JD Vance is leaving the Senate for the vice presidency. That’s set off a scramble for his Ohio seat

COLUMBUS, Ohio– by J.D. Vance election as vice president has opened one of Ohio’s U.S. Senate seats for the third time in as many years, setting off a nomination battle among the state’s governing Republicans.

GOP Governor Mike DeWine is charged with filling the vacancygiving the pragmatic center-right politician a hand in determining his party’s course in the state, possibly for years to come. His decision will come in the wake of major Republican victories in November led by Donald Trump, but a poor choice could also help Democrats regain a seat in Ohio’s Senate delegation if the seat is less than two years away. is re-elected one year.

“Look, being a United States senator is a big deal,” the governor told reporters in the days after the election. “It’s a big deal for the state, and we have to get it right.”

DeWine has a long list to choose from — especially considering the number of Republican candidates who ran unsuccessfully in the 2022 and 2024 Senate primaries. Those in question who lost previously crowded Republican primaries include former Ohio Republican Chairman Jane Timken; two-term Secretary of State Frank LaRose; and state Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball club. Treasurer of Ohio for two terms Robert Sprague and Republican attorney and strategist Mehek Cooke, a frequent guest on Fox News, are also in the mix.

Another potential appointee — 2024 presidential candidate, Cincinnati pharmaceutical entrepreneur and Vance insider Vivek Ramaswamy — withdrew from the fray after accepting a position in the new Trump administration.

Although Vance DeWine’s departure also offers an opportunity to ease a bottleneck at the top of Republicans’ political pecking order in Ohio, where Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost are preparing to run for governor in 2026 , that seems unlikely. Husted is well into building his campaign organization, and Yost has said he would decline the nomination if it were offered to him. DeWine — a 77-year-old former U.S. senator with a term limit in 2026 — has also said he would not appoint himself.

Meanwhile, seat ambitions among Republican members of Ohio’s congressional delegation — which also includes U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan, Mike Carey, David Joyce and Warren Davidson — are tempered by the slim Chamber majority their side scored in November. Under Ohio election protocols, it necessarily takes months to fill vacancies in the House of Representatives, a likely consideration for DeWine as Trump prepares to push early policy priorities through Congress.

Under state law, whoever receives the appointment will serve from the date of Vance’s resignation, which he has not announced, until December 15, 2026. A special election for the final two years of his six-year term would take place in November 2026.

That special election could provide a comeback opportunity for Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown was fired earlier this month by Cleveland businessman Bernie Moreno. While not specific, Brown told Politico last week, “I’m staying in this arena. I’m not leaving.” Former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, the Democratic Senate candidate who lost to Vance in 2022, could make another run. Allison Russo, the Democratic leader of the Ohio House, is also mentioned as a candidate for the Senate in 2026.

DeWine has made it clear he wants the Republican he chooses to be well positioned to defeat Democrats in 2026. Their strengths as a statewide candidate and fundraiser are especially important because Ohio’s state elections are also happening that year — and every seat is open. A strong incumbent senator at the top of that ticket could be valuable in returning Republicans to the offices of governor, attorney general, treasurer, accountant and secretary of state.

Stamina can also be a factor. Timken last ran for Senate in 2022, LaRose ran this year and Dolan ran both times. A win in 2026 would give the winner just a two-year reprieve before facing Ohio voters again in 2028.

“This is not for the faint of heart,” DeWine said.

Dolan, who is a millionaire along with Timken, is a rarity among Republicans vying for Vance’s nomination because he has never won Trump’s support.

In both 2022 and 2024, Dolan followed the Republicans’ moderate path, refusing to align himself with Trump and disavowing his false claims that voter fraud had lost him the 2020 election. Those views won him over DeWine’s approval in last year’s Senate primaries, which could be a good sign for the term-limited Ohio Senate Finance Chairman.

The president-elect backed Vance in 2022 and Moreno this year, propelling both to victory. Moreno won a three-way Republican primary against Dolan and LaRose, while Vance topped a field of sevenbefore both went on to defeat Democratic opponents inside now reliably red Ohio.

In the state legislature, Dolan opposed Ohio’s now blocked banning abortions once fetal heart activity is detected and a failed attempt to overrule the then government. John Kasich’s veto. Both LaRose and Sprague, then a state senator and representative respectively, supported both the bill and the attempted transfer.

Timken, a Trump loyalist, has never held public office, but as a Senate candidate she described herself as “a strong ally of the pro-life movement” and supported the overturn of Roe v. Wade.

Former US Senator Rob Portman supported Timken in the 2022 Senate primary, calling the Harvard-educated lawyer and wife of former TimkenSteel CEO Tim Timken a smart, hard-working conservative.

Some believe DeWine’s penchant for uplifting women could give her or Cooke an edge in the competition. Both his chief of staff and his communications director are women, and more than half of his cabinet is female.

Although Trump endorsed Vance over Timken for Senate in 2022, he had hand-selected her before to lead the Republican Party of Ohio after his first election in 2016, and has since supported her election as RNC National Committeewoman for Ohio.

Although Trump also passed LaRose for Senate confirmation this year, he had backed both him and Sprague in bids for statewide office — and both have backed him as well.

Both have won statewide races twice, though LaRose’s high profile as Ohio’s election chief keeps him in the news more than Sprague, and he would be the first Green Beret to serve in Congress. At the same time, the lack of controversy that has characterized Sprague’s tenure at the state treasury could make him less likely than LaRose to attract a primary challenger.

DeWine says he wants his appointee to focus on both state and national issues and be willing to work hard and “get things done.” He also hinted that the person’s politics should not be too extreme.

“It also has to be someone who can win the primary, it has to be someone who can win the general election, and do it all again two years later,” he said.