Politics
Ohio congressman vying to replace JD Vance in the Senate says Trump's agenda must be priority on 'Day One'
Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, is among a crowded list of contenders vying to replace Vice President-elect JD Vance when he formally resigns from the U.S. Senate.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, Carey, a former coal lobbyist and a veteran who won Ohio’s 15th congressional district for the third time since 2021, touted his experience working with President-elect Trump in the private sector. Carey argued that whomever Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine chooses to replace Vance will need to be ready on “day one” to help implement the new administration’s agenda. Vance has yet to formally resign.
With three endorsements from Trump under his belt, Carey said the president-elect “needs somebody in the Senate that will make sure that we get his agenda through.”
“I think that’s the most important thing, because I want the president to be successful. I think the American people want the president to be successful,” Carey told Fox News Digital. “And I think that’s what we need from a senator from the state of Ohio. And so I’d be honored to help him move his agenda forward in the U.S. Senate.”
“I think you need to have somebody that’s able to start on Day One, hit the ground running as a U.S. senator,” Carey, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and Committee on House Administration, said. “You don’t want to have somebody coming in from the great state of Ohio who has to be on the job training. And so we’ve had a track record of success here in the, you know, in the 15th Congressional District. I can easily parlay that into the Senate.”
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Mike Carey speaks at a rally hosted by former President Donald Trump after receiving his endorsement on June 26, 2021, in Wellington, Ohio. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Through his work on the House Committee on Administration, Carey said he helped secure bipartisan support for and ultimately President Biden’s signature on the bill that launched the Congressional Election Observer program. That program deploys congressional poll watchers to hotly contested House races.
Carey also said the next senator has to be cognizant of the diverse nature of the state.
“I’ve spent a lifetime in Ohio. Born and raised in Ohio. But I think the senator has to understand we are a unique state,” Carey said. “There is a reason why Columbus, Ohio, is the test market for any product as it relates to food services, because we are a microcosm of the United States, and that is really Ohio.”
Similarly, Carey said that his district, which has an approximately 22% minority population and stretches from urban Columbus west across suburban areas and smaller towns and rural farmland, “is really a microcosm of the state of Ohio.” Carey said he outperformed Republican Sen.-elect Bernie Moreno in his district by over 18,000 votes.
Moreno, a Trump-backed Cleveland businessman, garnered 50.18% of the vote, defeating incumbent Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown in a significant flip earlier this month. Carey, meanwhile, secured re-election in the House, receiving 56.52% of the vote.
“In an R-5 district, we won by 13 points. So, you know, I think I have a track record. And I also think, you know, if people look at my voting record and the things that I have done, I brought back over $60 million in three years. I mean, I’ve only been in office for three years,” Carey said. “I was in the private sector before that. So I’m not a career politician. But the opportunity to serve the state that I love, you know, I grew up in Cincinnati and Sabina and served in the military up at Camp Perry. My family’s from Cleveland and spent my career in Appalachia. So there’s nobody that knows the state any better than me. An opportunity to serve all the people of Ohio would be the honor of my life.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., left, and Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, walk together on Capitol Hill, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
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On the campaign trail, Trump highlighted two issues Carey said he worked on personally: tax credits for caregivers and in-vitro fertilization (IVF). Most of the 27 bills Carey introduced in the House have had at least one Democratic co-sponsor, the congressman said, including the Credit for Caring Act, which provides aa $3,000 tax credit for home health care providers who want to stay at home to take care of their loved ones.
Over the past several months, Carey said he has also been working on a tax credit for Americans “who simply just can’t afford IVF.”
“If somebody wants to have a child, we should do everything possible to give them the opportunity to have a child,” Carey told Fox News Digital. “So, again, both very, I think, bipartisan ideas that the president has pushed forward. I’d be honored to work on those in the Senate and, you know, honored to work on them now in the House.”
Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, listens during the House Ways and Means markup hearing of the Default Prevention Act on Thursday, March 9, 2023. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
DeWine indicated that his selection must be well positioned to stave off Democrats’ chances of reclaiming a spot in the Ohio Senate delegation in November 2026, when a special election will be held for the remaining two years of the six-year term.
Besides Carey, other members in Ohio’s congressional delegation vying to replace Vance include Reps. Jim Jordan, David Joyce and Warren Davidson. But choosing a member of the House would temper the GOP’s already slim majority in the lower chamber, and DeWine could weigh how House vacancies take months to fill under Ohio’s election protocols.
The vast number of GOP candidates who competed in Ohio primaries in 2022 and 2024 makes for an even wider field of potential replacements for Vance.
Contenders include former Ohio Republican Chair Jane Timken; two-term Secretary of State Frank LaRose; and state Sen. Matt Dolan, whose family owns baseball’s Cleveland Guardians. Two-term Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague and Republican attorney and strategist Mehek Cooke, a frequent guest on Fox News, are also reported to be under consideration.
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“The governor is somebody who I’ve admired since I was in grade school. He was a state senator. He was a congressman. He went to the Senate. He understands the nature of the body politic,” Carey said. “But he also understands that we need to have somebody that understands Ohio. I mean, there’s nobody that loves Ohio more than, I’d say more than me, as would be Mike DeWine.… And I think he wants to get somebody in office that loves the state just as much as he does. And I think I meet that measure of the mark.”
WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger met privately with President Trump and administration officials Wednesday to press for federal support and yet-unpaid wildfire recovery funding as the region continues to rebuild from the 2025 fires.
“This afternoon we met with President Trump and Administration officials to advocate for families who lost everything,” Bass and Barger said in a statement. “We had a very positive discussion about FEMA and other rebuilding funds as well as the support of the President to continue joining us in pressuring the insurance companies to pay what they owe — and for the big banks to step up to ease the financial pressure on L.A. families.”
Barger said the two leaders had a “high-level discussion” with the president in the Oval Office, sharing stories about what fire survivors are experiencing day to day. She added that “we left details behind with the President,” but did not specify whether Trump made any funding or policy promises during the meeting.
“First and foremost, today’s meeting was to thank the President for his initial support of infusing federal resources to expedite debris removal, as well as his recent tweet about insurance companies, which have already proven fruitful,” she said in a statement provided to The Times.
Bass was similarly reserved about the discussions, telling reporters that “we will follow up with the details,” but signaled progress is being made on federal support.
“I think what’s important is that we certainly got the president’s support in terms of, you know, what is needed, and then the appropriate people were in the room for us to follow up. And that was Russ Vought, who is the head of the Office of Management and budget,” Bass told KNX on Wednesday.
The meeting comes on the heels of a yearlong standoff between California leaders and the Trump administration over wildfire recovery funding, disaster response and whether the federal government should have a say in local rebuilding permitting.
California leaders, led by Gov. Gavin Newsom, have accused the Trump administration of withholding billions in critical wildfire aid, prompting a lawsuit over stalled recovery funds. Officials allege political bias in the delay of billions of dollars from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Newsom visited Washington in December. When he made his rounds on Capitol Hill, he met with five lawmakers, including three who serve on the Senate and House appropriations committees, to renew calls for $33.9 billion in federal aid for Los Angeles County fire recovery.
But the governor said he was denied a meeting with FEMA and would not say whether he had attempted to meet with Trump to discuss the issue.
Bass, meanwhile, appears to have found a path to the president on a subject that has been paramount for her community.
The fruitful meeting comes after Trump lobbed insults at the mayor at a news conference earlier this year, where he called her “incompetent” for how she handled last year’s wildfire recovery efforts. He alleged that under Bass’ leadership, the city’s delay in issuing local building permits will take years when it should have taken “two or three days.”
California officials, including Newsom, have urged the Trump administration to send Congress a formal request for the $33.9 billion in recovery aid needed to rebuild homes, schools, utilities and other critical infrastructure destroyed or damaged when the fires tore through neighborhoods more than 15 months ago.
