Senate candidate suggests reparations for white people

Businessman Bernie Moreno made the controversial statement during the launch of his Senate campaign in Milford, Ohio.

Apr 25, 2023

A Republican Senate candidate in Ohio wants reparations for white descendants of Union soldiers who died in the Civil War.

As the Cincinnati Enquirer reports, businessman Bernie Moreno shared his viewpoint during the launch of his Senate campaign last week at Little Miami Brewing Company in Milford, Ohio. According to The Tennessee Star, Moreno told supporters at the event, “We stand on shoulders of people like John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, George Washington.”

In his remarks, Moreno praised the Founding Fathers for standing up to the English empire.

Council Of War — (L-R) Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Seward, Winfield Scott, Simon Cameron, George McClellan, Benjamin Butler, John Wool, Robert Anderson, John Fremont and John Dix in a print that depicts American Union politicians and soldiers taking part in a council of war in 1861. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“That same group of people later, white people, died to free Black people. It’s never happened in human history before, but it happened here in America. That’s not taught a lot in schools much is it?”

Moreno also noted that there has not been another noteworthy moment in history where white people died to liberate enslaved people of color.

“You know, they talk about reparations. Where are the reparations for the people in the North who died to save the lives of Black people?” Moreno added.

A video recording of the event is posted on Twitter via the Heartland Signal, the newsroom for WCPT820 AM. The comments were overwhelmingly critical of Moreno’s statement.

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One user commented under the clip, “So the freedom and rights they already had; the ability to get an education; not be discriminated against in jobs or housing; the opportunity to vote, build businesses, attain generational wealth and not be extra-judicially lynched, weren’t enough?”

One — in the vast minority — seemed OK with Moreno’s idea. “I have 13 direct descendents buried in civil war sites, 6 of them at Gettysburg alone. I’ll take 5 million for each one….. And still…..that’s not enough. I want free college and 3,000sqft home for $1. And that’s just for starters.”

Another Twitter user said, “White ppl already got their reparations. Look at what the “New Deal” gave them. While we were excluded from those programs. Y’all always trying to find away to shoe-horn white ppl in everything that we try to fight for. Moreover, white ppl didn’t fight to end slavery at all.”

Another commenter agreed, posting, “That crazy cause I’ve always heard that the civil war wasn’t fought over slavery at all, so these people didn’t fight to “save black people.”

Moreno’s comments come as American policymakers continue to debate whether Black Americans should receive ancestral reparations for slavery and racial discrimination.

Moreno is running against state senator Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, for a chance to challenge Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2024. According to The Enquirer, when asked about the candidate’s reparations comments, campaign spokesman Conor McGuinness said the media missed Moreno’s point about how political correctness is “killing our country.”