Here Are The Top Contenders To Replace JD Vance in the Senate

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With the Trump-Vance ticket victorious, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine now faces the critical task of appointing JD Vance’s successor in the Senate. These moments often bring heightened drama. After Barack Obama’s 2008 election, controversy erupted when then-Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was accused of attempting to “sell” Obama’s vacated Senate seat. He reportedly discussed potential candidates in secretive and illicit dealings with Barack Obama himself.

According to a report from Fox News Digital, “elevating women is important to DeWine and that he would like to appoint a woman to the seat, although gender is not the deciding factor.”

Republican Jane Timken, an Ohio attorney who served as chair of the Ohio Republican Party from 2017 to 2021, is also widely considered to be another potential Vance replacement.

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.

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.

Three Republicans currently serving in Congress – Reps. Mike Carey, David Joyce and Warren Davidson – are believed to be options as well.

Carey, who has strong relationships with both Trump and DeWine, reached out to DeWine shortly after Vance was selected, a source familiar with the discussion said this summer.

Attorney Mehek Cooke, a Republican who acted as a legal and political surrogate for Trump during the 2024 campaign, is also a leading contender to fill Vance’s Senate seat, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions who spoke to Fox News Digital.

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.

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.

Marty Savko, the chair of the earth moving company Savko & Sons which has been in business in Columbus, Ohio for 75 years, told Fox News Digital 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,” Savko told Fox News Digital. “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.”

Under Ohio law, DeWine will appoint a Republican to temporarily fill the seat until a special election in November 2026 determines who will complete the remainder of Vance’s term, which ends in 2028. The winner of that election would then face reelection in 2028 for a full six-year term.