What Bass and Barger’s meeting with the president ultimately produces remains to be seen.
The billions in recovery aid have not yet materialized, but the meeting could potentially give those discussions new momentum.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment about the meeting.
Earlier this month, Trump criticized insurance provider State Farm on Truth Social for its handling of the devastating Los Angeles County wildfires. He accused the insurance giant of abandoning its policyholders when tragedy struck.
“It was brought to my attention that the Insurance Companies, in particular, State Farm, have been absolutely horrible to people that have been paying them large Premiums for years, only to find that when tragedy struck, these horrendous Companies were not there to help!” Trump wrote.
But the rebuke didn’t come out of the blue. It stemmed from a controversial February visit to Los Angeles by Trump administration officials.
Trump tapped Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin in an effort to strip California state and local governments of their authority to permit the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the Eaton and Palisades fires.
Within the week, Zeldin was in Los Angeles, bashing Newsom and Los Angeles officials at a roundtable with fire victims and reporters, saying that residents were suffering from “bureaucratic, red tape delays and incompetency” and that leadership was “denying them … the ability to rebuild their lives”.
During the trip, officials heard direct complaints from local leaders and fire victims about insurers being slow, restrictive and insufficient with their claim payouts.
After these meetings, Trump directed Zeldin to investigate the insurers’ responses. State Farm, facing roughly $7 billion in fire-related claims, is also under formal investigation by California’s insurance commissioner over its handling of the crisis.
Despite tensions with the administration, Bass and Barger appeared confident that progress was being made on the insurance and funding issues.
“Our job is to fight for our communities,” their joint statement concluded. “When it comes to this recovery, our federal partners are essential, and we are grateful for the support of the President.”
Navy Secretary John Phelan was fired on Wednesday after months of infighting with senior Pentagon leaders and disagreements over how to revive the Navy’s struggling shipbuilding program.
Mr. Phelan is leaving the Pentagon and the Trump administration effective immediately, wrote Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, in a terse statement.
In his role leading the Navy, Mr. Phelan had championed the “Golden Fleet,” a major investment in new ships including a “Trump-class” battleship. But Mr. Phelan’s leadership was marred by feuds with senior leaders in the Pentagon, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, Pentagon and congressional officials said.
Mr. Phelan is the first service secretary to leave the administration, though he is the second one to clash with the defense secretary. Mr. Hegseth also has butted heads with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll over promotions and a host of other issues. Mr. Hegseth fired the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, earlier this month.
The Navy secretary has no role overseeing deployed forces, and Mr. Phelan’s firing is not likely to have significant implications for the conduct of the Iran war or U.S. Navy operations to blockade Iranian ports or open the Strait of Hormuz. As the Navy’s top civilian leader, his main responsibility is to oversee the building of the future naval and Marine Corps force.
But the tumult could make it harder for the Navy to replenish its stock of Tomahawk missiles and high-end air defense systems, which have been in heavy use in Iran.
Tensions had been simmering for months between Mr. Phelan and his two bosses — Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Feinberg — over management style, personnel issues and other matters.
Mr. Feinberg, in particular, had grown increasingly dissatisfied with Mr. Phelan’s handling of the Navy’s major new shipbuilding initiative, and had been siphoning off responsibility for the project from him, said the congressional official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel matters.
Mr. Phelan, a White House appointee, also had a contentious relationship with his deputy, Under Secretary Hung Cao, who is more aligned with Mr. Hegseth, especially on some of the social and cultural battles that have defined the defense secretary’s tenure, the officials said.
A senior administration official said that Mr. Hegseth informed Mr. Phelan before the Pentagon’s official announcement that he and President Trump had decided that the Navy needed new leadership.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Phelan referred all questions on Wednesday evening to the Defense Department.
Last fall, Mr. Hegseth fired Mr. Phelan’s chief of staff, Jon Harrison, who had clashed with senior officials throughout the Pentagon. The unusual move highlighted the broader tensions between Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Phelan.
