Trump Has a Disturbing Next Gig in Mind for Vivek Ramaswamy
Donald Trump is moving his pawns around the board.
The incoming forty-seventh president has reportedly encouraged Vivek Ramaswamy to take the Ohio Senate seat vacated by Vice President–elect JD Vance, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Vance officially resigned from the post Friday. The next senator will be chosen by Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who under Ohio law will be tasked with appointing a replacement until 2026, when a special election will determine who will serve in the role until the term expires in 2029.
Two anonymous sources with knowledge of the matter told the Post that Trump had personally appealed to Ramswamy to take the high-powered position if offered.
DeWine has been tight-lipped during the months-long process to fill Vance’s vacancy, but potential candidates have included Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague, former state Senator Matt Dolan, Ohio Secretary of State Frank Larose, Columbus-area Congressman Mike Carey, former Ohio Republican Party Chair Jane Timken, and Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted, the last of whom has emerged as a clear front-runner.
But a visit to Mar-A-Lago on Thursday could have planted another suggestion.
“I’ll have an announcement probably next week,” DeWine told reporters in Florida that day.
Blade Columbus Bureau chief Jim Provance had the inside details on DeWine’s process.
“He has said that, number one, he wants somebody who can legislate and have Ohio in mind for any progress that would be made. He’s also said that he wants somebody who can raise money,” Provance told WTVG on Monday. “You have to remember that the Moreno–Sherrod Brown race set records.”
Ramaswamy publicly backed out of the race to replace Vance in November after Trump announced him as a potential co-chair for the not-yet-real Department of Government Efficiency alongside world’s-richest-man Elon Musk. The bold new agency was tasked with identifying what they determined to be wasteful government spending to help the Republican trifecta make sweeping spending cuts. Ramaswamy’s exit could call the project’s future into question, especially as Musk’s presence (and his opposing views on immigration) face heightened scrutiny in Trumpworld.
“Trump’s decisive victory on Tuesday opens up a lot of possibilities to change the country,” Ramaswamy told ABC affiliate News 5 Cleveland in the wake of the election. “We’re obviously having discussions, and they’re not going to be sorted out in the press.”