One of the leading candidates to fill Vice President-elect JD Vance's Ohio Senate seat recently traveled to President-elect Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence as a decision from the state's governor draws closer.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine traveled to Trump's Florida home with fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who is believed to be a top candidate to replace Vance, in recent days, although the specifics of any conversation are unclear, News 5 Cleveland first reported, and Fox News Digital has confirmed.

State law dictates that DeWine will select a Republican to take Vance’s spot in the Senate until a special election is held in November 2026 to determine who will serve the rest of Vance’s term, which ends in 2028. The winner of that special election could then run again in 2028 in order to start a new six-year term. 

Multiple sources told Fox News Digital that a final decision on the Senate appointment is expected in the next few weeks as the new Congress will be sworn in on Jan. 3. 

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DeWine's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. 

The Governor's spokesperson, Dan Tierney, told Fox News Digital last month that DeWine will be looking for a "workhorse" who is "qualified and ready to earn the trust of Ohio voters for another term."

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Fox News Digital previously reported that DeWine is considering, along with Husted, several candidates for Senate, including attorney Mehek Cooke, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken, Rep. Mike Carey and others.

"Governor DeWine has a crucial decision ahead in selecting Ohio's next Senator," Cooke told Fox News Digital on Friday night. "If Jon is the workhorse he picks, he is the right choice."

"He’s battle-tested, with decades of experience fighting for Ohioans and securing a stronger future for our state. If Jon is the pick, I’m 100% behind him—there’s too much at stake, and we need someone who will put Ohio first. It was an honor to interview with the Governor, and he knows my commitment is to always put Ohio’s interests first."

An endorsement from Trump and Vance will be critical for any DeWine appointment, given that both are popular in the Buckeye State, where their ticket won by 11 points in November. 

Husted has served as Ohio's lieutenant governor since 2019 after serving eight years as Secretary of State and a member of both the state Senate and Ohio House of Representatives before that.

Husted has widely been expected to run for governor to replace DeWine, and his team has recently taken steps to allocate resources to that race. Sources tell Fox News Digital that former presidential candidate Vivek Ramawamy's interest in running for governor has caused some potential gubernatorial candidates to re-evaluate their options, given Ramaswamy's deep pockets.

Husted has remained tight-lipped about the potential Senate appointment other than to say, "I will continue serving this state as long as the people of Ohio will have me. As for the future, I intend to make my plans known early next year."

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump transition team for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

A top Team Trump official disclosed the moment that "really set the campaign on a trajectory to victory" – the day President-elect Donald Trump arrived in Columbiana County, Ohio, to survey the East Palestine train derailment.

"The ripples from that day do not get enough attention," White House communications director-designate Steven Cheung said on X, formerly Twitter, in retweeting an op-ed making that assertion.

In February 2023, a Norfolk-Southern train hauling caustic industrial chemicals – including vinyl chloride – derailed in a small community near the Pennsylvania border, causing immediate chaos and long-lasting, widespread damage to the region.

A controlled burn held shortly after the derailment released toxic phosgene into the air.

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On February 23 – Ash Wednesday – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, hosted Trump at the site, where the former and future president highlighted Americans "forgotten" by President Joe Biden – who had not yet shown up and would not visit for several more months.

The Republican mogul handed out "Trump"-branded water and met with local officials. Meanwhile, officials in both Ohio and Pennsylvania were also visibly working to hold the railroad accountable.

In his tweet, Cheung was responding to an op-ed by Pittsburgh-based Washington Examiner writer Selina Zito, who covered the crisis at the time.

Zito wrote that Trump’s arrival had happened at a political nadir for the Republican, following the 2022 midterm losses and amid a then-close presidential primary race with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

She noted in a tweet that it was Vance – his future running mate – who brought him to the site.

Trump’s mantra of "you are not forgotten" to Rust Belt residents too often forgotten by Washington helped change minds in the area, Zito wrote, quoting a local resident who said she had "switched parties because of the way he spoke directly to the concerns."

"I have voted for him both times since then," the woman, who owns an East Palestine farm, said.

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Trump told residents that day that "in too many cases, your goodness and perseverance were met with indifference and betrayal."

The disparity between Trump’s eagerness to "show up" and Biden’s apparent putting-off of a visit to East Palestine helped turn the tide in the Republican’s favor, the column continued.

"100%," Cheung wrote in his tweet.

