Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is said to be considering Jane Timken, who donated to DeWine’s campaign, to fill Vice President-elect Sen. J.D. Vance’s vacant seat.
Eyes are now turning to future political fights, especially in the Senate, in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris last week. DeWine’s choice for Ohio remains in the spotlight.
Trump helped the GOP collect four Senate seats, including snatching Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown’s. Who sits in Vance’s vacant seat will shape the potency and coherence of the new GOP majority.
Insiders say Timken now tops the list.
In 2022, Timken ran a failed primary campaign for the seat Vance now holds, managing a fifth place showing. Timken earned only 62,000 votes, less than 6% of the total and fewer than half the votes her fourth-place better, Mike Gibbons, took behind Josh Mandel and Matt Dolan in second and third, respectively.
But Timken did donate $12,500 to DeWine’s campaign.
Rumors swirled in 2022 about who would receive Trump’s endorsement in the race. Timken, for her part, earned an endorsement from outgoing Senator Rob Portman, whose seat Vance would go on to take after receiving the nod from Trump.
Timken later reportedly denounced Trump over January 6, even as she took the helm of the Ohio GOP. A campaign spokesperson denied the account of her remarks.
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and A.G. Dave Yost would reportedly refuse the seat in speculation they will each run for governor in 2026. A poll from this cycle showed Vivek Ramaswamy, Husted, Yost, and Jim Renacci rising to the top for Ohio’s executive role.
DeWine’s Democrat appointee to lead Ohio’s Health Department, Amy Acton, has been mentioned for the Democratic primary. Acton, who resigned in disgrace over lockdown suits, guided DeWine’s failed authoritarian COVID lockdowns, which Husted backed enthusiastically.
In any case, the appointment may be the biggest moment of DeWine’s checkered history as governor.
Beyond overseeing Ohio’s 42nd worst economy in the country, DeWine vetoed a popular bill that would have caught Ohio up to other states and several European Union countries banning gender surgeries on minors and keeping boys out of girls’ sports. The left’s gender agenda was a factor in Harris’ loss on Election Day, and establishment Republicans haven’t shown leadership on the issue.
DeWine counts Jeffrey Epstein associate and Nationwide Children’s Hospital booster Les Wexner among his supporters. Gender transitions for minors are quite profitable for hospitals.
DeWine also found himself on the wrong side of the watershed in Springfield, Ohio, defending the small city’s transformation in a tide of 20,000 Haitian migrants.
Beyond viral stories about cats, dogs, and wildlife being killed, which were ultimately vindicated despite DeWine denouncing the story, the city’s fortunes turned out to be a cash cow for landlords and staffing agencies on the take from the crisis and even became the target of a human trafficking inquiry.
Meanwhile, Trump has remade the GOP right under the nose of milquetoast establishment Republicans like DeWine, earning the most resounding mandate of any Republican since Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Trump collected 312 electoral votes, and won the popular vote with more ballots cast for him than any other Republican president. The GOP also appears on track to take a majority in the House and picked up four Senate seats for a 53-47 majority.
The contest saw GOP challenger Bernie Moreno unseat three-term incumbent Sherrod Brown on the heels of Trump’s commanding victory in Ohio.
Trump’s victory over Harris was also a decisive end to the Bush, Clinton, and Obama dynasties — and put establishment Republicans like DeWine on notice.
But Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance holds one of the GOP’s seats until he vacates it before being sworn in as Vice President in January.
