The quadrennial new administration musical chairs have already opened up two Senate vacancies, adding to the 2026 midterm map.
We know for certain that Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s ascendancy to the vice presidency gives Republican Gov. Mike DeWine an appointment to make.
Whoever DeWine nominates will have to run in 2026, and then again for a full term in 2028. With this new vacancy, Ohio will have hosted a Senate election every cycle from 2022 through 2030.
DeWine, 77, is serving what is likely his last act in politics, and he is term-limited in 2026. He is in the unique position of having served for 12 years in the Senate, so he knows better than others what is required of such an appointment and is said to be taking it very seriously.
But in the Trumpian era of politics, and fresh off Trump’s resounding 12-point win in the Buckeye State and the defeat of Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown (who ousted DeWine in 2006), DeWine isn’t immune to the pressures of the incoming administration, even though he himself comes from the
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