Trump’s former running mate, Mike Pence, also called out Biden at the time, saying he was "AWOL" and remarking to Fox News that the Delaware Democrat’s policies had "derailed the economy of East Palestine long before that train came through."

On the Pennsylvania side of the line, both Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro and his then-former gubernatorial opponent, state Sen. Doug Mastriano, R-Gettysburg, also responded quickly to the derailment.

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Shapiro lodged a criminal referral at the time, and Mastriano led hearings that hosted affected residents along the Ohio border wherein Norfolk-Southern CEO Alan Shaw notably no-showed.

"It is very disheartening to hear that these alleged delays and botched response approaches took place – especially since those in East Palestine, Ohio, and areas in my district here in Pennsylvania have been dealing with the aftermath of this derailment for over a year now," state Sen. Elder Vogel Jr. told Fox News Digital at the time, after a whistleblower had spoken out about alleged mistakes from Biden’s EPA response – which the agency disputed.

EXCLUSIVE: Ohio's Republican lieutenant governor is defending his state's recent enactment of a "bathroom bill" preventing biological males from using female bathrooms and says it is part of a cultural shift in the country where Americans are uniting on the issue.

"It's a sad situation that in this time in life that we actually need to pass a law that says that boys should go to boys' bathrooms and girls should go to girls' bathrooms," Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted told Fox News Digital.

"But that indeed is the case because we have colleges and some high schools where they blurred the lines. And we need to make sure that there are safe places, particularly for young women, to go to the bathroom, be in a locker room, be in a safe place," Husted said. "And it's truly unbelievable that we had to pass a law to guarantee that. It's just hard to believe that there are adults in this world who think it would be OK for boys, biological boys, to be in girls' locker rooms."

Husted was reacting to news that Ohio’s Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed the Protect All Students Act, dubbed the "bathroom bill," after the state Senate passed the bill 24-7 on a party-line vote.

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The bill applies to public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. It requires schools to designate separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations "for the exclusive use" of either males and females, based on one’s gender assigned at or near birth, in both school buildings and facilities used for a school-sponsored event.

Husted told Fox News Digital the bill represents "common sense."

"People really are just shocked that anyone thinks it's OK that you would have a bathroom, that a biological male could go into a female bathroom and that you could have a locker room where a biological male could go into a female locker room," Husted said. 

"It's just common sense in most people if you go around Ohio. That's what everybody's going to say to you is like, how can this really be? How can a high school do this? Well, I can assure them that I know that is indeed the case because the high school that my own daughters attend has bathrooms that boys and girls are allowed to be in at the same time," he continued. "They have non-gendered bathrooms."

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"That was something that the community fought against, that the school board then filed lawsuits so they could get variances to the building code to build bathrooms like this. And despite all of that opposition, they still went forward with it. But now we have a new law. We have a law in the state of Ohio that will protect against those kinds of things from happening."

Ohio became the 12th state to pass an iteration of a bathroom bill and while critics like the ACLU and LGBT activist groups have voiced opposition and suggested they will challenge the law in court, Husted told Fox News Digital he is confident the bill will withstand any legal challenge.

"It's on solid legal ground," Husted said. "They went through the hearing process, went through the process of addressing all those questions before drafting the bill and passing it and sending it to the governor's desk."

"I'm 100% confident that this will stand any legal scrutiny… I want to reiterate this. It is unfortunate that we need to pass a law because the adults in the lives of these children and young women should be clearly standing up for them. They shouldn't, we shouldn't have to pass a law. This is common sense," Husted continued.

Husted told Fox News Digital the bill is "about protecting the privacy of girls" and "trying to make sure that they have safe places to be" and said Americans across the United States, of both parties, are starting to unite as part of a "cultural shift" on the issue of protecting biological girls in schools and in sports. 

"There absolutely was," Husted said about the cultural shift. "Look, that was part of the last election that was run and there were hundreds of millions of dollars across the country in the presidential and congressional races spent on that. Donald Trump or Republicans would stand for you and not ‘they/them.'"

"We all saw the ads. We all know that they were part of the conversation this last election, that people don't believe that biological men should play women's sports. They don't believe that biological men should be in women's locker rooms or bathrooms," Husted said. 

