Congress

Ramaswamy and DeWine met to discuss Ohio Senate appointment

Published

2 years ago

January 15, 2025

Two months after taking himself out of the running for an Ohio Senate seat, Vivek Ramaswamy is under consideration for the post, according to two people familiar with the matter granted anonymity to discuss ongoing conversations.

Ramaswamy and Gov. Mike DeWine, who is tasked with appointing someone to the job recently vacated by President-elect JD Vance, met at the governor’s mansion over the weekend to discuss the post, according to one of the people.

Ramaswamy enters the mix after going dark on social media for almost two weeks, shortly after making controversial comments that upset MAGA activists online. In a discussion of H-1B visas, he said that tech companies hire foreign workers partly because of an American cultural mindset that has “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”

The timing of Ramaswamy’s decision to seek higher office has sparked speculation in GOP circles that he is looking for a lifeline after his contentious comments. Not only had he previously removed himself from consideration for the Senate post, he has also taken on a high-profile job co-leading President-elect Donald Trump’s cost-cutting efforts with Elon Musk in the Department of Government Efficiency.

Trump’s transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ramaswamy is being considered even as he’s interested in continuing to serve on DOGE and potentially launching a gubernatorial run, according to one of the people.

Billionaire Elon Musk, co-director of DOGE, Ramaswamy and Trump are all said to be in agreement that the group needs an advocate in the Senate.

Appointing Ramaswamy to the Senate would offer Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted a cleaner shot to succeed DeWine by eliminating a potential competitor.“DeWine isn’t incentivized to pick Ramaswamy for Senate, but Vivek is also the one roadblock to Husted,” this person said.

Dewine brought Husted down to Mar-a-Lago last month to visit Trump, Ohio Capital Journal reported.

Dewine has previously said he wants someone who can win the special election in 2026 to fill out the remainder of Vance’s term and hold the Senate seat again in 2028.

One Trump ally, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, warned that Ramaswamy’s comments about American culture might complicate his chances of being tapped for the Senate nomination.

“The problem now is that he is damaged goods,” the person said.

DeWine’s decision may come as early as this week, he told reporters at a press conference at Mar-a-Lago day?, standing alongside other Republican governors.

“Neither Governor DeWine nor our office has commented on any possible candidates for the pending appointment,” Dewine Press Secretary Dan Tierney told Blue Light News in a statement.

A Senate appointment would allow Ramaswamy, 39, to work on efforts to cut federal spending from inside Congress while Musk pursues it from the outside, the second person familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking told Blue Light News. It would also provide Ramaswamy a chance to go fight for DOGE priorities against expected pushback from Senate Democrats, given his penchant for debating.

Ramaswamy has been uncharacteristically quiet on social media after being caught up in a heated debate between different MAGA factions over H1-B visas at the start of the year.

His support of the temporary visa program for highly skilled foreign workers, was met with significant pushback from right wing voices including Steve Bannon, Laura Loomer and Jack Posobiec, though Trump ultimately said he supported the program.

“Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG,” wrote Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, on X. “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ … will not produce the best engineers.”

Ramaswamy ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination during the 2024 cycle, but managed to raise his national profile and break through with some GOP voters by aligning himself with Trump and campaigning on “America First” policies.

As a presidential candidate, Ramaswamy’s proposals ranged from cutting 1 million government jobs to ending birthright citizenship to raising the voting age to 25.

Congress

Mike Rogers opens the door for AIPAC support in Michigan Senate race

Published

3 hours ago

October 9, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers signaled he would accept support from AIPAC as he remains locked in a tight contest against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed.

Rogers was asked during a debate Thursday whether he would welcome public backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee — and he pointedly did not rule it out.

“Anybody that wants to help my campaign stop” El-Sayed, he said, “I’ll take all of that help.”

AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, uncorked more than $30 million against El-Sayed in Democrats’ bruising primary. El-Sayed turned the deluge into a cudgel, railing against the group’s heavy spending to rally progressives to his side as support for Israel cratered among Democrats amid the war in Gaza.

The group does not appear to have spent on television ads since, according to tracker AdImpact.

The debate moderator asked Rogers about an Axios report from August that said allies of the Republican had asked AIPAC not to advertise on his behalf. The report said the group scrapped a video ad against El-Sayed a day after Rogers spoke with AIPAC board chair Michael Tuchin.

Rogers also reportedly attended fundraisers hosted by AIPAC in California in August.

A representative for UDP declined to comment.

Rogers and El-Sayed clashed over U.S. military aid for Israel in their debate. Rogers said he supports Israel’s “right to defend itself in a very difficult neighborhood,” while El-Sayed said “I don’t want our tax dollars buying weapons for other countries.”

