Bernie Moreno, who claims to have ‘aced’ U.S. citizenship test, repeatedly gets basic historical facts wrong

Bernie Moreno, the Republican Senate nominee in Ohio, has claimed multiple times on the campaign trail that he “aced” the U.S. Citizenship test, even though the examination is pass/fail. Even with this claim, Moreno has consistently flubbed many elementary aspects of U.S. history while on the campaign trail. 

Moreno has made immigration a key pillar of his campaign, specifically using the citizenship exam as an example. The Colombian American, who emigrated to the U.S. with his family when he was five years old, said the test was “incredibly easy,” while also claiming he had studied at least 88 Federalist Papers, despite there only being 85. 

He also was seemingly unable to identify that there are three branches of the government, claimed that the U.S. mainland has never been attacked (9/11 is widely seen as a foreign assault on the U.S. homeland), and even repeatedly claimed that Abraham Lincoln was a signer of the Declaration of Independence (he was not even born yet.) 

Heartland Signal has previously looked into some of Moreno’s more onerous claims, specifically his assertion that he learned how to speak English by reading and listening to Ronald Reagan’s speeches, even though Reagan was not a major national figure when Moreno was learning English. 

These confusing claims represent a serious question regarding candidate quality — especially as Moreno has been consistently under fire for questionable business practices. As the 2024 campaign enters its final days, whether or not Moreno’s bizarre and confusing claims on the campaign trail propel him to defeat incumbent Sherrod Brown (D) remains to be seen.