If Secretary of State Frank LaRose believes he can raise the money needed to financially compete, he said he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2024.

LaRose told me he will decide by summer, but he talked as if he will run.

He said: “It’s not a question of desire. It’s not a question of whether my heart’s in it. It’s a question of practicality and building the kind of support necessary to do it. Would I love to serve in the U.S. Senate? I absolutely would.”

Two other Republicans declared their candidacy to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Cleveland, in next year’s race.

They are state Sen. Matt Dolan of Chagrin Falls and Cleveland-area businessman Bernie Moreno.

LaRose said the two have something he doesn’t.

“The one thing I lack is what those two candidates have in abundance and that is personal wealth,” LaRose said. “I don’t have that, and I also don’t think that only wealthy people should be able to run for the U.S. Senate. So what I’ve started to do is work to see: Am I able to put together the financing to do this? And talking to people and see if they’re willing to financially support an effort like this.”

LaRose added: “If I’m able to get the grassroots support that I think I will get and if I’m able to get the financial support (because) I raised $4.2 million last year to run for SOS — I think I’m able to make my case in raising dollars — then I’d love to do this. But that’s the question that’s in front of me right now.”

LaRose’s $4.2 million raised in the last secretary of state’s race is a drop in the bucket to what some self-funded candidates for U.S. Senate raised last year.

Dolan, who finished third in last year’s Senate primary, put $10.6 million of his own money into that race. He’s already given $3 million to his current campaign and is likely to give much, much more.

Moreno gave $3.81 million of his own money to his last Senate campaign and he dropped out of that race two days after the filing deadline.

But when Moreno announced April 18 that he would run for the Senate seat held by Brown, he said: “I don’t think it’s right — I think it’s fundamentally bad for democracy — for wealthy people, they’ve got their checkbook, to buy a Senate seat. That’s not right. I won’t do that.”

LaRose said he would be the best Republican to take on Brown, a three-term incumbent.

“If we need to have the strongest candidate to beat him, we need to make a data-driven decision,” he said. “I’ve looked at polling, data modeling that shows that if I run I would be the strongest candidate.”

A two-term secretary of state, LaRose said he likes Dolan and Moreno, “but neither of them have ever won a statewide election” and they “have single or low double-digit name ID compared to the 80 percent name ID that I have. What I have are things that can’t be bought. They have to be earned, such as deep relationships with people all over the state, such as a good conservative voting record.”

During a podcast last week, Moreno took a swipe at LaRose, saying: “When you have others that enter the race, especially those who just won a very consequential role and have a four-year term ahead of them to do some important work, those people jumping in the race make the race very messy and very expensive.”

In response, LaRose told me: “I think it’s a hollow excuse. He’s looking at the same polling numbers and he realizes that if I run, I’d be the strongest candidate for this office. So he’s going to come up with any reason” to criticize me. “The fact that as a sitting secretary of state, you run for re-election and you have to do your job. I’ve demonstrated over the last year I’ve done that successfully. This would be no different than that.”

LaRose said going into a campaign without sufficient money to compete is “like going onto a battlefield without bullets. You know what’s going to happen and it’s all bad. If I’m able to assemble a well-funded effort then I hope to announce a candidacy as soon as I can.”

dskolnick@vindy.com