Congress

Mike Johnson voices uncertainty about his future if GOP loses control

Published

13 hours ago

October 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested that he could leave Congress if Democrats regain control — the farthest he has gone in acknowledging what he would do in a GOP House minority.

“Heaven forbid, if we lose this majority or whatever, I don’t know what my next chapter of life is,” Johnson said in an interview with Fox News posted this week. “If God moves on our hearts and says we should, you know, go back to my hometown of Shreveport and start a lawn business, I’ll do that with equal fervor.”

In the past, the Louisiana Republican has steered clear of the hypothetical.

Johnson also did not rule out a run at minority leader, instead telling Fox News that House Republicans will hold onto the majority and he will stay speaker.

“I’m going to be the speaker in the next Congress,” Johnson said, when asked if he would run. “I’m not going to talk about the scenario where we don’t win the House, because I am laser-focused on winning the House.”

With the midterms less than a month away, Republicans are doing everything they can to salvage their chances of maintaining their majority in an unfavorable political environment.

As some Republicans privately worry about their chances of holding onto the House, many believe jockeying for a GOP minority leader race is already underway.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan are potential names floating around to take over. House Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) had also been named as an option, though he could also run to stay as whip.

All three House Republicans have been campaigning across the country in the lead-up to the election. If Republicans lose the House, GOP members will begin the race for minority leader almost immediately when they return to Washington.

Congress

Capitol agenda: GOP ads have yet to overwhelm voters, poll finds

Published

16 hours ago

October 8, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Republicans have a massive campaign cash advantage going into the final stretch before Election Day, but a new Blue Light News poll shows they aren’t yet capturing voters’ attention.

More than 70% of poll respondents who had seen ads said they’d either seen more spots in support of Democrats or an equal amount between the parties over the past week — including ads on television, social media, or any other platform. Only 24% said they’d seen more ads for Republicans.

The numbers are striking considering Republican-aligned groups had triple the amount of cash on hand compared to their Democratic rivals going into the final months of the campaign. That figure includes the $400 million war chest that President Donald Trump’s MAGA Inc. super PAC reported over the summer, for which Dems have no equivalent.

Republicans have been racing to saturate key battlegrounds — and even some deep-red districts and states — with GOP messages in the final weeks before the midterms to counterbalance the favorable political environment for Democrats.

One reason GOP ad dollars could be getting less bang for their buck may lie in ad rates: direct campaign accounts from prolific individual fundraisers — Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff or Texas Senate candidate James Talarico, for example — can buy ads at cheaper rates.

Timing may be another reason: Trump’s super PAC waited until recent weeks to start buying ads through affiliate groups, when rates were already high close to the election.

“It’s competition that drives [rates] up to these ridiculous amounts, and then when super PACs come in late with these reservations, it’s even more than a two times disadvantage,” Jeff Burton, GOP campaign strategist and president of Maven Advocacy Partners said in an interview.

Burton said Republican candidates will need to rethink spending strategies to catch voters’ attention in the final stretch. Still, having a cash advantage might only take some so far, he said, citing the massive outspending Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed and Texas’ Ken Paxton overcame in their respective primaries.

“I think you’ll see a lot of these campaigns diversifying, paying for grassroots, paying for different mediums to try to reach voters,” Burton said.

The poll was conducted by surveying U.S. adults online between Oct. 3-5 with PF Global.

What else we’re watching:

— FIRST IN IC: DEMS WANT A GOP APOLOGY TO JACK SMITH — Senate Judiciary Democrats are asking chair Chuck Grassley to issue an apology to former special counsel Jack Smith on behalf of GOP committee members and Sen. Eric Schmitt. A letter from committee Democrats to Republicans, obtained exclusively by Blue Light News also demands Grassley turn over the underlying records Schmitt used last month to levy false allegations against Smith of secretly attending an NBA game in Atlanta to conspire with local prosecutors about convicting Trump.

— HILL LOBBIES FOR UKRAINIANS IN U.S. — Lawmakers afraid the Trump administration will cancel protections for Ukrainian seeking refuge in the U.S. want the president to consider another option: Do nothing. The administration has until Oct. 19 to renew or cancel temporary protected status for more than 100,000 Ukrainians in the U.S. who fled the war still ravaging their country. While a number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are hoping Trump will renew the permission, some also support a backup option — letting the status expire without formally canceling it, triggering an automatic six-month extension.

Chris Marquette, Eric Bazail-Eimil and Andrew Howard contributed to this report.