion and enlisted actor Martin Sheen for an ad last year touting his record on fighting for workers.

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A Democratic group with ties to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer cut an ad this month defending Brown’s immigration record and attempted to make the case that the Democratic senator shares some of the same policies as former President Trump.

The Moreno campaign has previously hit Brown on his immigration voting record, calling out votes as a senator that included rejecting a proposal in 2013 that would have delayed permanent legal status for many illegal immigrants until a 700-mile double layered border fence was constructed.

“Sherrod Brown and Joe Biden created the border invasion that is destroying our nation and harming communities across Ohio,” Moreno told Fox News Digital. 

“Throughout his decades in Washington, D.C., Brown has repeatedly voted against deporting illegals and funding the border wall and in favor of mass amnesty, sanctuary cities and taxpayer-funded health care for illegals. Brown has a long record of supporting open borders, which is exactly why Ohioans will retire him to the private sector in November.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Brown campaign but did not receive a response.

Brown’s race against Moreno in November will be one of the most closely watched in the country. Many view it as one of the best opportunities Republicans have to take back control of the Senate, which Democrats currently hold by a 51-49 margin, in a state that Trump won by 8 points in 2020 and is expected to win again.