Ohio

The race is on to replace JD Vance in the U.S. Senate

Published

1 year ago

November 6, 2024

The race is on to replace JD Vance in the U.S. Senate

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has been busy — having calls and meeting with U.S. Senate hopefuls trying to take Vice President-elect JD Vance’s seat in the nation’s capital.

President-elect Donald Trump and Vance are set to take office in mid-January, but another race is heating up.

“Some people have already contacted me,” DeWine said during a press conference before the election. “I’ve already met with some people — at their request.”

DeWine has a big decision to make. Vance will need to resign from his coveted Senate seat, and the governor will appoint his replacement.

Back in July, I asked him about the qualities that he wants to an appointee.

Here’s what qualities Gov. Mike DeWine wants to see in his next U.S. Senate appointment

“I’ll look for someone who wants to get things done every day and will stay focused on it — It’s a tough job, it’s not an easy job,” DeWine told me in July. “We also have to have someone who will be able to stay there a while.”

Building up seniority is important, and a lawmaker can become more effective the longer they stay there, he said.

Republican strategist Bob Clegg said the governor has a lot of options in front of him — but one stands out the most.

“Vivek,” Clegg said. “Same age, same background… He’s coming into politics within the last two years.”

Ramaswamy’s team has told us previously that he wasn’t able to do an interview and we didn’t hear back from him Wednesday. But he told Politico that he was interested.

“If I were asked to serve, I would strongly consider it,” he said.

DeWine could also choose someone with more in common with his own ideology and mild-mannered personality, Clegg said.

“I think he’s got somebody like Jane Timken who wouldn’t fit the typical appointment but is the kind of Republican that he feels comfortable with,” the strategist said.

Jane Timken is a Trump ally who ran for U.S. Senate in 2022 and is currently the RNC Committeewoman for Ohio. She didn’t respond to comment Wednesday, but before the election, she told me that it was too early to talk about the vacancy.

The governor said he isn’t sure about the timeline for naming a replacement yet, since Vance still needs to resign his seat. But we do know he has plenty of candidates to choose from.

“We’ve got a few people interested,” DeWine said, laughing.

Onto the names

This list is not exhaustive and only reflects the views of two dozen Ohio political insiders in different offices and professions. Individuals will likely come out of the woodwork to express interest to the governor. This is an updated list to our original from when Vance was announced as the VP candidate. Each of the individuals on this list has been mentioned to me more than five times.

Former candidates

Jane Timken

As mentioned, Timken is one of the most popular names referenced.

Not only does she have a good relationship with institutional Republicans like Rob Portman, but she also appeals to MAGA-esque conservatives.

She would also be the first female U.S. Senator in Ohio history.

Matt Dolan

Clegg had originally thought in July that state Sen. Matt Dolan seemed like an obvious pick but changed his mind this time around. Still, dozens of politicos still suggest Dolan.

The governor endorsed Dolan in the last U.S. Senate Republican primary, but he finished second to Bernie Moreno.

Dolan’s spokesperson denied to comment Wednesday, but previously told us that the senator was focused on the general election.

Frank LaRose

Sec. of State Frank LaRose was mentioned as a possibility. He ran and came in third for the 2024 Republican U.S. Senate nomination. However, Vance and Donald Trump Jr. have routinely criticized and insulted LaRose on social media. It is unclear if that could play into DeWine’s decision.

His team has previously not responded to comment.

Statewide names

Vivek Ramaswamy, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost

Ramaswamy, despite not having run for U.S. Senate before, was also proposed by a dozen insiders.

This could be a political play for the governor.

Ramaswamy, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost are all expected to run for governor in 2026.

By appointing Ramaswamy, Husted (or Yost) could have a thinner primary battle.

“If you’re Jon, what do you think you’re saying to Mike DeWine?” Clegg said, suggesting that Husted wants to clear the field. “What advice are you giving him on who to appoint?”

Husted, DeWine’s second-in-command, has been in politics for more than two decades. He has served as the secretary of state, speaker of the House and state senator.

Although not as frequently brought up as Yost was, Husted is being floated. That being said, appointing Husted could give the LG more name recognition for his gubernatorial run in 2026.

“Today is about celebrating a historic comeback by President Trump and Ohio’s new Senator, Bernie Moreno,” Husted’s spokesperson Hayley Carducci said. “I am sure Governor DeWine, President Trump and Vice President Vance will have a conversation, but today is about celebrating a great victory for Ohio and the America-First movement.”

Yost has been floated the most of the statewide officials.

Yost is also a longtime politician, starting behind the scenes and then working as Delaware County auditor and then prosecutor. Before becoming AG, he was the state auditor.

However, the AG doesn’t want the position and would decline it, his team told me.

