Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has appointed his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, to the Senate seat recently vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance.
“I have worked with him, I have seen him. I know his knowledge of Ohio. I know his heart. I know what he cares about. I know his skills,” DeWine said at a Friday news conference from the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. “All of that tells me he is the right person for this job.”
Word of Husted’s selection began trickling out Friday morning, after it became clear that DeWine would announce his choice at an afternoon news conference. Signal Ohio first reported that DeWine had settled on Husted, and two sources with knowledge of the decision confirmed it to NBC News.
“This decision was not made lightly,” Husted, a former Ohio secretary of state and state House speaker, said while standing alongside 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, 57, would serve at least through a 2026 special election to fill the remaining two years of Vance’s term. He had recently emerged as a leading contender, though 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 chief considerations.
Husted confirmed Friday that he accepted the appointment “with the full intention of running for this office.”
The announcement has broader ramifications on Ohio’s political landscape, removing Husted from a long-planned run to succeed the term-limited DeWine as governor in 2026.
It also eases a path for biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has signaled interest in mounting his own campaign for governor. Ramaswamy took himself out of consideration for the Senate seat last fall, after agreeing to lead President-elect Donald Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency alongside billionaire Elon Musk.
Ramaswamy’s interests factored significantly into DeWine’s deliberations.
DeWine and Husted discussed the upcoming race for governor and the Senate seat in a meeting with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort last month in Florida. Trump at the time made no commitment to endorsing Husted for either post, sources told NBC News.
Ramaswamy, who lives in the Columbus area, resurfaced as a late contender for the Senate appointment in recent days and met last weekend with DeWine. While Husted was DeWine’s preferred successor, choosing Husted for the Senate vacancy reduces the risk that he loses a bruising primary to Ramaswamy, who would potentially bring Trump-movement cachet to the race.
And though DeWine’s decision removes a Ramaswamy rival, other prominent Republicans — including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and state Treasurer Robert Sprague — have been preparing their own bids for governor.
An official Ramaswamy announcement could come soon.
“Vivek’s base plan remains [the] same,” an Ohio operative familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking, wrote in a text message. “To get accomplishments at DOGE and then announce a run for governor shortly.”
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 backed 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.
“We have worked to make Ohio great again, and I look forward to working with President Trump and JD Vance to make America great again,” Husted said Friday.
DeWine and Husted have been allies since they ran together in 2018. Husted had plans to seek the governorship that year, as well, but he agreed to join DeWine’s ticket as lieutenant governor.
“It was my honor and privilege to serve in the United States Senate,” said DeWine, who lost his Senate seat the Brown in 2006. “I think I have a pretty good idea of what it takes to succeed in the United States Senate, what it takes to represent your state. As I was looking for the right person, I wanted someone who knew Ohio.”
Despite their close relationship, Husted has tried to navigate his own path in the party. He endorsed Trump’s 2024 presidential bid hours before last year’s Iowa caucuses and has been close with Ramaswamy, who informally advised him during the pandemic and served on the board for the Husted-led InnovateOhio agency.
DeWine said Friday that he interviewed “a large number of people” for the Senate post and heard from many others interested in the appointment. Though he mentioned no names, others who were in the mix to succeed Vance included Sprague, former state GOP chair Jane Timken, U.S. Rep. Mike Carey and former state Rep. Jay Edwards.
