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

Scalise will kick off August campaign sprint in marquee Nebraska House race

Published

3 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise is zeroing in on one of House Republicans’ biggest contests — a purple district in Nebraska — when he starts his recess campaign sprint.

Scalise will travel to Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District in the Omaha area for an event with Republican Brinker Harding in the coming days, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter granted anonymity to share plans not yet made public. Republicans are digging in to defend the seat, which Kamala Harris won in the 2024 presidential race and is among Democrats’ best pick up opportunities this fall as they seek to flip the House.

Harding is running against Democratic consultant Denise Powell to replace retiring GOP Rep. Don Bacon. Bacon, a moderate-leaning Republican, flipped the Omaha district red in 2016.

After Nebraska, Scalise is planning to travel across the country throughout August, including to defend GOP incumbents Mariannette Miller-Meeks’ and Zach Nunn’s key battleground seats in Iowa’s 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts and Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District.

He’ll boost candidates working to flip blue districts like Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, Derek Merrin in Ohio’s 9th Congressional District and Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd Congressional District.

Scalise also plans to travel to Michigan, Colorado, South Carolina and Texas for campaign events over the August recess.

Congress

Trump needles Cornyn as Blanche remains blocked

Published

7 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

President Donald Trump goaded John Cornyn on social media Friday morning, accusing the Texas senator of withholding his vote on Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination in retaliation for Trump’s central role in his political demise.

Cornyn, who lost his May primary to Texas’ scandal-ridden attorney general, the Trump-endorsed Ken Paxton, has threatened to block Blanche’s nomination in the Senate Judiciary Committee until the White House promises to permanently shelve its $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization fund” in writing — something Trump appears unwilling to do.

“John Cornyn never had a problem with the so called “Fund,” which will not benefit me, but rather the great American Patriots who were hunted down like dogs and whose lives were unfairly and illegally destroyed by the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, until after I decided to Endorse and Support his Republican Primary opponent in Texas, who easily won the Nomination for the United States Senate,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Several Republicans bristled at the fund, which could have been deployed to compensate Americans who faced charges after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and which gives the president and his family audit immunity over taxes. At his July confirmation hearing, Blanche said that the fund, part of a settlement the president reached with the IRS, was defunct. But the administration has been “reluctant to change” the text of the settlement, Cornyn told reporters Thursday.

Trump signaled his continued support for the Jan 6 rioters on Friday.

“I will always feel that these victims of government abuse should be paid back for what they were forced to endure, their lives have been ruined!” he wrote. “Millions of people agree with me, as was proven in my landslide Presidential win, where this was a major subject of debate, and so did John Cornyn, until he lost his Election to an opponent that I Endorsed.”

On Thursday, the president suggested that he could punt a Senate vote on Blanche until after Cornyn — and Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) — leaves the chamber at the end of the year. Cornyn, however, suggested on social media that there are other Republican senators with concerns about the fund.

“After the midterms, who knows who’s going to be the next United States senator from North Carolina or Texas?” Cornyn told reporters.

Congress

Capitol agenda: The Senate’s fly-out agenda takes shape

Published

8 hours ago

July 31, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Senate Republicans are prepping a jam-packed — if somewhat optimistic — agenda for their final week before summer recess.

Majority Leader John Thune wants to move stopgap funding through Dec. 11, bipartisan Russia sanctions legislation and a bloc of nominees — perhaps including attorney general pick Todd Blanche.

He’s also under pressure from President Donald Trump, administration officials and many of his GOP colleagues to adopt a budget resolution — the first step in unlocking another party-line spending bill.

Leaders are prioritizing the stopgap, though. Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) expects continuing resolution text to be unveiled later today, she told reporters Thursday, and an initial vote is expected Monday evening.

Still TBD: Collins wants to use the funding patch to block the Trump administration from putting political appointees in charge of approving grants — a demand Democratic senators are also making.

The decision is in Thune’s hands. He acknowledged a “handful of issues” are still under consideration with the CR, and said he’s “hoping both sides can come together and figure” them out.

As for the sanctions bill, leaders of both parties are still trying to work out a deal to fast-track the legislation amid concerns from some Democrats and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) that it gives Trump too much tariff power.

In addition to the nominees package, Thune also hasn’t ruled out an initial vote on the landmark cryptocurrency bill both parties have spent months negotiating or teeing up a bipartisan college sports overhaul now in final stages of talks.

But the big question is whether Republicans can take a major step toward another reconciliation bill by advancing a budget resolution.

Thune met Thursday with Budget Chair Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who said he was “optimistic in terms of how things are kind of coming together.”

Republicans anticipate giving a number of Senate committees instructions for the bill, setting up a lengthy and politically painful process ahead of adoption despite pushes for urgency from the White House.

Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, was the latest official to head to Capitol Hill to try and light a fire under top Republicans. But GOP senators don’t necessarily see the urgency.

“The hard part is the president wants to be able to move fast, like an executive can move, and we’re a legislative branch,” said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). “It doesn’t move that fast.”

What else we’re watching:

— BLANCHE TEETERING: Todd Blanche’s nomination as attorney general isn’t dead yet. But it’s certainly on life support. The acting AG met with Cornyn and Tillis Thursday at NRSC headquarters, and one person familiar with the discussion said the group was “working collaboratively now.” But it would now be difficult to confirm him before August recess under Senate rules.

— FARM BILL TEXT: Senate Agriculture Chair John Boozman said his farm bill legislative text — originally expected Thursday — could come Friday or Saturday. The bill, which is expected to include language allowing year-round E15 sales and a potential compromise on postponing GOP-led cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, is set to be marked up Thursday.

Jordain Carney and Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.