Jon Husted’s path from Statehouse to the U.S. Senate seat JD Vance left
DeWine appointed his lieutenant governor to the Senate in January 2025. Husted must win a special election in November 2026 to keep the seat through 2028.
Jon Husted spent six years as Ohio’s lieutenant governor before Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him to the U.S. Senate in January 2025, filling the seat JD Vance gave up to become vice president.
The appointment came with a short clock. Under Ohio law, an appointed senator serves until a special election, which for this seat falls on Nov. 3, 2026. The winner serves the rest of Vance’s term, which ends in January 2029.
From Montgomery County to statewide office
Husted, a Republican, grew up in the Detroit area after being adopted and moved to Ohio to attend the University of Dayton, where he played football. He was elected to the Ohio House from the Dayton suburbs in 2000 and served as speaker from 2005 to 2008, then moved to the Ohio Senate.
He won two terms as Ohio secretary of state, from 2011 to 2019, a job that put him in charge of elections during the 2012 and 2016 presidential races. In 2018 he joined DeWine’s ticket and became lieutenant governor, where he led InnovateOhio and the administration’s workforce and technology efforts. His Senate office biography is at husted.senate.gov.
What he has worked on in Washington
As a senator, Husted has focused on workforce training, manufacturing and technology issues that tracked his Statehouse portfolio. He sits on committees that handle banking and commerce issues, and he has spoken often about apprenticeships and the skilled trades, a message that plays well in a region with as many plant and rail jobs as north central Ohio.
That background matters in Bellevue, where the Norfolk Southern yard and nearby manufacturers such as the Whirlpool plant in Clyde depend on a steady supply of trained workers.
The 2026 race
Because he was appointed rather than elected, Husted had to run statewide within two years. Ohio Democrats spent much of 2025 recruiting a challenger, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown, who lost his own seat to Bernie Moreno in 2024, entered the race. We profiled Brown’s long career separately.
Ohio has two Senate seats on the ballot in different years now: Moreno’s term runs through January 2031, while the seat Husted holds is up in 2026 and again in 2028. Our coverage of Ohio’s congressional delegation is collected in People & Profiles.
Voters in Huron, Sandusky, Seneca and Erie counties will see the race at the top of their ballots on Nov. 3, alongside the open governor’s race.