Election Sen. JD Vance as vice president has opened one of the US Senate seats in Ohio for the third time in as many years, creating a scramble for the appointment among the governing Republicans in the state.
Republican Gov. Mike DeWine was tasked fill the voidgiving a pragmatic center-right politician a hand in setting the path of the party in the country has the potential for the coming year. The decision comes after a major victory by Republicans in November under the leadership of President-elect Donald Trump, but the poor choice could also help Democrats regain a place in the Ohio Senate delegation when the seat is up for re-election in less than two years.
“Look, being a United States senator is a big deal,” DeWine told reporters a few days after the election. “This is a big problem for the country, and we have to solve it.”
DeWine has a long list to choose from – especially given the number of GOP candidates who failed to compete in the Senate primaries in 2022 and 2024. People in consideration who previously lost the crowded Republican primaries are the former Chair of the Republican Ohio Jane Timken; two-term Secretary of State Frank LaRose; and state Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns baseball’s Cleveland Guardians. Two-term Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague and Republican attorney and strategist Mehek Cooke, a frequent guest on Fox News, are also in the mix.
One other nominated candidate – 2024 presidential contender, Cincinnati pharmaceutical entrepreneur and Vance insider Vivek Ramaswamy – pulled out of the post after accept the position in the new Trump administration.
The departure of Vance also offers DeWine the opportunity to ease the bottleneck at the top of the political pecking order of Ohio Republicans, where Lt. Governor Jon Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost are preparing to face off for governor in 2026, which seems credible. Husted is good at building a campaign organization, and Yost has said he would decline the appointment if offered. DeWine — a 77-year-old former U.S. senator whose term is limited in 2026 — also said he would not re-elect himself.
Meanwhile, ambitions for the seat among the Republican members of Ohio’s congressional delegation – which includes US Reps. Jim Jordan, Mike Carey, David Joyce and Warren Davidson – are being tempered by the slim House majority counted by the party in November. The House vacancy should take months to fill in Ohio’s election protocol, perhaps a consideration for DeWine as Trump prepares to advance his early policy priorities through Congress.
Under state law, whoever gets the appointment will serve from the date of Vance’s resignation, which has not yet been announced, until Dec. 15, 2026. A special election for a two-year term of six years will be held in November 2026.
The special election could provide a comeback opportunity for Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, who was defeated earlier this month by a Cleveland businessman. Bernie Moreno. Although he wasn’t specific, Brown told Politico last week: “I’m going to stay in this arena. I’m not going to leave.” Former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic Senate nominee who lost to Vance in 2022, may also run again. And Allison Russo, the Democratic leader in the Ohio House, has also been mentioned as a 2026 Senate contender.
DeWine has made it clear that he wants well-elected Republicans to defeat Democrats in 2026. His strength as a statewide candidate and fundraising is especially important because Ohio’s statewide elections are also held that year — and every seat is open. The incumbent senator is strong at the top of a ticket that could be valuable for returning Republicans to the offices of governor, attorney general, treasurer, auditor and secretary of state.
Stamina can also be a factor. Timken is running for the Senate most recently in 2022, LaRose is running this year, and Dolan is running twice. A win in 2026 would only give him a two-year reprieve from winning before he has to face Ohio voters again in 2028.
“This is not for the faint of heart,” DeWine said.
Dolan, who along with Timken is a billionaire, is rare among Republicans competing for the Vance appointment because he never won Trump’s endorsement.
In 2022 and 2024, Dolan ran on moderate Republican lines, refusing to align with Trump and rejecting false claims that voter fraud lost him in the 2020 election. That attitude won DeWine an endorsement in last year’s Senate primary, which could bode well for the Senate Finance chairman. Ohio is limited.
The president-elect backed Vance in 2022 and Moreno this year — lifting both to victory. Moreno won a three-way Republican primary against Dolan and LaRose, while Vance topped the field of seven, before the two went on to defeat their Democratic opponents in now reliably red Ohio.
In the state Legislature, Dolan opposed Ohio’s now-blocked ban on abortion after fetal heart activity was detected and unsuccessfully tried to defeat Gov. John Kasich’s veto. Both LaRose and Sprague, then state senators and representatives, respectively, supported the bill and the override effort.
Timken, a Trump loyalist, has never held public office, but as a Senate candidate he described himself as a “strong ally of the pro-life movement” and supported overturning Roe v. Wade.
Former U.S. Senator Rob Portman is backing Timken in the 2022 Senate primary, calling the Harvard-educated attorney and wife of former TimkenSteel CEO Tim Timken a smart, hard-working conservative.
Some believe DeWine’s passion for elevating women could give her or Cooke an edge in the competition. The chief of staff and director of communications are women and more than half of his Cabinet are women.
Although Trump endorsed Timken’s Vance for the Senate in 2022, he had nominated him to lead the Ohio Republican Party after the first election in 2016, and he had supported his election to the RNC National Committee for Ohio.
While Trump also passed over LaRose for a Senate endorsement this year, he has supported her and Sprague in their bids for statewide office — and both have endorsed him again.
Both have twice won statewide races, although LaRose’s high profile as Ohio’s chief election officer has kept him in the headlines more than Sprague, and he will be the first Green Beret to serve in the Senate. At the same time, the lack of controversy that has marked Sprague’s tenure at the state treasury could make him less likely than LaRose to draw a primary challenger.
DeWine said he wants his appointees to be focused on state and national issues and willing to work hard and “get things done.” He also hinted that the man’s politics could not be too extreme.
“This must also be a person who can win the primary, must be a person who can win the general election, and then two years later everything again,” he said.