"That was clearly one of the major issues that divided Democrats and Republicans. Republicans are standing up for those protections. And I believe that you're starting to hear even Democrats say, ‘Hey, maybe we ought to rethink this. Maybe we're a bit out of line with this,’" he concluded. "And so I hope that in blue states that they can demonstrate that they want to protect women's sports, they want to protect women in the privacy of bathrooms, in locker rooms. And this is exactly what I hope we'll see across the country."

Fox News Digital's Michael Dorgan contributed to this report

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law that will prevent schools from allowing students of the opposite sex into restrooms and locker rooms. 

The legislation, the Protect All Students Act, dubbed the "bathroom bill," was sent to DeWine’s desk earlier this month after the state Senate passed the bill 24-7 on a party-line vote. The House version of the bill was passed before the chamber went on summer break in June. 

The law will take effect in 90 days and will restrict transgender students from using facilities associated with their gender identities.

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It applies to public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. It requires schools to designate separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations "for the exclusive use" of either males and females, based on one’s gender assigned at or near birth, in both school buildings and facilities used for a school-sponsored event.

DeWine’s signature was not guaranteed and Democrats, teachers unions and civil rights groups had hoped that his veto earlier this year to a ban on sex changes for minors and hormone therapies for transgender individuals under 18 would yield a similar course of action. In the end, the state's Republican-dominated Senate voted to override that veto and the ban came into force.

DeWine did not release a statement announcing he signed the bathroom bill on Wednesday.

"Common sense is on a winning streak in America today," said Aaron Baer, president of the Center for Christian Virtue, which backed the bill, in a statement.

"No student should be forced to go into the bathroom or locker room with a student of the opposite sex, and Ohio’s kids are better protected now because of Governor DeWine’s decision to sign this bill."

Riley Gaines, a former 12-time All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky and an advocate of keeping biological males out of female sports, echoed those words.

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"Common sense is making a comeback nationwide," Gaines wrote on X.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost thanked DeWine "for siding with biology, history, safety and common sense."

The ACLU of Ohio was among the groups that had lobbied for a veto and condemned the measure as a violation of the right of privacy of transgender Ohioans that would make them less safe.

"We will always have the backs of our trans community," the organization wrote on X. "Every Ohioan deserves the freedom to be loved, to be safe, to be trusted with decisions about healthcare and to access the facilities that align with their gender identity. We will not leave anyone behind. Trans Ohioans belong."

School employees, emergency situations and people assisting young children or someone with a disability are exempted from the restrictions, and schools can still offer single-use or family bathrooms.

Various battles regarding the issue of transgender people using bathrooms that align with their gender as well as participating in female sports are playing out across the nation. President-elect Trump has repeatedly vowed to keep men out of women's sports.

At least 11 states have adopted laws barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s bathrooms in public schools and, in some cases, other government facilities.

The laws are in effect in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah. A judge’s order putting enforcement on hold is in place in Idaho.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is faced with a crowded field of candidates vying to fill Vice President-elect JD Vance's seat in the Senate, but a new poll shows some candidates are going into the battle with an advantage.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose leads fellow candidates in a hypothetical GOP primary for Vance's seat conducted by WPA Intelligence. LaRose' closest competitor is Lieutenant Gov. Jon Husted, who was favored by 10% of respondents compared to LaRose's 17%.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, another contender for the seat, received 9% support. Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, is in the midst of aggressively pitching himself for Vance's role, but he received just 2% support in the poll.

Attorney Mehek Cooke, a Republican attorney who served as a surrogate for the Trump campaign in 2024, received 1% support in the poll. 

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A large number of voters, 39%, remain undecided in the race, however.

WPA conducted the poll from Nov. 17-20, surveying 1,028 Ohio likely voters statewide via phone interviews and online. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.1%.

LaRose also leads the pack when filtering for candidates who have received an endorsement from President-elect Trump in the past. LaRose received 30% support under those parameters, with his closest competitor being former Ohio Rep. Jim Rennaci.

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Carey has also received a Trump endorsement prior to the current contest, and he received 7% support.

Both Trump and Vance have so far been silent when it comes to filling the vacant Senate seat, and their endorsements are likely to be the deciding factor in the contest.

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DeWine has confirmed that he is deliberating about whom to select for the seat, telling local media on Tuesday that he wants to have a candidate ready for whenever Vance formally resigns his seat.

"We want someone who's going to be fighting for Ohio every single day," he said.

WPA concluded from its polling that LaRose would "clearly be the strongest GOP choice" both to replace Vance and to defeat a Democratic challenger in the next election.

