Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) says Republican voters who stay home in the 2026 midterms are effectively voting for the other side. In an interview with Breitbart News published Thursday, Moreno argued that any GOP voter who doesn’t turn out is handing the election to “socialists” and “anti-America haters.”
Moreno made the comments during a Breitbart News Fight Club Roundtable hosted by Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle, with Election Day set for November 3.
Asked how Republicans can win in a political climate he described as strangely gloomy despite strong economic numbers, Moreno didn’t dodge the pain voters are feeling at the register and the pump. He said it’s fair for Americans to be frustrated that prices have climbed roughly a third over the last six years.
“So, something that used to cost $10 costs $13. Something used to cost $100 costs $130. So, they just don’t feel like they can get ahead. And that feeling is 100 percent legitimate,” Moreno said.
But he was quick to pin the blame elsewhere. “Here’s the challenge though: 80 percent of that inflation happened during Biden,” he said.
On the war in Iran, Moreno called U.S. involvement a necessity rather than a choice, arguing it was aimed at stopping a hostile regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. He acknowledged gas prices are elevated because of the conflict but predicted that would change fast.
“But they will collapse the second this conflict in Iran is over. It’s going to be over very, very quickly. This is the opposite of a forever conflict,” Moreno said.
He went on to list what he sees as Republican wins worth defending at the ballot box: prescription drug prices at their lowest since 1963, a federal workforce cut by almost 400,000 employees, tax cuts he called historic despite Democrat obstruction, and trillions of dollars in incoming investment.
Moreno argued voters shouldn’t expect relief from the other party on any front that matters to them.
“You never elect Democrats if you want gas prices to go down. Gas prices are up because that’s what they want as a matter of policy. You don’t elect Democrats if you want a secure border. We saw that under Biden. You don’t elect Democrats if you want crime to go down,” Moreno said.
His closing message to GOP voters was direct: show up the way they did in 2024, or accept the consequences of staying home.
“Every single patriotic American — the people who love this country — do exactly on November 3 or before what you did in November of 2024: show up and vote. You not showing up is a vote for the socialists, for the radicals, for the anti-America haters. That’s how we win, Alex: everybody who showed up in ’24 shows up in ’26,” Moreno said.