“We’re blessed to have a number of candidates who would make a great U.S. senator alongside Senator-Elect Bernie Moreno,” Yost’s campaign spokesperson Amy Natoce said. “Attorney General Yost has always felt called to an executive office, and is actively raising money for a 2026 run for governor.”

Robert Sprague

Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague was brought up by Clegg and numerous other politicos.

Sprague has been working in politics for years. He previously was a member of the Ohio House. Prior, he served as the Findlay auditor and treasurer.

“They’re on the younger side and could do the job and do it well,” Clegg said about Sprague and Husted.

“It is certainly flattering to be a part of that conversation, particularly as the Treasurer considers how he will continue to serve his fellow Ohioans,” Sprague’s campaign spokesperson Dalton Throckmorton said.

Sitting members of Congress

Dave Joyce

Congressman Dave Joyce has been a member of Congress since 2013, representing Northeast Ohio. He is a moderate with views closely aligned with DeWine’s. He chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

His team did not respond to comment Wednesday, but a source familiar told me that Joyce’s name has come up.

Mike Carey

Congressman Mike Carey was mentioned repeatedly. Carey has been a member of Congress since 2021, representing parts of Columbus and central Ohio. He is known as being slightly more conservative than Joyce. He is the chairman of the House Communications Standards Commission.

“I think of all the congressmen, I think Mike would be the obvious one,” Clegg said.

He didn’t respond to comment.

DeWine’s pick

The choice will likely come before the end of the year. A resignation before the new class of senators takes office helps a new senator get seniority over the elected ones.

“The timeline will be dictated by when Vice President-elect Vance decides to make his resignation effective,” DeWine’s spokesperson Dan Tierney told me Wednesday.

During the press conference before the election, DeWine said the appointment announcement could even come within a few days.

Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.

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Ohio

Ohio woman sentenced in $775,000 Medicaid scheme

Published

9 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

COLUMBUS — A Lake County woman was sentenced this morning to jail time and ordered to pay $775,000 in restitution for fraudulently billing Medicaid, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced. “She inflated her earnings through brazen fraud, but her scheme burst wide open when our investigators got the case,” Yost said. “Cheating taxpayers comes with […]

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Ohio

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

Published

21 hours ago

February 27, 2026

Press Room

‘Catastrophic’ Ohio farm fire kills 6,000 hogs and pigs, officials say

A wind-swept blaze at an Ohio hog farm complex caused “catastrophic” damage and left thousands of pigs dead, fire officials said, marking another devastating barn inferno contributing to the deaths of millions of animals in recent years.

The massive fire occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at Fine Oak Farms in Union Township, Madison County, located west of Ohio’s capital of Columbus, according to the Central Townships Joint Fire District. Fire crews received a report of a barn fire shortly before 12 p.m. local time.

The incident was later upgraded to a commercial structure fire after Chief Brian Bennington observed a “large column of smoke visible from a distance” and requested additional resources. Multiple local fire departments, along with several other emergency agencies, were called to the scene.

“What our crews encountered upon arrival was a very difficult and heartbreaking incident,” Bennington said in a statement on Feb. 26.

The fire chief described the facility as a large farm complex used for hog production consisting of five large agricultural buildings, including four that housed about 7,500 hogs. When crews arrived at the scene, they found two of the barns engulfed in flames, Bennington said.

Crews were challenged by windy conditions that significantly impacted fire suppression efforts, according to Bennington. Three barns were destroyed in the fire, and about 6,000 hogs and pigs were killed.

Firefighters saved one barn and about 1,500 hogs, the fire chief added. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Bennington highlighted the assistance of the farming community throughout Madison and Clark counties, as multiple farmers responded with water trucks to help with water supply efforts. “Rural Ohio’s agricultural community is tight-knit, and they truly step up when one of their own is in need,” he said.

The incident remains under investigation, and the Ohio State Fire Marshal’s Office will determine the fire’s cause and origin. Bennington said there is no suspicion of arson and no ongoing threat to the public at this time.

‘Rapidly changing fire behavior conditions’

Heavy smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, and Bennington said first-arriving units were met with fire conditions coming from the opposite side of the hog farm complex.

The fire chief noted that the incident required extensive water-shuttle operations due to rural water-supply limitations in the area. Crews attempted to cut the fire off by deploying multiple handlines and using an aerial device, but “faced extremely challenging conditions throughout the incident,” according to Bennington.

Sustained winds of about 20 mph with gusts up to 35 mph accelerated the fire’s spread, Bennington said. The high winds made it “extremely difficult” to contain forward fire progression and created “rapidly changing fire behavior conditions” across the agricultural complex, he added.

After about four to five hours, the fire was contained by fire personnel from four different counties, according to the fire chief.

“Unfortunately, the fire resulted in catastrophic damage to the business,” Bennington said in an earlier statement on Feb. 25. “A significant portion of the agricultural structures were destroyed.”

