Husted approaches DeWine ties delicately as he aims for ’26
COLUMBUS — For years, Lt. Gov. Jon Husted has been on the same page publicly with Gov. Mike DeWine.
But he had a high-profile break with DeWine recently over a controversial bill banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors that Republican lawmakers had sent to DeWine’s desk. The day before DeWine vetoed it, a move GOP lawmakers voted last month to overturn, Husted announced on social media he’d been asked for his opinion.
“I hope the SAFE Act will become law in Ohio,” Husted said.
The post shows a new willingness from Husted to take previously private disagreements public as he gears up to run for governor in 2026, a longtime personal goal. To win, he’ll have to win over Republican primary voters, who view DeWine suspiciously and overwhelmingly back ex-President Donald Trump, who following the veto, called DeWine a “stiff” who got booed at the ex-president’s campaign rallies.
Tellingly, Husted endorsed Trump days later.
“I’m not exactly sure what he said,” Husted told cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer in a recent interview, when asked about Trump’s criticism. “But I spoke with President Trump and he asked me about the situation and I explained it. I said ‘Look, it’s a situation where reasonable people disagree.’”
Husted, 56, is seen as an early frontrunner among Republicans seeking to replace DeWine, who can’t run for reelection due to term limits, a candidate field that also includes Attorney General Dave Yost and State Treasurer Robert Sprague. It’s the second time Husted’s run for the office, having dropped his gubernatorial campaign in 2018 to become DeWine’s running mate instead.
The election is two years away and far from Ohioans’ minds. But Husted and his political team already are taking it very seriously. Exhibit A is a campaign finance report Husted filed last week documenting that he raised $1.6 million for his gubernatorial campaign during the second half of 2023. Including the new report, Husted raised $3.3 million for the full year, tapping a who’s who of business leaders and other GOP donors, a remarkable feat considering some Republicans running for U.S. Senate this year — a political campaign that is actually happening right now — have failed to raise that much.
Husted’s fundraising, and his stances on Trump and the transgender bill, offer an emerging outline of how he plans to solve a classic dilemma facing any lieutenant governor or vice president: how to stay closely involved enough with the administration to be politically relevant, but not so close that he gets tied to policies that could be unpopular with Republican primary voters in a couple years.
Tom Sutton, a political scientist at Baldwin Wallace University, said Husted is not facing a unique political challenge.
“Like vice presidents, lieutenant governors bear the burden and credit to some degree of the legacy of the administration they’re serving with,” Sutton said. “And if there’s a negative perception of that governor… That record is your record whether you like it or not.”
Asked during a recent interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer how he thinks his ties to DeWine will affect him politically in 2026, Husted avoided the question.
“I really don’t have any idea. I just know if you do a good job in what you have, the next thing usually takes care of itself,” Husted said.
But, he also signaled that he will be more willing to say when he disagrees with the governor, while remaining respectful of his role in the administration, which he said includes never surprising DeWine and saying the same things publicly that he says privately.
“It’s not often I need to share a divergent view,” Husted said, “because on almost all conservative pieces of legislation, the governor has been right there,” citing bills that cut taxes, expanded school vouchers, eliminated conceal-carry requirements and heavily restricted abortion.
“Those are the heart and soul of what conservatives care about,” Husted said.
Getting ahead of DeWine’s transgender bill veto is one example of Husted carving out his own political lane as lieutenant governor. He also has managed to raise his profile recently by speaking about another issue that could burnish his cred with Republican primary voters in 2026 — the ills of Big Tech.
The New York Times ran a photo of Husted in an article last week highlighting how Ohio and other states have battled with social media companies while implementing laws requiring users 16 and older to get their parents’ permission to site up for sites like Instagram, TikTok, SnapChat and YouTube. Husted backed the bill last year, and said he negotiated with company officials over its details, before they sued to block its implementation last month.
The lieutenant governor’s office has been a stepping stone for eight past Ohio governors, including DeWine. But for five of those cases, the lieutenant governor ascended following the governor’s death or resignation. In the other three instances — including for DeWine, who was lieutenant governor, then a U.S. senator, then state attorney general before his election as governor in 2018 — there was at least one intermediate political stop along the way.
Offering a cautionary tale for Husted is former Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who ran and lost to DeWine in the 2018 election after serving under then-Gov. John Kasich for eight years. While her campaign had other issues, her biggest problem was struggling to differentiate herself from Kasich, who by that time had become deeply unpopular with Republican voters.
DeWine, who easily won reelection in 2022 but only got 48% of the Republican vote in a May primary election that featured two other anti-DeWine candidates, has his own baggage with GOP voters. But maybe there’s a little hope for Husted.
“Mike DeWine is merely unpopular among the base,” said one GOP operative who’s recently conducted polling on the subject. “Kasich is hated.”
In the past, Husted has kept any disagreements he may have with DeWine quiet. For instance, he privately lobbied for a more handsoff approach to the coronavirus pandemic while publicly trying to sell the DeWine political line to skeptical rank-and-file Republicans.
In 2020, Husted — getting repaid with a healthy cascade of boos for his trouble — bravely suggested to a crowd at a Trump campaign rally that they could comply with public health mask mandates by wearing a Trump-branded face covering.
Husted also has been willing to step into the political fray to try to provide cover for DeWine with conservative advocacy groups, which generally view Husted as more of a true believer in their causes than DeWine. In 2019, Husted tried to broker right-leaning support for a package of gun restrictions the governor introduced following a deadly mass shooting in Dayton. But the bill ultimately stalled in the GOP-controlled legislature.
But Husted may be less willing to stick his neck out with the election approaching, and his role in the DeWine administration offers fertile ground for future attacks from Republican opponents.
Being tied to DeWine isn’t all bad news for Husted though. A major plus is the potential benefit for fundraising. Being lieutenant governor also has provided Husted with a platform. DeWine assigned Husted, whose legal responsibilities are loosely defined, roles with influence over economic development and technological innovation, two subjects that interest Husted and have offered him the chance to network with business leaders around the state.
Brenton Temple, a GOP operative who ran DeWine’s reelection campaign in 2022, said Husted’s strong fundraising and conservative record as a former Secretary of State in the 2010s and Ohio House speaker distinguish him from past lieutenant governors.