Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio-based We the People Convention, said he is “frustrated” that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has yet to announce the individual he is appointing to the U.S. Senate to fill Vice President-elect JD Vance’s seat.
“We’re frustrated that we don’t have our second senator appointed yet,” Zawistowski said on Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Vance officially resigned from the U.S. Senate on Friday, January 10 ahead of Monday’s inauguration. With nearly a week’s time passing since his resignation, Vance’s replacement has yet to be announced by DeWine.
Calling DeWine a “transactional politician,” Zawistowski said he believes DeWine’s stalling in naming an individual to the open Senate may be due to him negotiating a personal deal of his own to secure some sort of ambassadorship position or other desire.
“I don’t know that [DeWine] has ever done anything where there wasn’t something in it for him,” Zawistowski said.
“It’s just disappointing to me that he’s not out there saying, ‘I want the best person to support the voters of Ohio and Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda’,” Zawistowski added.
When it comes to potential candidates rumored to be under consideration to fill Vance’s seat, Zawistowski said the top two names – Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted and businessman Vivek Ramaswmay – Zawistowski warned that he believes neither will be DeWine’s eventual pick.
Noting how both Husted have strong ambitions to be Ohio’s next governor, and even future U.S. president, Zawistowski said neither man would likely be happy to be appointed to the Senate to further their political ambitions.
“Vivek has a very important job with DOGE…So this idea that Vivek’s just going to walk away from that and take the Senate seat so he can be in these stupid hearings that you and I’ve witnessed for the last couple days, I don’t think so,” Zawistowski said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
