{"id":19160,"date":"2026-02-19T17:17:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:17:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ohios-gop-governor-sidesteps-defending-kristi-noem\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T17:17:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T17:17:01","slug":"ohios-gop-governor-sidesteps-defending-kristi-noem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/ohios-gop-governor-sidesteps-defending-kristi-noem\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio\u2019s GOP governor sidesteps defending Kristi Noem"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine would not immediately endorse his fellow Buckeye, Vice President JD Vance, for his party\u2019s 2028 presidential nomination and would not express confidence in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid reports that ICE could target Springfield.<\/p>\n

Asked whether Vance should be the Republican party\u2019s nominee, DeWine said Thursday that \u201che\u2019s a favorite son of ours, and we\u2019ll see how this whole thing plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n

At Blue Light News\u2019s 2026 Governors Summit, the Ohio Republican said he has not heard further news following reports that Springfield could face an ICE crackdown on its<\/a> large population of Haitian immigrants: \u201cWe’ve not been told at all if they’re going to come in.\u201d And while DeWine said that state and local law enforcement would work to keep the peace if there was a crackdown, he warned that federal officers also need to perform professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, we expect ICE, if they come in, to follow good police protocols. If they do that, we\u2019re going to be able to work our way through it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

DeWine sidestepped multiple opportunities to express confidence in Noem\u2019s handling of DHS\u2019 stepped up interior enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I think that what happened in Minnesota was a signal to a lot of people \u2014 they didn\u2019t like what they saw,\u201d DeWine said when asked about Noem.<\/p>\n

DeWine did defend Les Wexner<\/a>, the billionaire businessman and former client of Jeffrey Epstein whose name is blazoned across many central Ohio institutions, including the The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. DeWine said Thursday that no evidence has emerged of his wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBarring some new information of something that he has done illegal, I don\u2019t see that as a problem,\u201d said DeWine.<\/p>\n

The governor, who has frequently tangled with Trump and Vance \u2014 including over their baseless attacks of Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield \u2014 would not say whether the president has been a \u201cforce for good\u201d for the GOP and country.<\/p>\n

Instead, he praised Trump\u2019s actions on border enforcement.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has done something that has not been done before, and that is he has basically sealed the southern border,\u201d DeWine said. \u201cAnd you can talk to Democrats, talk to Republicans. I think everybody is happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine would not immediately endorse his fellow Buckeye, Vice President JD Vance, for his party\u2019s 2028 presidential nomination and would not express confidence in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem amid reports that ICE could target Springfield. Asked whether Vance should be the Republican party\u2019s nominee, DeWine said Thursday that \u201che\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}