Why AP called the Ohio Senate race for Bernie Moreno

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former car salesman Bernie Moreno clinched victory after securing a 4 percentage point lead in Ohio’s Senate race, ousting three-term Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was the last in his party elected statewide in what was once a premier electoral battleground. In the end, Brown simply did not do as well in population-dense metro regions as he had done in the past — areas where he needed to run up his numbers in order to overcome the state’s increasingly conservative bent. Moreno was narrowly leading in the Cincinnati-Dayton area when the race was called, while Brown needed a better performance in the Cleveland and Columbus regions, even though he led in those areas.