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

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to appoint his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, to the Senate seat recently vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance, two sources with knowledge of the decision told NBC News.

The sources, who were granted anonymity to share details of private discussions, said the announcement is scheduled to come at a 1 p.m. Friday news conference that DeWine has called at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus.

A spokesperson for DeWine declined to comment about the agenda for the news conference. A Husted spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

Husted, who would serve at least through a 2026 special election to fill the remaining two years of Vance’s term, had recently emerged as a leading contender. DeWine had said appointing someone who could win a competitive Republican primary next year was among his chief considerations.

The decision comes on the heels of Vance’s resignation and follows a meeting that DeWine and Husted had last month with President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Husted’s interest in succeeding DeWine as governor in 2026, and the possibility of Husted being endorsed by Trump, was a topic of conversation, two sources briefed on the meeting told NBC News. But Trump made no commitments to Husted on that race or on the Senate vacancy, these sources said.

The imminent Husted appointment follows a late push from biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, a close Trump ally who lives in the Columbus area.

Ramaswamy last fall took himself out of the running for the post after agreeing to lead the new Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency. But he had signaled a change of heart recently and met with DeWine about the appointment.

Others who were in the mix to succeed Vance included former state GOP chair Jane Timken, state Treasurer Robert Sprague, Rep. Mike Carey and former state Rep. Jay Edwards.

Signal Ohio first reported that DeWine had settled on Husted.

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.

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.

Despite their close relationship, Husted, 57, 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.

Ramaswamy’s potential interest in the 2026 race for governor, combined with Trump’s reluctance to issue an early endorsement of Husted, likely factored into Husted’s decision on whether to accept DeWine’s Senate appointment. Other prominent Republicans, including Sprague and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, also have been preparing campaigns for governor, threatening to further crowd the field.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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