Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted is expected to succeed JD Vance in the U.S. Senate, AP sources say

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is expected to select his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, on Friday to succeed Vice President-elect JD Vance in the U.S. Senate.

That’s according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity before an announcement planned for Friday afternoon.

The surprise pick of Husted, who had been positioning to run for governor in 2026, potentially averts a divisive and expensive GOP primary to fill Vance’s seat next year.

DeWine’s decision ends months of jockeying among top Ohio Republicans for Vance’s position, which he had held for less than two years. The former senator resigned Friday.

The 57-year-old Husted, a former Ohio House speaker and two-term secretary of state, will serve until Dec. 15, 2026. A special election for the last two years of Vance’s six-year term will be held in November 2026.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Gov. Mike DeWine plans to announce his choice to succeed Vice President-elect JD Vance in the U.S. Senate on Friday, a decision that will reveal the power of Donald Trump’s continuing sway in the one-time swing state he’s now won three times.

The term-limited, politically pragmatic DeWine, 78, has sole discretion over the pick — but he has twice in recent weeks visited Mar-a-Lago, the president-elect’s de facto headquarters, where discussions on the selection presumably occurred.

Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was with him on one the trips. Husted had been positioning to run for governor in 2026, but his political future appeared suddenly tied to that of former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, a Trump insider.

As he also eyed a bid for governor, Ramaswamy had initially pulled himself out of contention for the Senate seat. That was due in part to the work that he and Elon Musk have been assigned by Trump on federal government efficiency. But Ramaswamy visited DeWine at the governor’s residence last week and expressed interest in the Senate appointment.

He is among a long list of contenders vying for the seat after Vance’s election in November. Those include several Republicans who lost Senate primaries in 2022, 2024 or both — Secretary of State Frank LaRose, state Sen. Matt Dolan and former state GOP chair Jane Timken, as well as congressional representatives, statewide officeholders and political outsiders.

Vance was only two years into a six-year term when he resigned last week. Whoever succeeds him will serve until Dec. 15, 2026. They would need to be elected to the remaining two years of his term in a special election in November 2026, when it is possible that former three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown could attempt a comeback. Brown lost a re-election bid to Republican Bernie Moreno, a Cleveland businessman last fall.

Moreno and Vance were both boosted into the Senate with help from endorsements by Trump. Neither had held elective office before.