Cleveland-area businessman Bernie Moreno, who dropped out of last year’s U.S. Senate race, on Tuesday kicked off his race for the Senate seat held by Democrat Sherrod Brown.

“One thing is clear: Ohioans are fed up with the broken policies of liberal career politicians like (President) Joe Biden and Sherrod Brown,” Moreno said Tuesday in his Senate announcement. “I’m a businessman, a conservative and an outsider. I know I’m the leader who can get Ohio back on the right track and be the voice of Ohio families in the U.S. Senate.”

Moreno started a statewide campaign tour Tuesday with stops in Gahanna and Milford. He will be in Xenia and Cleveland today and then in Lima, Findlay and Toledo on Thursday. He will campaign Friday in Coshocton.

Moreno joins state Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls, as announced Republican candidates for the seat held since January 2007 by Brown, D-Cleveland, who is seeking re-election.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose is expected to declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination and U.S. Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Troy, is mulling a bid.

Moreno spent several months campaigning for an open U.S. Senate seat on the 2022 ballot. During that time, he gave $3.81 million of his own money to his campaign and raised $2.86 million from donors.

He withdrew only two days after the filing deadline and as a direct result of a conversation he had with former President Donald Trump about helping to clear a crowded Republican field.

Trump praised Moreno in a statement last week and said: “He would not be easy to beat, especially against Brown, one of the worst in the Senate!”

Moreno said Tuesday: “If the past two years have taught us anything, it’s that Ohio families can’t afford more of the Joe Biden-Sherrod Brown agenda. They’ve put their donors, lobbyists and radical ideologies ahead of hardworking Ohioans at every turn.”

In response to Moreno’s announcement, Reeves Oyster, an Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson, said: “The Republican slugfest for Ohio’s Senate seat is getting more crowded, chaotic and messy by the day. With a year of nasty mud-slinging ahead, it’s clear that whoever emerges from this primary will be bruised, battered and out of touch with Ohioans’ values.”