Hardly anyone, including Jon Husted, pictured him as a U.S. senator.

But the Republican, who has eyed the Ohio governor’s seat for many years, just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

Husted, lieutenant governor for the past six years, gave the vice-presidential nominating speech for J.D. Vance on July 17 at the Republican National Convention. When he got the appointment last week from Gov. Mike DeWine to succeed Vance in the Senate, Husted harkened back to that day at the RNC and said someone asked him at the time about filling that potential vacancy.

“That seems so improbable,” Husted said.

He added: “It was something that was not on my mind initially. But I have a lot of close friends who have said to me, ‘Keep an open mind, keep an open mind.’ As it came forward and thought about the fact that this is… a tough choice. I kept an open mind about it.”

It’s not “improbable” because Husted doesn’t have the political experience. Before his time as lieutenant governor, he served as secretary of state for eight years and is a former Ohio House speaker and state senator.

Asked if Vance’s and new senator, Bernie Moreno’s lack of experience played a factor in wanting Husted for the job, DeWine’s one-word answer was: “Yes.”

The improbability of Husted as a senator is he’s always wanted to be governor. He postponed that possibility when he pulled out of the 2018 Republican primary for the seat to run alongside DeWine and wait his turn. Before the Senate vacancy occurred, DeWine endorsed Husted for the governor’s position in the 2026 race. But after Vance was elected vice president, things changed.

During last week’s news conference, it sounded like DeWine, a former 12-year senator, had to convince Husted to take the Senate seat or at least Husted saw it as the safest option with a crowded Republican field expected next year for governor. If it’s a consolation prize, it’s a great one as there are only 100 senators in the country.

“This decision is so very, very important that in the end I stripped away everything else and asked the question: Who is the best person to represent the state of Ohio and the United States Senate and it clearly came back to Jon Husted,” DeWine said.

Among those who will run for governor next year is Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a very wealthy venture capitalist who will announce his candidacy shortly. Ramaswamy could easily put tens of millions of dollars of his own personal wealth into his campaign. Ramaswamy briefly ran for president and spent even less time serving as co-chairman of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Other Republicans running for governor are two experienced officeholders: Attorney General Dave Yost, who announced Thursday, and Treasurer Robert Sprague, who filed a statement of candidacy last week.

For Husted, the Senate appointment became the bird in the hand.

He said: “I know there’s a lot of noise around this and this is all true – you hear all of these names and all these people that say they want to run for governor and say they want to be the senator and I promise you this, every single one of them would have accepted this appointment to the U.S. Senate.”

While Ramaswamy made a last-minute bid to get DeWine’s appointment to the Senate after publicly declaring he didn’t want it, he was never going to get it. The governor’s close relationship with Husted permitted the latter to decide between getting the seat right now or waiting two years to run for governor and possibly have his dream snatched away from him again.

“Honestly, I switched my mind about 100 times because this is an incredible choice to do either,” Husted said. “If you’re in politics, it’s like choosing from the two best things you can. It’s the opportunity to go to Washington now and not two years from now. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Husted has straddled the line between being loyal to DeWine and to President Donald Trump, who has had an uneasy relationship with the governor. DeWine avoids Trump rallies and has been criticized for some of his decisions by the president. Husted was loudly booed at a September 2020 Trump rally near Dayton when he spoke in favor of wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the announcement that he was DeWine’s choice for senator, Husted mentioned Trump’s name a number of times, said he had a “wonderful conversation” with him earlier that day and would be going to Washington, D.C., to back the president.

Husted’s decision to take the Senate appointment and become a Trump loyalist – and then prove that loyalty – will go a long way toward having the president support his bid for the remaining two years of Vance’s unexpired term in 2026. If Husted is successful next year, he’ll be back on the campaign trail seeking a full six-year term in the Senate in the 2028 election.