Vice President-elect JD Vance, who is currently serving as an Ohio Republican Senator, will be leaving that post come January 20, which means it will be up to Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine to find a replacement for his seat. A special election is scheduled to take place in 2026. The individual chosen to take over for Vance will serve in that position until then.
During the most recent run for the White House earlier this month, Ohio went full red, which helped to give President-elect Donald Trump an 11-point victory over Vice President Kamala Harris. And much to the delight of Republicans in the Buckeye State, Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has sat in the seat for what feels like a thousand years, was finally booted out of it by Bernie Moreno, meaning that both Senate seats in Ohio are going to belong to Republicans.
So who is DeWine considering for Vance’s current job?
via The Daily Wire:
Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose is a favorite among the state’s Republicans to replace Vance. LaRose made headlines in the past year for leading an effort to clean up Ohio’s voter rolls ahead of the 2024 election, including purging hundreds of non-citizens from the rolls. LaRose has served as Ohio’s secretary of state since 2019. Before that, he was a member of the Ohio State Senate. LaRose ran for Senate in 2024 but lost to Moreno in the Republican primary.
Ohio Lieutenant Gov. Jon Husted has served in that position since 2019. He has long been a major player in Ohio politics, serving as the Ohio secretary of state from 2011 to 2019, and the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives from 2005 to 2009. Husted also pushed hard to secure Ohio’s elections, saying he wanted to make it a state where it is “both easy to vote and hard to cheat.” After taking office as secretary of state, Husted switched voting rules to make early voting hours uniform across the state instead of allowing county boards of elections to set their own hours.
However, chances are fairly high that Husted will end up running for the governor’s seat come 2026 rather than running to keep the Senate seat. He has already gotten the thumb’s up from DeWine for that particular position. Although, if I’m being honest, I’d consider receiving the approval of DeWine to be a kiss of death. He’s clearly a RINO and is most assuredly not MAGA. We need as many folks who are actually on board with living out practically conservative principles in positions within all levels of government.
That’s how you save this country.
A Republican rival of DeWine, former Congressman Jim Renacci would be an unlikely appointment, but he could campaign for the 2026 special election. Renacci challenged DeWine in 2022, regularly criticizing the Ohio governor. He lost to DeWine in the Republican primary by 20 points. Renacci also mounted a U.S. Senate campaign in 2018, winning the Republican primary before losing to Democrat Sherrod Brown in the general election.
Before he was elected to Congress in 2010, Renacci was a successful businessman, owning multiple dealerships in the Columbus area. In Congress, he served on the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Budget Committee. Ohio Republican state Senator Matt Dolan has thrown his hat into the ring for a U.S. Senate twice in the past three years, falling short in Republican primaries in 2022 and 2024. Dolan is the son of Larry Dolan who owns the Cleveland Guardians (formerly Cleveland Indians) of the MLB. Dolan was given a partial stake in the franchise in 2000.
One of the potential candidates that I think would be an excellent pick is Rep. Warren Davidson. He formerly served as an infantryman in the Army where he spent some time in Germany. Later on in his career, he earned an appointment to The U.S. Military Academy located West Point where he ultimately graduated at the top of his class. He’s also owned and operated manufacturing companies in the state for almost two decades before being elected to Congress in 2016.
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