Rep Mike Carey wants JD Vance’s Senate seat to implement Trump agenda on ‘Day 1’

Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, is among a crowded list of contenders vying to replace Vice President-elect JD Vance when he formally resigns from the U.S. Senate. 

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Carey, a former coal lobbyist and combat veteran who won Ohio’s 15th congressional district for the third time, touted his experience working with President-elect Trump in the private sector. Carey argued that whomever Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine chooses to replace Vance will need to be ready on “day one” to help implement the new administration’s agenda. Vance has yet to formally resign.

With three endorsements from Trump under his belt, Carey said the president-elect “needs somebody in the Senate that will make sure that we get his agenda through.”

“I think that’s the most important thing, because I want the president to be successful. I think the American people want the president to be successful,” Carey told Fox News Digital. “And I think that’s what we need from a senator from the state of Ohio. And so I’d be honored to help him move his agenda forward in the U.S. Senate.” 

“I think you need to have somebody that’s able to start on Day One, hit the ground running as a U.S. senator,” Carey, who serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and Committee on House Administration, said. “You don’t want to have somebody coming in from the great state of Ohio who has to be on the job training. And so we’ve had a track record of success here in the, you know, in the 15th Congressional District. I can easily parlay that into the Senate.” 

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Through his work on the House Committee on Administration, Carey said he helped secure bipartisan support for and ultimately President Biden’s signature on the bill that launched the Congressional Election Observer program. That program deploys congressional poll watchers to hotly contested House races. 

Carey also said the next senator has to be cognizant of the diverse nature of the state. 

“I’ve spent a lifetime in Ohio. Born and raised in Ohio. But I think the senator has to understand we are a unique state,” Carey said. “There is a reason why Columbus, Ohio, is the test market for any product as it relates to food services, because we are a microcosm…