YOUNGSTOWN — Bernie Moreno, the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate, cannot be trusted based on “lies” he’s told about his past, a pair of U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown supporters said in Youngstown as part of the Ohio Democratic Party’s “Pants-on-Fire” tour.

Dave Green, the United Auto Workers Region 2B director, and retired educator Linda Taylor spoke Friday at Wick Park against Moreno. The two support Brown, a Democrat seeking his fourth six-year term in the Senate.

“If you’re going to lie to people you better think twice,” Green said. “We’re not that ignorant. We can see it coming.”

This was the second time in three months that those in organized labor have spoken against Moreno during news conferences in the Mahoning Valley organized by the Ohio Democratic Party. A similar event was held April 16 at the UAW Local 1112 union hall in Lordstown.

Moreno attracted criticism for selling the Buick Envision, a vehicle made in China, despite saying a number of times he refused to do so. Moreno’s campaign has said the former car dealer never said he didn’t sell the Envision, but refused to take orders for more and sold those left in his inventory after General Motors shut down its Lordstown assembly plant in March 2019.

Moreno settled wage theft lawsuits after a Massachusetts judge ordered him to pay more than $400,000 to two former employees for failing to pay overtime in violation of that state’s labor laws. He also faced discrimination lawsuits in Cleveland that were settled out of court.

Moreno’s been accused of lying about his background, his business origin story and for shutting down Cleveland State’s Confucius Institute while serving on its board of trustees, according to various media reports.

“We deserve somebody who’s going to fight for working people and continue to fight for working people like Sen. Sherrod Brown,” said Green, a former UAW Local 1112 president who worked at Lordstown GM.

“We need somebody in office that’s going to earn the support of working people, that has fought for working people for decades, not a car salesman who continues to lie about what he’s doing and how he’s doing it,” Green added.

Reagan McCarthy, Moreno’s spokeswoman, said: “Sherrod Brown and his allies are stooping to the politics of personal destruction because they know they can’t defend Sherrod’s extreme leftwing voting record. Sherrod votes with Joe Biden nearly 100% of the time and has repeatedly supported mass amnesty for illegals and Biden’s radical anti-American energy agenda. The last thing he wants is a policy debate because he knows Ohioans will reject his pro-Biden leftwing record.”

Taylor said, “Bernie Moreno tells lie after lie to Ohio voters to sell us a phony political persona that he thinks will win him votes. It’s clear to me that Bernie Moreno will say whatever he thinks he needs to say to win. He’s a liar and that is not the person Ohioans deserve to represent them.”