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Senate Majority PAC, an independent group aligned with Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), is spending $2.7 million to elevate Donald Trumps pick a fellow 2020 election denier in a three-way Republican primary on Tuesday. The idea is to help the candidate, former luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno, because he would be the easiest GOP nominee for incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to defeat in the fall.

Its a replay of the cynical tactic Democrats employed in the 2022 midterm elections. Then, they spent more than $53 million across nine states primaries to boost far-right Republican House candidates who had questioned or denied the validity of Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 election, as well as MAGA-inclined gubernatorial candidates in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Illinois.

Theres no question it paid off: Democrats hold several House seats they might not have otherwise and won all three governorships. Theres also no question it reeked powerfully, and enduringly, of hypocrisy. Who knows why so many Americans still back Mr. Trump despite his evident lies about 2020? But maybe one small part of the reason is that Democratic operatives keep manipulating the issue for short-term political advantage.

Mr. Moreno wasnt always an election denier. He urged his social media followers to accept the results in late 2020 and tweeted on Jan. 6, 2021, that Mr. Trump deserved lots and lots of blame for this. But then he decided to run for office. President Trump says the election was stolen, and hes right, Mr. Moreno said in a commercial during a short-lived 2022 bid for the Senate. More recently, hes called those prosecuted for storming the Capitol political prisoners.

The Democratic commercial doesnt mention any of that. Nominally, its an attack ad because it calls Mr. Moreno too conservative and mentions his support for a national abortion ban and repealing Obamacare. But those points appeal to GOP base voters. Moreno would lead the charge to enact Trumps MAGA agenda, a narrator says. The spot says that the former president calls Mr. Moreno exactly the type of MAGA fighter that we need. A spokeswoman for Senate Majority PAC said in a statement that Ohioans deserve to know the truth about Bernie Moreno.

In the Ohio race, state Sen. Matt Dolan would be the strongest Republican candidate against Mr. Brown in November. Hes a governance-minded conservative in the mold of former senator Rob Portman and Gov. Mike DeWine, who both endorse his bid. (Mr. Dolans father owns the Cleveland Guardians; one reason Mr. Trump has attacked the son is that the baseball team changed its name from the Indians.) Mr. Dolan would likely be a vote in the Senate for aiding Ukraine, which has a large diaspora in Ohio, while Mr. Moreno is critical of sending any more money. So the Democratic push for Mr. Moreno flies in the face of the partys position on that crucial issue, too.

Polling shows the GOP primary within the margin of error, with Mr. Dolan opening a slight lead and Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose in a distant third. In a general election matchup, Mr. Brown leads Mr. Moreno but trails Mr. Dolan.

To repeat: Senate Majority PACs sole job is winning elections, so its rational for it to intervene in favor of Mr. Moreno. The $2.7 million buy is a drop in the ocean of likely spending on what could be this cycles most expensive Senate race. The group plans to air $65 million of television ads in Ohio during the general election while its Republican rival, Senate Leadership Fund, plans to spend $57.5 million.

But Senate Majority PACs tactics clash grotesquely with President Bidens portrayal of the 2024 stakes in this months State of the Union address: January 6th and the lies about the 2020 election, and the plots to steal the election, posed the gravest threat to our democracy since the Civil War, he declared. Mr. Biden said those who stormed the Capitol placed a dagger at the throat of American democracy, adding: The threat remains, and democracy must be defended. The president called on lawmakers to respect free and fair elections, restore trust in our institutions, and make clear political violence has absolutely no place in America.

Mr. Trump has twice carried Ohio by eight points. The Moreno campaign points out that many Democrats assumed Mr. Trump would be the easiest Republican for Hillary Clinton to defeat in 2016. Whoever wins Tuesdays primary even Mr. Moreno has a real chance of sitting in the Senate a year from now. Democrats should be careful what they wish for.

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Opinion | Democratic ads to help Bernie Moreno win Ohio GOP Senate primary reek of hypocrisy - The Washington Post - The Washington Post