Background and career
Bernardo Francisco Moreno Mejía ( mər-EE-noh; born February 14, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2025 as the senior United States senator from Ohio. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Moreno was born in Colombia to a family that soon immigrated to the United States, where he grew up in Florida. After graduating from the University of Michigan, he entered business and moved to Ohio in 2005, where he operated car dealerships predominantly in Greater Cleveland before becoming involved in blockchain companies.
Moreno first ran for the U.S. Senate in 2022, but withdrew before the Republican primary. In 2024, he defeated Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown, becoming Ohio's junior senator on January 3, 2025. A week later, he became the state's senior senator when JD Vance resigned to become vice president. Moreno is the first Hispanic American senator from Ohio and one of the first two Colombian American U.S. senators, alongside Ruben Gallego.
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