Republican Governor Mike DeWine will announce his decision on who will take over the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by Vice President-elect JD Vance on Friday. This choice will demonstrate the influence that former President Donald Trump still holds in Ohio, a state he has carried in the last three elections.
DeWine, who is term-limited and known for his practical political approach, has full authority in making this selection. Interestingly, he has recently met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, the President’s unofficial base, where the decision-making process likely took place.
During one of these visits, DeWine was accompanied by Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted. Husted, who had been eyeing a run for governor in 2026, now finds his political prospects intertwined with those of Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential candidate with ties to Trump.
As he also eyed a bid for governor, Ramaswamy had initially pulled himself out of contention for the Senate seat. That was due in part to the work that he and Elon Musk have been assigned by Trump on federal government efficiency. But Ramaswamy visited DeWine at the governor’s residence last week and expressed interest in the Senate appointment.
He is among a long list of contenders vying for the seat after Vance’s election in November. Those include several Republicans who lost Senate primaries in 2022, 2024 or both — Secretary of State Frank LaRose, state Sen. Matt Dolan and former state GOP chair Jane Timken, as well as congressional representatives, statewide officeholders and political outsiders.
Vance was only two years into a six-year term when he resigned last week. Whoever succeeds him will serve until Dec. 15, 2026. They would need to be elected to the remaining two years of his term in a special election in November 2026, when it is possible that former three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown could attempt a comeback. Brown lost a re-election bid to Republican Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman last fall.
Moreno and Vance were both boosted into the Senate with help from endorsements by Trump. Neither had held elective office before.
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