CLEVELAND, Ohio — Can we expect Trump endorsed Senator-elect Bernie Moreno’s luxury car dealership chain to add a new link at the U.S. Capitol’s Senate Chamber parking lot offering Trump brand gas powered golf carts?
Sen-elect Bernie backs Donald’s agenda to pull the plug on electric vehicle development, EV tax credits and fuel economy standards for a decade. He does support tax breaks for companies building cars in the U.S..
Moreno has cited the lack of large demand for EV’s:
“Anybody who even has a (basic) understanding of how the automobile industry works in America would tell you that the secret sauce is the marketplace. But for the first time in automotive history, car companies decided, ‘We’re not going to pay attention to our customers. We’re going to pay attention to our political leaders and make cars people don’t want. The money that has been wasted and lost in this…move to electric vehicles is just absolutely insane. Ford has lost billions of dollars trying to pacify political leaders that were completely unqualified to be giving any kind of advice.”
“The United States government –if I have anything to do with it, I’m one of 100 people and President Trump obviously makes a decision on this as well – but my suspicion is that electric vehicle subsidies are gone. So now there’s no subsidy. You buy an electric vehicle, the car stands on its own.”
Speaking of big money, Moreno just won the most expensive non-presidential campaign in history over incumbent three-term Senator Sherrod Brown. Moreno won by just 4% in a campaign where nearly $500 million was spent jointly by the candidates.
Photo and message on ‘X’ from Sen-elect Bernie Moreno outside his new Senate office with wife Bridget,.Jeff Darcy, Cleveland.com
A Westlake resident, nearly two thirds of Moreno’s Northeast, Ohio neighbors voted against him and Trump who won the rest of Ohio. At his Westlake victory party, Moreno recognized that and pledged to work to win over those who didn’t vote for him.
“To all of you, we celebrate tonight not as Republicans. We celebrate as Americans. To the people in Ohio who didn’t vote for me, just know that I will always advocate for you, always have your back and work for the next six years to win you over.”
The professional car salesmen promptly went to work making the sales pitch for himself, reaching out to Cuyahoga County executives, office holders, Black and Latino community leaders.
Moreno, son of a surgeon, emigrated to South Florida when he was 4 from Columbia so he was struck that he didn’t do better with the Latino vote.
“I’m the only Hispanic ever to win an election statewide in Ohio, and more Hispanics didn’t vote me than voted for me. That’s terrible. So I’m very self-reflective on that. Saying, what are some things that I can do? Why don’t you think I would represent you? And I’ll start doing that around Ohio”
There was another “self-reflective” Republican U.S. Senator from Northeast, Ohio who won bipartisan support and whose lead Moreno would be wise to follow, Cleveland Mayor, Ohio Governor and U.S. Senator George Voinovich.