Election Day live updates: Polls are now closed in almost every state as Trump takes North Carolina: NPR

Bernie Moreno at the Brecksville Community Center on November 4th in Brecksville, Ohio.

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This story originally appeared as part of NPR's live coverage of the 2024 election. For more election coverage from NPR Network, visit our live updates page.

Republican Bernie Moreno has won the Ohio Senate race, defeating incumbent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown, according to an Associated Press election call.

It's a major victory for Republicans and a major blow to Democrats' efforts to retain their majority in the Senate.

Moreno, a former car dealer, tried throughout the campaign to link Brown to national Democratic figures, including Vice President Kamala Harris. Moreno, whose family immigrated to Florida from Colombia when he was a young child, spoke frequently about immigration issues on the route. In one ad, Trump, who supported Moreno, speaks in a video about how Moreno will “secure our border” and that Brown is a “radical left-wing politician.”

The race before the election was essentially a dead heat, one of the closest races in the country.

Both parties committed record-breaking spending — pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the state, which was seen as the linchpin of the fight for control of the Senate.

Brown has served in the Senate for nearly 18 years, flipping a seat in 2006. He went on to win parts of the state that former President Barack Obama failed to win in 2012. However, this was his first election on the same ballot as former President Trump.