POWELL, Ohio – A small group of Ohioans gathered last Friday morning at the former Fred Astaire Dance Studios, now a restaurant, in Powell, Ohio, a small suburban town about 18 miles north of Columbus, to watch Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown join them Locals are heard speaking to voters in a press conference at the end of the campaign to denounce controversial abortion comments made by his challenger, luxury car dealer Bernie Moreno.

The speakers — two Republican voters from central Ohio and an independent — addressed the handful of attendees gathered on the farthest wall from the studio entrance, around the stone fireplace and a black podium with a sign reading “Bernie Moreno Believes “He knows better than the Ohioans” had gathered.

Ann Fischer, the independent voter from Dublin, opened the speech by describing how an abortion once saved her life.

“I can only stand here before you today because in 1992 I was able to have a life-saving abortion after an ectopic pregnancy. I could have died and most likely would have died. But at 4 a.m., emergency surgery “saved my life,” she said, choking back tears.

“Bernie Moreno is not on our side. He doesn’t respect the will of Ohio voters, and he certainly doesn’t respect me or the countless women like me for whom this issue is not hypothetical but personal. I can’t vote for someone like that,” Fischer said with a sniff, adding, “I’m not going back 50 years, I’m voting for Sherrod Brown.”

Although Ohioans formally voted to protect their access to abortion last fall, the explosive issue has come back into focus in the state Senate race as progressive incumbent Brown and Trump-backed Moreno compete for his seat . The highly contentious election campaign, crucial to both parties’ control of the upper house during the next presidency, has revolved around the issue of abortion rights over the last month, as Moreno faces backlash over his comments about women voters in Ohio.

In a now-viral moment during a town hall meeting in Warren County in September, Moreno accused suburban women of being single-voter voters on the issue of abortion rights.

“You know, the left has a lot of individual voters,” Moreno said. “Sadly, by the way, there are a lot of suburban women, a lot of suburban women who say, ‘Listen, abortion is the right thing to do.’ If I can’t get an abortion at any time in this country, I’ll vote for anyone else.” …OK. It’s a bit crazy, by the way, but – especially for women over 50 – I think to myself, ‘I don’t think that’s a problem for you.'”

Moreno’s comments, first reported by local publication NBC4i, sparked immediate outrage. Earlier this month, more than 1,200 Ohio women across party lines signed an open letter to the Cleveland businessman telling him they didn’t find his comments funny and therefore wouldn’t vote for him.

Since then, Brown’s campaign has seized on the ongoing backlash over Moreno’s comments, mentioning them in media appearances, hosting events like Friday’s presser and running response ads to show Ohio voters that Moreno is out of touch with their wishes before their wishes pronounce ballot.

“While Sherrod follows the majority of Ohioans who believe a woman has the right to make her own health decisions, Moreno has made it clear that he believes he knows better,” campaign spokeswoman Maggie Amjad said in a statement to Salon. “Moreno even said he would overturn the will of Ohio voters by voting for a statewide abortion ban and that he was “100% pro-life, no exceptions.”

A spokesman for Moreno said at the time of the initial backlash that the businessman made the remark as an “ironic joke about how Sherrod Brown and members of the left-wing media like to act as the only issue that matters to female voters.” is abortion.” Moreno echoed that sentiment during an appearance on former Fox News host Megyn Kelly’s show last week.

During Friday’s event, Brown delivered a succinct rebuttal.

“I don’t think people should joke about women’s health,” he told reporters, referring to Moreno’s stance on abortion. “This isn’t a joke.”

The Moreno campaign did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Brown, who has held elected office in the state since the 1970s, has worked to establish an image as a defender of reproductive health and choice. Earlier this year, he signed a Senate proposal to support federal birth control protections that Republicans blocked.

Moreno advocated for a 15-week statewide abortion ban during the state’s primary election and told a radio host in Cincinnati in 2022 that he was “totally pro-life, no exceptions,” according to The Columbus Dispatch. In July, he received an endorsement from SBA Pro-Life America, an anti-abortion organization that has pledged to support candidates who support a 15-week ban.

For his part, Moreno moderated his stance slightly to align with the national GOP platform as the 2024 election cycle progresses. The luxury car salesman has since indicated that he supports the Republican Party’s policy of allowing states to decide for themselves (though he personally still supports a 15-week ban) and some exceptions in cases of rape, incest and health the pregnant person allows, according to The Hill.

Marcie Seidel, the former Republican chief of staff to former Ohio Gov. Bob Taft’s first lady, said in her remarks at Friday’s event that she was insulted by Moreno’s September comments and urged her fellow Republicans to vote for Brown .

While she said she herself is pro-life, she described her stance as all-encompassing, including advocating for policies to combat poverty, housing and food insecurity, improved maternal and child health care, treatment of mental health and substance use disorders, and more gun regulations. “This is pro-life,” she said.

Seidel, who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris and said she never voted for former President Donald Trump, told Salon that she left the Republican Party because she no longer recognized it. She said she rejects the idea that abortion is a single issue.

“It’s not just a single issue. There are so many other issues at stake, and what (Americans) need to know is that personal freedom, in my opinion, is at stake,” she said in an interview, emphasizing this even though she is in favor of it She advocates for life and is not against other abortion opponents, she believes that each patient should decide for themselves what is right for them.

“We’re starting to take that freedom away from people – what’s next? I don’t know,” she added.

Ohioans voted 57% to 43% last fall to enshrine a right to reproductive care, including access to abortion care up to fetal viability, in the state Constitution. Voters in the state have grappled with confusion over ballot issue labeling, a sneaky referendum that sought to raise the hurdle for a ballot measure to become law and misleading language approved by Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose in a bad year.

Delaware County, the Republican-leaning region where Powell sits, had one of the highest voter turnout rates in the state this election (60.69%) and voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion access, making the state’s suspended six-week abortion ban unconstitutional made.

“It is clear that the people of Delaware, like people everywhere, believe that decisions should not be made by politicians,” Brown told reporters Friday. “These decisions are extremely personal decisions that need to be made safely by women and their doctors. That is separate. It’s not a partisan issue.”

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Brown said he heard Republicans, independents and Democrats supporting allowing women to make decisions about abortions with their doctors and speaking out against Moreno’s comments.

“The women of Ohio understand what is at stake in this election,” he added.

Still, the furor over Moreno’s comments and abortion access may not be enough to sway Ohioans amid the barrage of attack ads from both campaigns and their partners, as well as the state’s allegiance to the Republican Party. Polls show a neck-and-neck race between Brown and Moreno, with the Decision Desk HQ and The Hill polling average putting Moreno 0.2 percentage points ahead of Brown. With a nationwide decline in split-ticket voting and a state that voted overwhelmingly to elect Donald Trump in the last two election cycles, the Democrat faces an uphill battle that may not appeal to moderate and disaffected Republicans can overcome.

Delaware County, which supported Trump in 2016 and 2020 and Brown’s challenger in 2018, also highlights how high the race is for the Cleveland progressive as he tries to woo Republican voters.

Peeking out from the red and orange leaves of an unusually warm Ohio fall are the “Trump-Vance” and “Bernie Moreno” signs, poking sporadically across the winding, wooded roads that lead east to State Route 315, a main highway in the center from Ohio. Unlike the solid blue capital just a few miles south, there was no “Sherrod Brown” sign in sight.