Vice president-elect JD Vance resigned from the U.S. Senate at midnight. That opens the door for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to announce who he’s chosen to appoint to Vance’s seat.
DeWine has said he was waiting for Vance to resign before announcing his choice. DeWine was among the Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago with President-elect Trump last night, and said he wasn’t ready to make his choice public yet.
“We certainly have been working on this for some time. And I'll have an announcement probably next week," DeWine said.
But DeWine wouldn’t talk about possible candidates, including Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
“Well, I'm not going to get into that tonight," DeWine said.
DeWine did repeat some of the qualification he's said several times that are important in his choice.
"I want someone who understands Ohio, who has a deep knowledge of of our state. We need that strong advocate there. It also has to be someone who's willing to run in two years and then turn right around and run two years after that," DeWine said. "That's a tough thing to do. Also, someone who can win a primary and who can win a general election in Ohio. So those are those are the kind of the kind of main criteria to consider."
It’s believed Lt. Gov. Jon Husted leads the appointees list, which is thought to include former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken, among others.
Husted has been considered a front-runner to run for governor in 2026, after spending years positioning for the job. He is a former Ohio House speaker, state senator and two-term secretary of state.
Tech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was interested, but after he and Elon Musk were appointed by Trump to head up the department of government efficiency, he said he was withdrawing from consideration.
Whomever DeWine appoints will serve until December 2026. They would need to run again for the remainder of the term in November 2026.
