OHIO, USA — With U.S. Sen. JD Vance set to be the next vice president, Ohio will soon have an open Senate seat.
Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, will appoint the next person to fill the seat when Vance vacates it to assume his new position. That appointee holds the office until a special election.
So, who will DeWine pick? According to the governor's communications director, Dan Tierney, the question has been on Dewine's mind since president-elect Donald Trump selected Vance as his running mate.
But, Tierney says DeWine wasn't ready to seriously consider anyone until after the presidential race had been called.
"I think we'll start seeing some signals in the next few days, it's just a matter of what will leak and when," said Sam Nelson, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toledo. "I think the governor will start having conversations today and into this week."
Nelson sees Republicans who have already sought the seat as the most likely to be selected.
"The governor's shortlist, I think he's going to start by who ran in the primary against Bernie Moreno, who ran in the primary against JD Vance, there's a lot of overlap there. People who have already expressed interest in being a senator for Ohio," he said.
Three big names have run in recent Republican primaries for the Senate:
- Josh Mandel, a former Ohio state treasurer and US Marine Corps veteran who ran in 2022
- current Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who ran in this year's election cycle
- Matt Dolan, a state senator from Ohio's 24th district who ran in 2022 and 2024
Nelson has no guesses who DeWine might pick and stated the governor has almost complete discretion over who can take over the seat.
When the replacement will be decided, however, depends entirely on when Vance vacates his seat.
"I would expect that Sen. Vance will wait until the vote is certified until he will officially resign, and that will take a few more weeks," Nelson said.
As for Democrats, Nelson says their best bet to eventually compete against the Republican appointee might be the still-popular Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his seat to Republican Bernie Moreno.