As Ohio's secretary of state, LaRose has led efforts to combat illegal voting. His office purged hundreds of thousands of wrongful voter registrations, including hundreds of non-citizen registrations, prior to Election Day. He also sued President Biden's administration in October in an effort to force the administration to assist in cleaning up voter rolls. 

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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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." 

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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."

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.

"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."

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur has won her 22nd term in Congress in northwest Ohio, defeating her Republican challenger and holding on to her seat in one of the most closely watched races in the country.

Kaptur defeated Ohio state Rep. Derek Merrin, according to the Associated Press, which called the race Wednesday at 1:02 p.m. With 99% of precincts reporting, Kaptur led Merrin with 48.27% of the vote to 47.63%, a lead of 2,382 votes. 

Though the race was not called on election night, Kaptur had declared victory early on Nov. 6. Her win will keep the incoming Republican House majority at 218 seats while Democrats hold 213. 

"Tonight, the people of Ohio’s 9th District have spoken, and I am deeply grateful for the trust they have placed in me to continue fighting for working families, creating good-paying jobs, protecting healthcare for everyone, and securing Social Security and Medicare so Ohioans can retire with dignity," her campaign said in a statement. "This campaign has always been about the strength and resilience of our communities, and tonight we celebrate not just a victory but a renewed commitment to the belief that what America makes and grows, makes and grows America."

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Kaptur was one of eight Democrats running in 2024 in a district that voted for Trump in 2020. Trump won the state of Ohio by 8 points in 2020.

Heading into the election, Republicans were optimistic they could flip the seat after redistricting following the 2020 census brought more Trump-friendly areas into the district.

Merrin took aim at Kaptur’s long tenure in Congress by pushing for term limits and criticizing the congresswoman for sponsoring only five bills on her own that became law in 41 years.

"Marcy Kaptur hasn’t done squat for the four decades she has served in Congress," Merrin told Fox News Digital earlier this year, arguing that Kaptur will "continue the ineffective status quo."

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Merrin’s campaign also focused on Kaptur’s voting in line with the Biden administration 100% of the time.

Pro-Kaptur ads running on radio and television in Toledo focused on Merrin's past support for convicted politician Larry Householder, attempted to paint him as a radical on the abortion issue and called him a "corporate puppet."

"I would put my record up against any person in the current Congress and even some who have preceded me," Kaptur said in a recent interview. "And I defy my opponents to even show anything they’ve done that comes close to what we have been able to accomplish because of that seniority."

Kaptur was viewed as one of the most vulnerable members of the House heading into the 2024 election.

"This is seen by everybody around the country as what may be the best pickup opportunity we have to flip a blue seat to red," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said while rallying for Merrin in October.

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur has won her 22nd term in Congress in northwest Ohio, defeating her Republican challenger and holding on to her seat in one of the most closely watched races in the country.

Kaptur defeated Ohio state Rep. Derek Merrin, according to the Associated Press, which called the race Wednesday at 1:02 p.m.

Kaptur was one of eight Democrats running in 2024 in a district that voted for Trump in 2020. Trump won the state of Ohio by 8 points in 2020.

Heading into the election, Republicans were optimistic they could flip the seat after redistricting following the 2020 census brought more Trump-friendly areas into the district.

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Merrin took aim at Kaptur’s long tenure in Congress by pushing for term limits and criticizing the congresswoman for sponsoring only five bills on her own that became law in 41 years.

"Marcy Kaptur hasn’t done squat for the four decades she has served in Congress," Merrin told Fox News Digital earlier this year, arguing that Kaptur will "continue the ineffective status quo."

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Merrin’s campaign also focused on Kaptur’s voting in line with the Biden administration 100% of the time.

Pro-Kaptur ads running on radio and television in Toledo focused on Merrin's past support for convicted politician Larry Householder, attempted to paint him as a radical on the abortion issue and called him a "corporate puppet."

"I would put my record up against any person in the current Congress and even some who have preceded me," Kaptur said in a recent interview. "And I defy my opponents to even show anything they’ve done that comes close to what we have been able to accomplish because of that seniority."

Kaptur was viewed as one of the most vulnerable members of the House heading into the 2024 election.

"This is seen by everybody around the country as what may be the best pickup opportunity we have to flip a blue seat to red," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said while rallying for Merrin in October.