COLUMBUS, Ohio — Some political science experts are not surprised by the outcome of Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election in Ohio.

What You Need To Know

  • Voters elected Republican businessman Bernie Moreno to represent Ohio in the U.S. Senate, winning the seat from incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown

  • Brown is wrapping up his 18th year in office and Moreno will be sworn into the role in January

  • Moreno has no previous political experience and his candidacy was endorsed by President-Elect Donald Trump

The matchup between incumbent Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who is serving his 18th year in the office, and Republican businessman Bernie Moreno was a battle of experience versus endorsements.

A battle political newcomer, Moreno won by four percentage points.

“This is the greatest honor of my life to represent you in Washington, D.C., and I will not let you down,” U.S. Senator-elect Moreno said to a crowd of supporters at an election results watch party in Westlake.

He thanked his family, voters and President-elect Donald Trump.

“We’re going to have a bold and ambitious agenda for the Republican Party,” Moreno said. “And I know that President Trump is going to bring greatness back to this country. Unlike anything we’ve ever seen.“

Moreno joins Vice President-elect and current Sen. J.D. Vance as Ohio’s second U.S. Senate candidate in a row to win the office without any prior political experience. Instead, Dave Cohen, political science professor for the University of Akron, said both had support that “trumped” any inexperience.

“Both of these people, Vance and Moreno, were essentially handpicked by Donald Trump himself,” Cohen said. “They were endorsed in the primaries, and they went on to win their party’s nomination, and they went on to win the general election. Ohio is not only a red Republican state, Ohio is now a Trump state.”

Cohen said Trump’s 11-point victory in Ohio over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris shows the Buckeye State’s political battleground is gone. He said counties that usually lean left by a large majority weren’t so boldly blue this time around.

“The gap closed in those blue counties and that is something that just cannot happen if Democrats want to be competitive in Ohio,” Cohen said.

Justin Buchler, an associate professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University, said Brown’s nearly two decade career in the U.S. Senate was due in large part to Ohio’s previous swing state status.

“Ohio is a Republican state and Sherrod Brown is a left-wing Democrat,” Buchler said. “I don’t know why anybody is surprised that he lost.”

Buchler said Brown’s last two wins were tied to good timing. He ran for election in years that favored Democrats.

“There’s no magic pixie dust,” Buchler said. “There’s just luck and partisanship. And that’s it. The bill came to for him.”