Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is trying to pull a fast one on Ohio voters in the race between Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown and Republican challenger Bernie Moreno.
In a race that is already the most expensive U.S. Senate race in history — $400 million and counting — the Senate Leadership Fund, a PAC controlled by McConnell, is putting its thumb on the scale with $49 million in TV ads attacking Brown.
That figure will likely grow by $12 million by Election Day.
And what McConnell’s PAC is paying for are TV ads that seriously distort or outright lie about the incumbent, whose re-election is key to the Democrats’ hope of retaining control of the Senate.
PolitiFact, the non-partisan website that fact-checks campaign advertising, has already looked at the Senate Leadership Fund ad and found its claims about Brown to be “false” and “mostly false.”
So, too, have independent fact checks by Ohio TV stations.
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The Senate Leadership Fund ad running now is fixated on transgender politics, even though it is hard to imagine that at the top of Ohio voters’ minds.
But it's clearly something McConnell thinks about a lot. He's doing similar hits on Democratic Senate candidates around the country.
How do such ads get away with it?
One example
The ad getting heavy air play now accuses Brown of being in favor of transgender biological men playing in women’s sports and supporting puberty blockers and sex change operations for minors.
If you spent the weekend watching the MLB playoffs, the Browns-Bengals game or just about any local or cable news show, you have seen the ad. Repeatedly.
Here’s what PolitiFact had to say about the claim of Brown voting to allow transgender men in women’s sports:
- “Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, voted against two failed amendments to broader funding bills. The amendments would have stripped federal funding from schools and colleges that allowed transgender girls and women to compete in sports matching their gender identity; they did not dictate athletic eligibility.”
- “Federal law rarely dictates who is eligible for specific sports.”
Conclusion: False.
Senate Leadership Fund Communications Director Torunn Sinclair told PolitiFact the amendments hinged school funding on whether transgender women were allowed to compete in sports matching their gender identity.
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As for the claim about Brown supporting puberty blockers and sex change operations for minors, PolitiFact had this to say:
- “Asked about a Senate bill that proposed banning gender-affirming care, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, said he 'will never agree with anyone that wants to bring politics into the family situation with health care.' "
- “Brown was one of nine senators who signed a March 31, 2023, letter to President Joe Biden, asking his administration to take executive action to protect access to gender-affirming care.”
- “Gender-affirming refers to an individualized health care model that prioritizes encouraging and supporting a person’s gender identity — it is more than puberty blockers and surgery. Surgical procedures among minors are rare.”
Conclusion: Mostly false.
Matt Keyes, spokesman for the Brown campaign told WVXU that “independent fact checkers have already found these claims to be false, but Bernie Moreno and his special interest allies continue to lie about Sherrod’s record to distract Ohioans from the fact that Moreno only looks out for himself.”
Politifact also did a fact-check on Brown's ads and found one quibble: He is "partly accurate" when he describes Moreno as being in favor of a national abortion ban with no exceptions.
"In an email to PolitiFact, Moreno’s campaign spokesperson Reagan McCarthy said Moreno supports exceptions for rape, incest and the mother’s life," the site writes.
So, you might well ask, how can PACs and candidates get away with half-truths and outright lies?
Because, 10 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light to lying in campaign advertising in a case that started in Cincinnati.
In 2010, then-Democratic congressman Steve Driehaus complained to the Ohio Elections Commission about an anti-abortion rights group, the Susan B. Anthony List, doing campaign advertising saying Driehaus supported taxpayer-funded abortion because he voted in Congress for the Affordable Care Act.
Driehaus argued it was a violation of Ohio law forbidding false statements in election ads.
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It was a lie, but the case wound its way to the U.S. Supreme Court four years later. The high court ruled unanimously that the Susan B. Anthony List had standing to challenge Ohio’s law against lying based on the rights of the First and Fourteenth Amendments; and, that same year, the Ohio law went away.
Ever since, politicians and political campaign committees can lie and lie and face no legal consequences.
Which is one good reason to take all political ads with a grain of salt.
And, in the case of the smooth-talking, loose-with-the-facts bunch at Mitch McConnell’s PAC, one honking big lump of salt.
