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Politically Speaking is WVXU Senior Political Analyst Howard Wilkinson's column that examines the world of politics and how it shapes the world around us.

Analysis: Husted, Ramaswamy, and the tangled web of Ohio politics

AP

With the appointment of Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to JD Vance’s Senate seat, Ohio has two Republican U.S. Senators for the first time in 18 years.

The last time that happened, the senators were George Voinovich and Mike DeWine — Ohio's current governor who, last week, appointed the 57-year-old Husted to the Vance vacancy.

Here’s just how much of an insider game politics can be...

Why Husted?

DeWine, who was Voinovich’s lieutenant governor during Voinovich’s first term as governor, was running in 2018 against Husted for the gubernatorial nomination until Husted dropped out and signed over his campaign money to DeWine, who named Husted his lieutenant governor candidate.

Fast-forward a few years, and here's DeWine, chewing over potential candidates to replace now-VP Vance, including former Ohio Republican Party chair Jane Timken, State Sen. Matt Dolan, State Treasurer Robert Sprague and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati billionaire who took himself out of the running and then, at the last minute, put himself back in (more on him later). And, of course, there was Husted.

RELATED: Ohio's Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to fill U.S. Senate seat vacated by JD Vance

Husted takes his place in the Senate alongside car dealer Bernie Moreno, who upended longtime Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown — the guy who defeated DeWine in the 2006 Senate race.

Got all that?

Need a scorecard?

Well, hang onto that scorecard.

We’re just getting started.

Husted had plans to run for governor in 2026, and now he faces the prospect of running for Ohio's Senate seat not once but twice between now and 2028.

"It ... has to be someone who can win a primary, it has to be someone who can win a general election, and then two years later do all that again," DeWine said weeks before making the appointment.

So, Husted, who is a prodigious campaign fundraiser, will have to run in November 2026 to serve out the final two years of Vance’s Senate term.

And if he wants to stay beyond that, he can run for a six-year term in 2028. It’s likely that he would.

a man in a black suit looks off in the distance
John Minchillo
/
AP
In this Oct. 16, 2018, file photo, Jon Husted, then a candidate for Ohio lt. governor, speaks at the Columbus Chamber of Commerce Government Day, in Cincinnati.

Can Husted win in 2026?

Sure. In a state that has voted for Donald Trump in three straight presidential elections, why not?

But it is no slam-dunk.

Husted’s future in politics may hinge on how the second Trump administration does over the next four years. The Dayton Republican is pretty much at the mercy of Trump’s approval ratings.

If the economy tanks because of Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and the tariffs on foreign goods that he has promised, Ohio voters — as well as voters in a host of states — may find themselves with a serious case of buyer’s remorse over Trump and anything connected with him, including JD Vance.

That may be tricky for Husted, if the political climate changes.

And, it’s clear we have not heard the last of Sherrod Brown. The former senator hasn’t said much about the future, but he’s left the door open to running for the Senate again.

RELATED: Sherrod Brown talks leaving Capitol Hill, plans for the future

And if not Brown, there are other potential Democratic candidates: former congressman Tim Ryan, who lost to Vance in 2022, and the Ohio House Minority Leader, Allison Russo of Columbus.

Both Russo and Ryan, though, are said to be considering running for governor in 2026, to replace the term-limited DeWine.

Who replaces Husted in the Ohio Statehouse?

Husted, in his years as DeWine’s lieutenant governor, had a very specific job as director of the Office of Workforce Transformation, a job that gave him a major role to play in job creation and retention.

With two years left in his term, DeWine will likely appoint a replacement who may or may not have similar duties.

It’s likely that Timken, the former Ohio GOP chair, and State Sen. Dolan of Chagrin Falls, whose family owns the Cleveland Guardians baseball team, are on DeWine’s list of possible replacements for Husted.

Whoever is appointed is likely to become a contender for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2026, joining Attorney General Dave Yost, who very much wants to become governor. And possibly Ramaswamy the billionaire, thanks to his hedge fund and biotech company.

Ramaswamy for Ohio governor?

a man in a dark suit and blue tie half smiling
Saul Loeb
/
AP
Vivek Ramaswamy arrives before the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.

After Ramaswamy, the Cincinnati native and St. Xavier grad, was passed over by DeWine for the Senate appointment, he said what he would really like to do is run for Ohio's governor next year.

But his track record as a Republican presidential candidate in 2023 and early 2024 is not very impressive.

After months of Ramaswamy practically living in Iowa, only 8,449 Iowa Republicans managed to defy the snow-covered highways and the 20-below wind chill in January 2024 to make it to a caucus site to cast their votes for him.

That’s about 31,000 votes less than what he would have needed to be elected to a seat on his hometown's City Council.

He took only 7.7% of the vote in Iowa, miles behind frontrunner Trump, who had more than 50% support.

The next day, Ramaswamy went off to New Hampshire, where he joined Trump onstage and endorsed him for the GOP nomination.

Watching his campaign go up in smoke in the frozen tundra of Iowa amounts to the sum total of Vivek Ramaswamy’s experience as a candidate for public office.

ANALYSIS: Analysis: What's next for Vivek Ramaswamy?

He had been busy lately as Elon Musk’s partner in Trump’s unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has vowed to somehow eliminate trillions in government spending and is closely tied to Musk’s cryptocurrency interests.

But the Associated Press reported Monday that Ramaswamy has quit DOGE, ostensibly to run for governor in Ohio. Nonetheless, at Trump’s swearing-in Monday in the Capitol Rotunda, Ramaswamy was front and center in the Billonaires’ Row Trump placed directly behind him on the dais.

Late Monday afternoon, the USA Today Ohio News Network published a story quoting an anonymous source saying Ramaswamy will announced his candidacy for governor next week.

But the polling website 538 shows clearly that as a presidential candidate, the more voters knew about Ramaswamy, the less they liked him. From April 2023, when his campaign began, to January 2024 when it ended, his favorable/unfavorable rating grew steadily worse.

The point of a political campaign is having voters get to know you and like you.

It's hard work.

And it remains to be seen if Ramaswamy is up to the task.

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.