Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced Friday that his state’s lieutenant governor Jon Husted would replace a seat left vacant by Vice President-elect JD Vance in the US Senate for the next two years.
“I came to the conclusion that the person who was 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,” DeWine said. “And that is Lieutenant Governor John Husted.”
He added that his pick needed deep state roots, an understanding of “the interaction between the federal government and the state government” and — most of all — “a workhorse.”
“Serious times demand serious people,” DeWine said, noting that he “interviewed a large number of people” and the decision “took a while.”
President-elect Donald Trump had recently floated Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy for the position, a source familiar with the conversations previously told The Post, after Vance resigned from the Senate last week.
“Vivek’s base plan remains the same to get accomplishments at DOGE and then announce a run for governor shortly,” another source familiar with the billionaire’s thinking added Friday.
DeWine said last Thursday he was “looking for someone who really knows Ohio, who understands this state, someone who has experience, someone frankly, who is a hard worker.”
Ramaswamy, 39, who previously indicated he was not being considered for the role, was born and raised outside Cincinnati, but made his career in Silicon Valley.
Husted, 57, will serve as the junior senator from Ohio in the Senate until a special election can be held in 2026.
In 2020, Trump pushed for DeWine to face a primary challenge after the first-term governor urged the 45th president to admit defeat in the election to Democratic opponent Joe Biden.
A former senator himself, DeWine worked with Biden, 82, in Congress for 12 years.
He won re-election as governor in a landslide in 2022.
“We certainly wish President Trump all the best,” DeWine said in his remarks Friday.
