Bernie Moreno says he fled socialism in Colombia for the US in 1971. What does history say? | Ohio

Bernie Moreno, the Republican candidate for US Senate in Ohio who expected to mount a stern challenge to Sherrod Brown, the incumbent leftwing Democrat, says his family fled socialism when they came to the US from Colombia in 1971, when he was four years old.

Though such statements formed a central part of Moreno’s campaign message on his way to securing the Republican nomination with support from Donald Trump, they do not withstand historical scrutiny.

In an interview in 2020, about his success as a car dealer in Ohio, Moreno described himself as “somebody who moved to this country a…