Ohio

Who will replace JD Vance in the U.S. Senate? Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine mulling pick

Published

2 years ago

November 7, 2024

Who will replace JD Vance in the U.S. Senate? Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine mulling pick

Gov. Mike DeWine’s phone is blowing up with calls over Ohio’s soon-to-be vacant U.S. Senate seat, but he’s not giving away who’s in line for the job.

Sen. JD Vance won the vice presidency Tuesday, just two years after he was first elected to the Senate. Per state law, DeWine will appoint someone to serve with Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno until 2026. Voters will then elect someone to fill out the remaining two years of Vance’s term.

Moreno defeated longtime Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown Tuesday, meaning Ohio will soon be represented by two brand new senators.

“It takes someone who really will focus on the state of Ohio, will focus on national issues, someone who will really work hard, someone who wants to get things done,” DeWine told reporters Thursday. “These are qualifications, I think, that are very important. It also has to be someone who could win a primary. It has to be someone who could win a general election, and then two years later, do all that again. So, this is not for the faint-hearted.”

DeWine’s appointee will assume the role when Vance resigns from his seat. A Vance spokesman did not respond to questions about his timeline, but new senators take the oath of office in early January.

Who might replace JD Vance in the Senate?

DeWine is expected to appoint a fellow Republican, but he declined to say with whom he’s spoken or who he’s considering. Among the names floating around are former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and state Sen. Matt Dolan, R-Chagrin Falls.

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Moreno said he wants to see someone who supports the GOP agenda and understands what it’s like to campaign across the state.

“This is the difference between inherited wealth and wealth that you had to build yourself,” Moreno said. “And I’m not a fan of inherited wealth people. They tend to be lazy. The person that had to work for it is person I want to see.”

Dolan and LaRose lost to Moreno in the March Republican Senate primary. An adviser for Dolan did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, LaRose said he’s “always ready to answer the call of duty” but currently focused on certifying Tuesday’s election results.

One person appeared to rule out a Senate appointment: Attorney General Dave Yost, who is running for governor against Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.

“Look, I’m an executive,” Yost told reporters earlier this week. “I’ve never been a legislator, and I’m not ready to end my public service, but I can’t imagine going to Washington, D.C. and I would not accept that.”

DeWine said he’d be open to someone who, like Moreno, doesn’t have prior experience in office. One person in that vein is Vivek Ramaswamy, a Columbus-area entrepreneur and Cincinnati-area native who unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination earlier this year.

Ramaswamy has also been rumored as a potential candidate for governor or appointee to President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet. An asset management firm started by Ramaswamy is moving from Columbus to Dallas, but he said he’s no longer involved with the company and plans to stay in Ohio.

“Not everybody has the same skills,” Ramaswamy told reporters Thursday. “I’m an executive by background. That’s served me well as an entrepreneur, and those are skills that I’d like to put to use, and I want to reflect on the biggest and best possible way that we can use that skillset as an outsider to hopefully transform this country.”

Statehouse bureau reporters Jessie Balmert and Erin Glynn contributed.

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Ohio

Cincinnati Children’s opened 6 locations in 2025. Here’s why

Published

9 hours ago

June 12, 2026

Press Room

Cincinnati Children’s opened 6 locations in 2025. Here’s why

Cincinnati Children’s is expanding its access to care across the region, including in Northern Kentucky.

The health system reported in its latest Community Impact Report, released to the public June 9, that six new locations opened in 2025, including facilities in previously underserved communities such as Clermont and Clinton counties. Rural areas often have limited access to specialized and emergency care, placing residents at a higher risk of health challenges and death, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here are the new locations:

Brandon and Kelly Janszen Union Building, 2015 Children’s Way, Union, Kentucky.
Crestview Hills Urgent Care, 2765 Chapel Place, Crestview Hills, Kentucky.
Children’s Eastgate, 4315 Ivy Pointe Blvd., Union Township, Ohio.
Loveland Primary Care, 10554 Loveland-Madeira Road, Loveland, Ohio.
Wilmington Primary Care, 1150 W. Locust St., Suite 500, Wilmington, Ohio.
New Richmond School-Based Health Center, 1135 Bethel-New Richmond Road, New Richmond, Ohio.

Cincinnati Children’s is one of the top-ranked children’s hospitals in the Midwest. The medical professionals at the system’s more than 50 sites provided care in 1.75 million encounters with patients during the July 1, 2024, to June 30, 2025 fiscal year, spokesman Barrett Brunsman said.

Some locations are first of their kind

In Boone County, the Brandon and Kelly Janszen building opened at the hospital’s Union location in April 2025, becoming the first in Northern Kentucky to offer both primary and specialty care, including offering behavioral health counselors, lab services, X-ray and ultrasound.

In Kenton County, the hospital opened its first urgent care in Northern Kentucky in July 2025 as part of renovations at the Crestview Hills location, offering residents access to pediatric providers on evenings and weekends.

In Ohio, the Eastgate location opened in October, combining specialty clinics, outpatient surgery and an urgent care center in “the first of its kind on the East Side for Cincinnati Children’s,” where some main campus surgeons and providers now see patients, Brunsman said.

Two primary care centers also opened in 2025: Wilmington, the only primary care in Clinton County dedicated exclusively to children from newborns through teens; and Loveland, which offers closer care to families who once drove farther.

Cincinnati Children’s also introduced the New Richmond School-Based Health Center in September 2025, after reporting over 7,000 patient encounters in 2023 from the village’s ZIP code, including 2,375 without an identified primary care provider, Brunsman said. The new health center is within walking distance for 1,000 middle and high school students, and is open to their families and other children in the community.

The school-based center was funded by a grant from Ohio’s Appalachian Community Innovation Centers program, obtained by New Richmond Schools. Across the other five new locations, Cincinnati Children’s invested around $141 million in renovations, design and acreage, the hospital noted.

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Ohio

Woman sentenced for driving Postal Service truck while intoxicated

Published

19 hours ago

June 11, 2026

Press Room

Woman sentenced for driving Postal Service truck while intoxicated

NEWTON FALLS, Ohio (WKBN) – A woman accused of driving intoxicated while working for the Postal Service in a mail truck entered a plea Tuesday in her case.

Michele Kellar, 47, of Warren, pleaded guilty to OVI, a first-degree misdemeanor, according to court records.

Court records state that she was sentenced to 12 months of probation and her license was suspended for a year, with limited driving privileges. She can also serve three days in a driver’s intervention program.

Trumbull County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Kellar in March after those living on Anderson Anthony Road NW in Braceville reported seeing the driver of a mail truck at the end of their driveway had passed out. They reported that they were able to wake the driver up, but said she drove off.

Deputies found the mail truck down the road, where she had driven off into a yard. According to the police report, the woman appeared very intoxicated with glassy eyes and slurred speech.

At the time of her arrest, a spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service confirmed that Kellar was an employee but declined to comment further. WKBN reached out Thursday for more information on Kellar’s current employment status, but a spokesperson said the Postal Service does not disclose internal administrative actions.

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Ohio

Storms bring down trees and knocks out power to thousands in Northeast Ohio

Published

1 day ago

June 11, 2026

Press Room

Storms bring down trees and knocks out power to thousands in Northeast Ohio

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Severe thunderstorms rolled through Northeast Ohio on Wednesday night, bringing down trees and knocking out power to thousands.

The heaviest damage seemed to be in Lorain County in the city of Lorain and Amherst. The Amherst Fire Department said there are large trees down on Jackson Street and Cleveland Avenue.