Still, the timing of Mr. Phelan’s firing caught some Pentagon and congressional officials off guard. On Wednesday, Mr. Phelan was making the rounds on Capitol Hill, talking to senators about his upcoming annual hearing with lawmakers to discuss the Navy’s budget request and other priorities.
“Secretary Phelan’s abrupt dismissal is troubling,” Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said in a statement Wednesday night. “In the midst of President Trump’s war of choice in Iran, at a moment when our naval forces are stretched thin across multiple theaters, this kind of disruption at the top sends the wrong signal to our sailors and Marines, to our allies, and to our adversaries.”
Mr. Phelan also had a close relationship with Mr. Trump. In December, Mr. Phelan appeared alongside Mr. Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort to announce the “Golden Fleet” and the new class of battleships bearing Mr. Trump’s name.
“John Phelan is one of the most successful businessmen in the country — in our country,” Mr. Trump said. “He’s been a tremendous success.”
Before joining the Trump administration, Mr. Phelan ran a private investment fund based in Florida.
“He’s taken probably the largest salary cut in history, but he wanted to do it,” Mr. Trump said at the December press conference. “He wants to rebuild our Navy. And you needed that kind of a brain to do it properly.”
But Mr. Trump’s effusive praise masked deeper tensions with Mr. Phelan’s Pentagon bosses.
Bryan Clark, a naval analyst at the Hudson Institute, said that Mr. Phelan was “driving the Navy in a different direction” than what Mr. Hegseth and Mr. Feinberg wanted.
“He was championing initiatives like the battleship and frigate that don’t align with where the D.O.W. leadership is taking the military, which is toward submarines, stealth aircraft, unmanned systems and software-driven capabilities like electronic warfare and cyber,” Mr. Clark said in an email, using the abbreviation for Department of War, as the administration calls the Defense Department.
Mr. Phelan also clashed with Mr. Hegseth over personnel issues in the Navy and Marine Corps, a former senior military official said. Mr. Hegseth has directed service secretaries to scrub the social media accounts of general- and admiral-level promotion candidates to ensure they are not deemed too “woke” by Mr. Hegseth’s standards, the official said.
Maggie Haberman and Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.
Politics
Manhattan DA’s office employee charged with sexual abuse after alleged incident on Queens subway
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An analyst with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office was arrested Tuesday on allegations that he sexually abused a woman while off duty, police told Fox News Digital Wednesday.
Tauhid Dewan, 28, is accused of inappropriately touching a 40-year-old woman’s private area during a late-afternoon rush-hour subway ride in Queens, according to local outlet PIX11.
The victim was reportedly a random woman, the outlet added, citing sources who said she and the suspect were strangers.
A spokeswoman for the office told Fox News Digital that the staffer has since been suspended.
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Tauhid Dewan, 28, was arrested in New York City Tuesday following allegations that the Manhattan DA staffer innapropriately touched a woman during a subway ride (LinkedIn)
According to the New York Police Department, Dewan was arrested around 5 p.m., possibly after returning from work.
PIX11 added that the arrest occurred minutes after the incident, which allegedly took place on a No. 7 train near the Junction Boulevard station.
He was subsequently arrested by the NYPD Transit Bureau and is facing multiple charges, including forcible touching on a bus or train, third-degree sexual abuse, and second-degree harassment involving physical contact.
He was also charged with acting in a manner injurious to a child under the age of 17, suggesting a minor may have been nearby and either witnessed the alleged conduct or was placed at risk by it.
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Tauhid Dewan is an employee of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which is led by DA Alvin Bragg. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Law enforcement sources said Dewan has no prior arrests, local outlets reported.
According to city records, Dewan has worked at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as a senior investigative analyst for nearly four years, since July 10, 2022.
People board a train at a subway station in New York City on Aug. 1, 2025. (Gary Hershorn/Getty Images)
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His arraignment in Queens Criminal Court was scheduled for Wednesday, according to state records.
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