Latest major fire to impact an Ohio hog farm

The incident at Fine Oak Farms is the latest major fire to cause significant damage to an Ohio hog farm in recent years.

In August 2024, about 1,100 pigs were killed in Versailles, a village about 50 miles northwest of Dayton, Ohio, according to data from the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. In March 2022, about 2,000 hogs died in a barn fire at Kenneth Scholl Hog Farm in Brown Township, just west of Columbus.

Before the fire at Fine Oak Farms, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that other barn fires in Ohio this year killed 162 sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and other animals.

Hundreds of thousands of animals killed in barn fires each year

Data from the Animal Welfare Institute shows that hundreds of thousands of animals are killed in barn fires across the country each year. Since 2013, over 9 million farm animals have been killed in barn fires, according to the organization.

As of Feb. 26, the Animal Welfare Institute reported that 118,738 farm animals have died in U.S. barn fires this year, including the incident at Fine Oak Farms. The majority of farm animals killed were chickens in separate incidents in North Carolina and Georgia in January, and another incident in Missouri earlier this month.

“Most fatal barn fires occurred in colder states, particularly the Upper Midwest and the Northeast. New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois had the highest number of barn fires, respectively,” according to the organization. “The amount of cold weather a state experienced appeared to be a greater factor in the prevalence of barn fires than the intensity of a state’s animal agriculture production.”

In an updated report on farm animal deaths due to barn fires in 2025, the Animal Welfare Institute said more than 2.53 million farm animals were killed in barn fires from 2022 to 2024. The organization noted that the high death toll was “driven primarily” by fires at large operations that housed several thousand to over 1 million farm animals.

The majority of deaths in these incidents during that period, over 98%, were farmed birds, such as chickens and turkeys, according to the Animal Welfare Institute. But in 2023, a massive fire at a west Texas dairy farm became the single deadliest event involving livestock in the state’s history and the deadliest cattle fire in America in at least a decade.

18,000 head of cattle perished in the fire at the South Fork Dairy farm near Dimmitt, Texas. At the time, Roger Malone, who is the former mayor of Dimmitt, called the incident “mind-boggling.”

“I don’t think it’s ever happened before around here. It’s a real tragedy,” Malone said.

Contributing: Rick Jervis, USA TODAY; Shahid Meighan, Columbus Dispatch

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Ohio

Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Ohio’s LaRose pushes back on voter fraud critics, Democrats

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose discussed voter fraud and Ohio’s efforts to prevent it during a recent radio appearance.

LaRose appeared on “The Bill Cunningham” radio show, where he defended the state’s efforts to minimize voter fraud. A clip posted on X shows audio of LaRose arguing that policies aimed at preventing voter fraud are necessary even though cases are rare.

Here’s what to know.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose says voter fraud in Ohio is rare, compares prevention efforts to TSA security

In the clip, LaRose says that Democrats claim voter fraud is rare, and should be ignored.

“The left claims that voter fraud is rare, so we should just ignore it,” he said. “Well, airplane hijackings are also rare — we don’t abolish the TSA. The reason why we keep voter fraud rare in states like Ohio because we do these very things that they’re trying to take away from me.”

LaRose announced the inaugural meeting of the new Ohio Election Integrity Commission, which replaces what he called the flawed Ohio Elections Commission, in January 2026. The new committee, he says, will be used in “enforcing Ohio’s election laws, reviewing alleged violations, and ensuring accountability in matters relating to voting.”

In October 2025, LaRose said that he forwarded more than 1,000 cases of voter fraud to the U.S. Department of Justice. The cases involved 1,084 noncitizen individuals who appear to have registered to vote unlawfully in Ohio, and 167 noncitizens who appear to have also cast a ballot in a federal election since 2018.

In February 2026, President Donald Trump said Republicans should “nationalize” elections. He also accused Democrats of bringing migrants into the United States to illegally vote, a claim that is not backed by evidence, USA TODAY reports.

Voter fraud in the U.S. is considered rare nationwide, according to NPR, but there are still debates from both political sides on how frequently it occurs.

What is voter fraud?

Electoral fraud is defined as illegally interfering with the process of an election, according to Ballotpedia. This includes in-person voter fraud, absentee or mail ballots and illegal voter suppression.

Criminal penalties can include fines or imprisonment for up to five years, according to U.S. code. In Ohio, election interference can carry a felony of the fourth degree, according to Ohio Code.

Voter fraud is often a topic of debate among Democrats and Republicans, where organizations such as the conservative Heritage Foundation maintains a database claiming to show nearly 1,500 cases of election fraud since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, research by law professor Justin Leavitt published in 2014 found 31 cases of in-person voter fraud among billions of ballots cast from 2000–2014, according to Ballotpedia.

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