DeWine names Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill Senate seat vacated by Vance

(CNN) — Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on Friday named state Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill the US Senate seat recently vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance.

The governor referenced his close relationship with Husted as a factor in his decision.

“I came to the conclusion, as you see, that the person who is best suited to be the United States senator is a person who has been close to me for the last six years, a person who almost daily I work with. And that is Lt. Gov. Jon Husted,” DeWine said at a news conference in Columbus.

Appearing alongside DeWine, and flanked by his family, an emotional Husted thanked the governor for the appointment.

“Representing Ohio in the US Senate is an amazing opportunity,” he said. “I mean, it is amazing. And it is something that an adopted kid who grew up on County Road J in Montpelier, Ohio, could have never imagined. I know Ohio well and I will fight for Ohio as a US senator.”

Husted emerged as the favorite over the last few weeks after visiting Donald Trump alongside DeWine at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in December. It was not clear at the time, though, whether Husted had his eye on the Senate or was potentially seeking an endorsement for his expected 2026 gubernatorial campaign.

Husted told CNN Friday evening that he “had a great conversation” with Trump earlier in the day, during which the president-elect was “supportive and encouraging.”

“I’m going to be a good ally for him in the US Senate,” Husted told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on “The Source,” referring to Trump, who is looking to quickly move his ambitious agenda through Congress.

By abandoning his hopes of succeeding DeWine, who is term-limited, and going to the Senate, Husted has cleared a path for Trump ally Vivek Ramaswamy to run for governor. The president-elect’s eleventh-hour push for Ramaswamy to consider the Senate seat never gained traction. Ramaswamy met with DeWine this past weekend but never publicly signaled his interest. He is currently lined up to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency alongside billionaire Elon Musk.

Two sources familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking say he plans to focus on his efforts at DOGE before announcing a run for governor.

Both DeWine and Husted were asked several questions about Ramaswamy and the looming factor of the 2026 governor’s race, including Husted’s own statements expressing interest in the job in years past.

“I’ll just say this,” Husted said in response to one question about Ramaswamy. “I know there’s a lot of noise around this, and this is all true – you hear all of these names and all of these people that say they want to run for governor and say they want to be the senator, and I promise you this. Every single one of them would have accepted this appointment to the US Senate – except the governor offered it to me.”

Pressed on his previous interest in being governor, and the decision to accept the appointment to the US Senate, Husted said he “switched my mind probably 100 times.”

“In the end, it’s the opportunity to go right now to Washington – not two years from now, but now, to go work with President Trump and a Republican majority to do the things that I think will make America a better country, he said. “And once you really look at it like that, it was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up.”

Husted’s appointment cements a wholesale transformation of Ohio’s Senate delegation, recently filled by a pair of veterans – Republican Rob Portman, who retired in 2022 after two six-year terms, and Democrat Sherrod Brown, who was defeated last year by Republican Bernie Moreno after three full terms.

It also upholds the status quo in the Senate, with Republicans enjoying a narrow majority after a successful 2024 campaign. Though similar temperamentally, Husted comes from a different tradition of conservatism to Vance, who occasionally overlapped with progressives on populist-infused economic matters. Husted is a fiscal hawk who often touts passing “the most conservative state budget in 40 years” during his time as state House speaker and, in his official biography, says he ran the secretary of state’s office without public funds during his last two years in the post.

Still, it was Husted who delivered Vance’s nominating speech at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last summer.

“The man who accepts this nomination,” Husted said of Vance, “accepts with it the awesome responsibility to give wise counsel to the president, to represent America abroad, to preside over the Senate and to be ready to lead our nation at a moment’s notice.”

Husted will now serve in the Senate until 2026, when he will face a special election to fill out the final two years of Vance’s term. Husted told Collins that he then plans to run for a full six-year term in 2028.

“I wouldn’t have taken the appointment if I didn’t intend to run – to keep the seat,” Husted said. “It’s an important seat for the Senate majority and Ohio is an important state and I’ve won four statewide elections here and I plan to win a fifth and a sixth over the next two election cycles.”

DeWine on Friday acknowledged the heavy political lift in front of Husted.

“The next person who goes to the US Senate I knew would have to run and run and run,” he said. “So it had to be someone who I knew frankly who had the skill sets but also the determination, had it frankly in their gut that they could get up in the morning and do this day after day after day.”

More recently, Husted championed legislation to restrict social media use for children younger than 16 years old in Ohio.

The Social Media Parental Notification Act puts the onus on social media outfits to determine whether potential users are 15 or younger. If they are, parents must send written consent for their children to join a network and receive confirmation of receipt from the company.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram; Snapchat; TikTok; and YouTube all fall under the auspices of the law, which was passed as a provision of the state budget in 2023.

“We’ve been conducting an experiment on our children that we know is failing, and we need to act,” Husted said at a news conference in Columbus ahead of its passage.

Husted came to his most recent position in 2019. He had initially been a candidate for governor, part of a crowded field hoping to follow two-term GOP Gov. John Kasich. After dropping out, he joined DeWine’s ticket as his deputy, and the pair were elected, Husted as lieutenant governor, in 2018.

His political career began nearly two decades earlier, when he was elected to the state House. In 2010, Husted won a seat in the state Senate’s 6th District, where he remained until launching his first statewide campaign, a successful bid to become Ohio secretary of state. He was reelected in 2014.

Husted played college football for the Division III University of Dayton Flyers. The team won the national championship in 1989, his senior year. He is married to Tina Husted. They have three children.

According to his official biography, Husted was adopted after first living in a foster home. He graduated from Montpelier High School, in northwest Ohio, before heading to Dayton.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.

CNN’s René Marsh and Kaanita Iyer contributed to this report.

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