Gov. Mike DeWine has chosen Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill a vacant seat representing Ohio in the U.S. Senate.

“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 daily I work with, and that is Lt. Governor Jon Husted,” DeWine said at a Friday afternoon press conference.

Standing next to the governor and joined by his three children and his wife, Tina, Husted said, “It is my honor to accept the appointment to serve the people of the State of Ohio and the United States Senate.”

“I’m ready to get started because I don’t have an office, I don’t have staff, I don’t have a desk,” he said. “I got a lot of work to do. We’re going to be leaving to go get that done real soon.”

Husted will take the job as soon as he assumes the oath of office, which he said would likely happen soon. He will join Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno, who took office earlier this month after winning in November, in becoming a U.S. senator from Ohio with zero experience in Congress. Husted, 57, was held various state elected positions since he was elected to the Ohio House in 2000.

As a soon-to-be U.S. senator, Husted will have to run for election in 2026. If he wins, he would have to run again in 2028 when the term expires. He declined to share his positions on various federal issues, such as military aid for Ukraine, a looming ban of TikTok and other regulatory issues involving social media.

“Check back with me, because I have some strong opinions on these issues. But today I’m just going to focus on the fact that the governor appointed me,” he said.

He did say, however, that he would support President Elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominees.

A drawn-out decision

Several Republican sources told Signal before the announcement that DeWine would pick Husted. The development is an about-face for Husted, who long has planned to run for governor in 2026 to succeed DeWine, who can’t run again because of term limits.

But a source said the decision reflects concern that Husted would have a hard time winning a Republican primary for governor in 2026. The race also is expected to feature Vivek Ramaswamy, a Columbus-area billionaire who became a well-known political media personality following an unsuccessful run for president in 2024.

Jon and Tina Husted described the decision to abandon the governor’s race as a difficult one for their family, given that their youngest daughter, Kylie, is still in high school. But asked whether Ramaswamy’s potential presence in the governor’s race factored into his decision, Jon Husted didn’t deny it.

Instead, he responded: “I promise you every single [potential candidate] would have accepted this appointment to the U.S. Senate. Except the governor offered it to me. So that’s why you make the decision, because this is an opportunity, if you care about our control and the people of this state, that you can’t pass up.”

The seat previously was held by JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican who was elected to the Senate in November 2022. Vance resigned after he was elected this past November to become vice president. Under Ohio law, DeWine has authority to pick Vance’s replacement.

Vance resigned on Jan. 9 to prepare for his new job. DeWine said the same day he would announce the pick sometime within the next week. But anticipation built in political circles as time passed without an announcement from DeWine, especially considering DeWine began considering whom he’d pick to replace Vance last July, when President-Elect Donald Trump announced Vance as his running mate at the Republican National Convention.

DeWine held a media availability on Thursday to announce a major new factory. But he was tight-lipped about the Senate race other than to confirm he’d met with Ramaswamy recently.

That development, reported by several local and national media outlets this week, suggested that Ramaswamy was in the running for the Senate appointment. Had that occurred, it would have helped clear the path for Husted to run for governor.

But that turned out not to be the case.

Ramaswamy’s emergence throws wrench into DeWine’s succession plan

DeWine’s deliberate pace all traces back to positioning for the 2026 election and is believed to reflect reluctance from Husted to accept the job.

Husted long had planned to run for governor and has long been seen as more interested in state office than federal office. He ran for governor for the first time ahead of the 2018 election. But he decided to drop out and become DeWine’s running mate instead. It’s understood the decision came with a tacit promise from DeWine to help Husted become governor in 2026.

Lieutenant governors risk falling into obscurity, since they yield the stage to the governor and have few official responsibilities under Ohio law. But when DeWine took office in 2019, he helped Husted build a political resume by giving him high-profile roles modernizing government and focusing on economic development.

DeWine also has made it clear more recently that he wanted Husted to succeed him, and Husted announced he was running for governor last year.

But Husted grew more receptive to accepting the Senate appointment as it became clearer that Ramaswamy was positioning himself to run for governor in 2026 too. Ramaswamy currently is co-leading the Department of Government Efficiency, a non-governmental advisory panel that will aim to recommend ways to cut the federal budget, along mega-billionaire Elon Musk.

Husted told Signal he made the decision to accept the position within the past few weeks.

Husted is a longtime elected official in Ohio. He began his political career in 2000, when he was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. He rose to become Ohio House speaker in 2005. In 2009, he was elected to the Ohio Senate, and in 2014, he was elected Ohio Secretary of State. He held that position until he was elected lieutenant governor in 2018.