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The Secret Service is reportedly using a new code name for Vice President-elect JD Vance as it continues to draw criticism and outrage following former President Donald Trump’s near-death experience on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Vance’s code name for the Secret Service is “Bobcat,” the Daily Mail reported, quoting one of Vance’s friends.

Presidents, vice presidents, first ladies, and other prominent people under the protection of the Secret Service are assigned code names.

Both Ohio University and Breathitt County High School, located in Jackson, Kentucky—the family hometown that Vance wrote about in his best-selling memoir “Hilbilly Elegy” (2016)—are referred to as “Bobcats.”

They once had a real cloak-and-dagger purpose to help protect the nation’s top leaders. But these days, in the era of encrypted technology, the names are largely ceremonial and used for ease of communication in fast, high-pressure situations.

Code names are selected by ‘sheer whim,’ a Secret Service spokesperson once told The Washington Post. But they do appear to have some connection to the individual’s personal history or heritage. And note the alliteration of code names within families, said to be tradition.

When a senator becomes a president or vice president the sweepstakes to replace them becomes a massive audition for the governor of the state they came from.

People call in favors, have meetings and make power plays to get a chance to be one of only 100 of the most powerful people in the nation and now that Vice President-elect JD Vance is on his way to Washington DC alongside President-elect Donald Trump the Ohio sweepstakes has begun, Fox News reported.

Several names have emerged as candidates for the coveted spot and one of the names will be very familiar to Fox News viewers.

Republican attorney Mehek Cooke, a pro-Trump advocate who served as a political and legal surrogate for the president-elect, has become a top contender for the seat, according to people familiar with GOP Gov. Mike DeWine’s thinking, Fox News noted.

She was frequently seen on the network during the campaign promoting the president-elect and his agenda and elevating women is something that is said to be important to the Ohio governor.

Mehek Cooke JD Vance

Fox News Digital

Ohio state law says that the governor is to pick Vance’s replacement, who will serve until a special election is held in November 2026 and the winner of that election will serve the remainder of Sen. Vance’s term, which ends in 2028, at which time a new election will be held for another 6-year term in the Senate.

In 2028, Vance could be campaigning to be President of the United States as president-elect. Trump can only serve until then because he was previously president.

“Cooke, who ran for Ohio House of Representatives in 2020, spent time as the assistant chief counsel in the Ohio governor’s office from 2012 to 2014 and in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio, where she handled criminal cases involving corruption, terrorism, drug trafficking, asset forfeiture, and money laundering,” Fox News said in its report.

“Cooke, a wife and mother of two, was born in India and immigrated legally to the United States with her family at the age of 5. Cooke is also the founder and President of American Frontier Strategies and has worked as a political consultant and commentator across the state of Ohio,” it said.

Marty Savko, who chairs a 75-year-old earth moving company in the Buckeye State, said that Cooke “is totally 100% in touch with both the average man and wife” in Ohio.

“She’s a proud American citizen, she’s proud of this country and she very much has a kind heart and realizes that not everyone has the same opportunities. She is a firm believer in what’s right and what’s wrong, and you know where she stands.,” the Savko & Sons chair said.

“She’s not part of a clique like some people get to Washington or even get in the state house here in Ohio, and they become part of a clique, and they vote with the clique. No, she’s a person of her own determination and what she feels is the best for everyone involved, and she’s honest, extremely honest, extremely forthright,” he said as he called her a “fighter” like Vance and new Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno.

Another possible replacement for the vice president-elect is Republican attorney Jane Timken, Fox News reported.

“Other candidates reportedly in the mix include Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Attorney General Dave Yost, Treasurer Robert Sprague and State Sen. Matt Dolan,” the report said.

“Yost, who has said he wouldn’t accept the position, and Husted are believed to be focused on the upcoming governor’s race to replace DeWine. Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had been floated as a possibility but he recently accepted a position in the Trump administration and withdrew his name,” it said.

Sources who spoke to Fox News indicated that the governor is not in a rush and the announcement on a replacement will be made in line with when the vice president-elect officially vacates his position in the Senate.

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