Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appoints Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to Vance’s Senate seat

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has appointed his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, to the Senate seat recently vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance.

“I’ve worked with him, I’ve seen him. I know his knowledge of Ohio. I know his heart. I know what he cares about. I know his ability,” DeWine said at a Friday news conference from the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus . “All of this tells me that he is the right person for this job.”

Word of Husted’s selection began to trickle out Friday morning after it became clear that DeWine would announce his selection at an afternoon news conference. Signal Ohio first reported that DeWine had settled on Husted, and two sources with knowledge of the decision confirmed that to NBC News.

“This decision was not made lightly,” Husted said, standing with his wife, Tina, and DeWine. “My family and I listened to the advice of so many people, including the governor and so many others.”

Husted’s move has broader implications for Ohio’s political landscape, removing him from a long-planned run to succeed the term-limited DeWine as governor in 2026.

It also clears a path for biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has signaled interest in launching his own campaign for governor. Ramaswamy took himself out of consideration for the Senate seat last fall after agreeing to co-head President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency with billionaire Elon Musk. But Ramaswamy, who lives in the Columbus area, re-emerged as a late contender for the Senate nomination in recent days and met last weekend with DeWine.

“Vivek’s base plan remains (it) the same,” an Ohio officer familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking wrote in a text message. “To achieve results at the DOGE and then announce a candidacy for governor shortly.”

Husted, 57, will hold the Senate seat at least through a special election in 2026 to fill the remaining two years of Vance’s term. He had recently emerged as a leading candidate, although there were questions about whether the post was in line with Husted’s personal and political ambitions. DeWine had said appointing someone who could win a competitive Republican primary next year was among his top considerations.

In an interview with NBC News, Husted confirmed that he will run to retain the seat. He said he had spoken with Trump by phone Friday morning.

“He congratulated me and I told him he could count on me to be an ally,” Husted said of Trump when asked if he believed he would win his endorsement in a GOP primary. “He will, I think, probably say something more about this next week. That’s up to him. I won’t speak for him.”

Husted also said he plans to vote to confirm each of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

“I think he deserves the team that he will lead America and I will support them,” he added.

DeWine and Husted discussed the upcoming gubernatorial and Senate races in a meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month in Florida. Trump at the time did not commit to endorsing Husted for either post, sources said.

A Trump spokesman did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

While Husted was DeWine’s preferred successor for governor, picking Husted for the Senate vacancy reduces the risk of him losing a bruising primary to Ramaswamy, who would potentially bring Trump movement cachet to the race.

And while DeWine’s decision eliminates a Ramaswamy rival, other prominent Republicans — including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and State Treasurer Robert Sprague — have been preparing their own bids for the governor.

“I had plans to run for governor … that’s what I had been preparing for,” Husted said in the interview, acknowledging the difficult choice to pivot away from a longtime aspiration. “All of a sudden you have an opportunity to be appointed to the United States Senate and work in a Republican party with the Republican president, and then I paused and I said, ‘You’ve got to think about this.'”

Husted said he would wait to see who all run for governor before deciding whether to endorse anyone. He noted that he “has had a long, good relationship with Vivek,” who informally advised him during the pandemic and served on the board of the Husted-led InnovateOhio agency.

“I look forward to hearing what his plans are,” Husted added, referring to Ramaswamy.

Trump is a political force in Ohio, where he has won three times by comfortable margins. He and DeWine were on opposite sides of last year’s GOP primary for the state’s other Senate seat — a race in which DeWine endorsed a state lawmaker loathed by much of Trump-world over Trump-endorsed businessman Bernie Moreno.

Moreno easily won the primary and went on to unseat Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has not ruled out running in next year’s special election for Vance’s old seat.

Husted, a former Ohio secretary of state and state House speaker, has long been part of the state’s GOP establishment. Husted has also been a loyal government partner for DeWine, who is not always on the same page politically as Trump. The governor drew flak from the party’s right-wing base for his early vigilance and lockdown orders during the pandemic.

“I’ve always been a conservative,” Husted replied when asked how his politics fit in with Trump’s. “I’ve been for balanced budgets and tax cuts and school choice and Second Amendment rights and smaller government and returning more power to the states. So these things are all pretty traditional Republican issues that I’ve been dedicated to, but I also agree with where the president wants to take America and that we want to be strong again, that we want to focus on the needs of the middle class and the working people.”

DeWine and Husted have been allies since they ran together in 2018. Husted had plans to seek governor that year as well, but he agreed to join DeWine’s ticket as lieutenant governor.

“Governor DeWine has seen it all,” Husted said. “He’s been a U.S. senator. He’s been governor and in many other roles. And so the fact that he thinks highly of me means a lot to me. But he didn’t push me in this direction. Everybody’s name, who you hears out there would have taken this deal, but he offered it to me and I said, yes, but he didn’t push.”

DeWine said Friday that he interviewed “a large number of people” for the Senate post and heard from many others interested in the appointment. While he didn’t name any names, others in the mix to succeed Vance were Sprague, former state Gov. Jane Timken, U.S. Rep. Mike Carey and former state Rep. Jay Edwards.