Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Friday that he selected Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill the Senate seat vacated by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, tapping a like-minded fiscal and defense hawk to replace one of the Republican Party’s leading populist voices. 

Husted is a close political ally of DeWine’s and a decades-long veteran of Ohio politics, having served as Ohio’s secretary of state and as speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, after which he was elected to the state Senate. 

Despite his moderate politics and reputation for bipartisan dealmaking from his time in the state Legislature, Husted has worked to align himself with President-elect Donald Trump. He backed Trump early on in the 2024 presidential election. 

Husted shares DeWine’s views as a Republican supportive of international engagement, though the two have approached Trump and his America First wing of the GOP in different ways. DeWine has been vocal about his unease with the party’s lurch toward isolationism in recent years and has occasionally been at odds with Trump publicly. Husted has avoided being critical of the president-elect and tried to align with him rhetorically, especially during the Biden administration. 

“We have worked to make Ohio great again and I look forward to working with President Trump and J.D. Vance to make America great again,” Husted said at DeWine’s Friday press conference announcing his appointment.

Describing Ohio as a “complex state,” DeWine, a two-term veteran of the Senate, explained that he wanted their newest senator to be someone who had “a firm grasp and understanding of the complexity of Ohio.” The governor cited Husted’s experience as a state lawmaker and commitment to holding onto the seat long-term among reasons for choosing him for the role, calling the incoming senator a “workhorse” who knew how to deliver legislative wins.

“There were many people who I considered very qualified to serve in the United States Senate to represent the state of Ohio. But 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,” DeWine said at his press conference. “And that is Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.”

“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. All of that tells me he is the right person for this job,” the governor continued.

DeWine said his alignment with Husted on foreign policy matters, an area that has pitted the isolationist and interventionist wings of the GOP against one another, was also a major reason for selecting him over candidates like Ramaswamy, who staunchly opposes U.S. intervention in most foreign conflicts. 

“This is a serious, serious time in our history. I won’t go into all the reasons why, but I think if you look at foreign affairs, if you look at national defense, if you look at the international situation today, if you look at where our defense is, a United States senator … can play and does play a major role in regard to our national security,” DeWine said. “Serious times demand serious people.”

Husted has been a stalwart supporter of Israel throughout his career. He signed onto an open letter organized by the Jewish Federation of Cleveland shortly after Oct. 7 condemning the atrocities and vowing to stand with Israel and the Jewish people and led the charge behind the scenes to get Ohio State University to forcibly disband the anti-Israel encampments that had disrupted campus life for Jewish and non-Jewish students alike. 

“He’s been very supportive since Oct. 7 of our community and with Israel,” Howie Beigelman, the executive director of Ohio Jewish Communities, which represents the state’s eight Jewish federations, told JI of Husted. “His relationship with the Jewish community is rock solid. He really very much cares about working on the issues.”

Husted’s willingness to run for the seat in a special election in 2026 to serve out the last two years of Vance’s term, and then run for a full six-year term in 2028, will allow for Republicans to focus their political efforts on holding the governorship. Before his Senate appointment, Husted was viewed as a front-runner to be the Republican gubernatorial nominee to replace DeWine. 

Among those interested in running for governor is Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and a close Trump ally who is co-chairing Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Elon Musk.