STRUTHERS — U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, said for presidential candidate Donald Trump to accomplish what he needs to turn around the country, a GOP majority in the Senate is required — and that means voting for Republican Bernie Moreno over incumbent Democrat Sherrod Brown in Ohio.

“I can guarantee you with Bernie Moreno as the 51st Republican vote for Donald Trump’s agenda that there’s no doubt we’ll close the southern border and stop the devastation to our country,” Scott said Wednesday during a Mahoning County Republican Party event at The Embassy in Struthers.

Scott campaigned Wednesday with Moreno, who is in the most expensive and one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in the country against Brown, who is seeking his fourth six-year term.

About 340 tickets for the fundraiser — with all of the proceeds going to the county party — were sold, said Mahoning Republican Chairman Tom McCabe. About 290 people attended.

Scott said, “This is the most consequential election in our lifetime. The road to socialism is paved by Republicans who don’t show up and vote.”

Scott said a Trump victory would mean a return to prosperity with low inflation, a closed southern border and a thriving economy. But Trump needs a majority in the U.S. Senate and that’s why Moreno’s election is so important, Scott said.

Moreno said, “Sherrod Brown says he works with Republicans. Let’s be clear what that means. He’s in a building with Republicans. That’s not what working with Republicans means. Working with Republicans means you cooperate with them.”

Moreno said Republican senators who have campaigned with him — mentioning John Cornyn of Texas, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota — “all say the last Democrat they would ever reach out to help on a bipartisan bill is Sherrod Brown.”

When it was pointed out that Brown has worked with Republican senators — including Ohio’s J.D. Vance, Trump’s vice presidential running mate on a rail safety act — Moreno said, “He has not accomplished any bipartisan legislation,” and if Brown wanted the rail safety act up for a vote he only has to ask Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, to put it on the floor.

“The guy has not delivered for the people of Ohio,” Moreno said of Brown. “Words don’t matter. In business, you have to actually accomplish things. In politics, talk, talk, talk gets people high inflation, open borders, instability all over the world, rampant crime, generationally-high inflation that’s crushing working Americans. That’s what talk gets you. I’m a guy who’s about action.”

In response, Maggie Amjad, a Brown campaign spokesperson, said, “Ohioans know Sherrod has worked with Republicans and stood up to his own party to get things done for Ohio — from standing up to bad trade deals that shipped Ohio jobs overseas to passing bipartisan laws to combat fentanyl and rebuild our state’s infrastructure. Meanwhile, Bernie Moreno has made it clear that he only looks out for himself, not Ohioans.”

Scott also pushed back on Brown’s statements taking credit for successfully getting the FEND Off Fentanyl Act passed in Congress. The bill helps hold Mexican cartels and Chinese companies accountable for their roles in fentanyl production and smuggling into the United States.

Scott, who sponsored the bill, said he and his staff wrote the legislation.

Moreno asked Scott if Brown wrote the bill. Scott responded, “Absolutely, positively, unequivocally not.”

Asked about Brown’s involvement in the bill, Scott said, “He had provisions inserted in the bill. I wrote the bill. That’s the bottom line.”

During the bill’s markup in the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which Brown chairs, Scott, who is its ranking member, said June 21, 2023, “Thank you, chairman, and thank you for your hard work on this legislation, and, frankly, thank you to your staff and certainly my staff is amazing. I know that (as) this legislation came together, we were working on the amendment process as late as 3:30 in the morning and I thank my staff for their hard work, their dedication and certainly their willingness to take into consideration not Republicans or Democrats, but the American people.”

On the third day of his latest campaign tour Wednesday, Moreno said Brown “is, unfortunately, a little past his prime. He does maybe one event with small groups and just doesn’t have the energy level to campaign this hard.”

Moreno made four campaign stops Wednesday and six on Tuesday.

Brown is known for campaigning and has visited the Mahoning Valley numerous times over the years, including close to a dozen appearances in the area in the past six months. On Tuesday, Brown had a rally with about 200 people at the Teamsters Hall in Youngstown. Before that event, he spoke at Trumbull County Democratic Party headquarters in McKinley Heights as well as two events in Cleveland.

On Wednesday, Brown made five campaign stops.

At an Aug. 20 event in Niles, with about 100 people in attendance, Brown said his reelection effort comes down to who voters trust.

“I’ll put (my) record up any day against Bernie Moreno,” Brown said after that event. “Cheating his employees, having to pay $400,000 in back wages, always looking out for himself. That’s a pretty clear comparison to voters of the Mahoning Valley.”