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Far-right Republican Ohio Senate candidate and Trump devotee Bernie Moreno is in hot water after the discovery of a gay dating profile set up for him back in 2008.
Moreno's profile on hook-up site Adult Friend Finder was linked to his email address and said he was seeking "young men" for "1-on-1 sex."
Moreno has run an explicitly anti-LGBTQ+ campaign, so obviously this presents a bit of a problem. But he says there's a simple explanation—the profile was a "prank" by a former intern. Of course, it was.
Naturally, Donald Trump, who gave Moreno his stamp of approval in the hotly contested bid to unseat Democratic Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, has seized on the story as yet another incidence of Democrats being "unfair" to a Republican candidate.
The profile was registered to username "nardo19672" and contained a caption that read, “Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling.”
The username appears to be a reference to Moreno's full first name Bernardo, along with his birthdate. The profile did not contain any photos and appears to have only been logged into once on the day it was created, which one of Adult Friend Finder's founders confirmed in a tweet.
Days after the profile came to light, a former intern of Moreno's Dan Ricci claimed in a statement that he was the one behind the supposed "prank."
The statement read in part:
“I am thoroughly embarrassed by an aborted prank I pulled on my friend and former boss, Bernie Moreno, nearly two decades ago."
One would think a prank profile would have something, you know, prankier in it than "Hi, looking for young guys to have fun with while traveling," but who can say?
What is known is that Ricci donated $6,599 to Moreno’s Senate campaign in 2023. Moreno, whose eldest son is gay, was also a vocal supporter of LGBTQ+ rights prior to 2021, but seemed to change his tune once open and virulent transphobia became a clear Republican moneymaker.
In his current campaign, Moreno has accused supporters of LGBTQ+ rights as well as his election opponents of supporting a "radical" transgender "agenda" and other such nonsense.
He also carries the endorsement of Ohio Values Voters, an anti-LGBTQ+ political group.
On social media, many are not buying Moreno's story about the Adult Friend Finder "prank."
Moreno and his wife have since issued a statement blaming the debacle on one of his primary opponents, Republican Ohio State Senator Matt Dolan.
Sources told the Associated Press that Republicans both in Ohio and Washington are now concerned that Moreno's Adult Friend Finder profile will keep him out of the Senate, which could keep Republicans from retaking the majority.