COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Vice President-elect JD Vance is resigning from his seat in the U.S. Senate, effective Friday.
Vance made his intentions known in a letter Thursday to Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who will choose his successor.
“As I prepare to assume my duties as Vice President of the United States, I would like to express that it has been a tremendous honor and privilege to serve the people of Ohio in the Senate over the past two years,” Vance wrote in the letter.
In a separate statement released by Vance, the outgoing senator nodded to his hardscrabble roots growing up in Appalachia.
“When I was elected to this office, I promised to never forget where I came from, and I’ve made sure to live by that promise every single day,” Vance said.
DeWine has said he would make the appointment once Vance vacates the seat. DeWine's spokesperson said DeWine was at a governors’ event with Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday evening, making it unlikely he would announce any appointment before Friday.
DeWine has the sole duty of appointing a successor to Vance, who was elected to a six-year term in 2022. A long list of elected Republicans in the state has expressed interest in the seat, including Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Treasurer Robert Sprague, U.S. Rep. Mike Carey, state Sen. Matt Dolan, former Republican state chair Jane Timken and GOP attorney and strategist Mehek Cooke.
However, speculation has most recently zeroed in on Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who accompanied DeWine on a recent trip to Mar-a-Lago to speak with President-elect Donald Trump.
DeWine declined to even hint as to the subject of those discussions when asked by reporters during a Wednesday bill-signing at the Statehouse.
“I'm not ready to make an announcement yet, but the announcement will be coming soon,” he said.
Husted, who was also present, said merely, “We're considering all the options, and just, that's really all I have to say.”
Husted has been considered a front-runner to run for governor in 2026, after spending years positioning for the job. He is a former Ohio House speaker, state senator and two-term secretary of state.
Whomever DeWine appoints will serve until December 2026. They would need to run again for the remainder of the term in November 2026.
FILE - Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) —
A Wisconsin woman who at age 12 stabbed her sixth grade classmate nearly to death to please online horror character Slender Man will be released from a psychiatric hospital, a judge ordered Thursday after a trio of experts testified that she has made considerable progress battling mental illness.
Morgan Geyser has spent nearly seven years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. She has petitioned Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, who committed her, for release four times since June 2022. She withdrew her first two petitions. Bohren denied her third request this past April, finding she still presented a threat to the public.
Geyser, now 22 years old, filed her latest petition in October. Bohren decided to grant her release after a day-long hearing Thursday, finding that she had maximized her treatment options at the facility and is no longer a safety risk. He ordered the state Department of Health Services to set up a plan to house her in a group home and supervise her for his consideration at a hearing within 60 days.
The judge said that her crime was a “brutal, terrible offense” but Geyser has since grown up and to be truly rehabilitated she must exist as part of society.
“She's done what she's supposed to do,” Bohren said. “She appears to have a good attitude.”
Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 years old in 2014 when they lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a Waukesha park after a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier egged her on. Leutner barely survived.
The girls later told investigators that they attacked Leutner to earn the right to be Slender Man's servants and they feared he would harm their families if they didn't follow through.
Geyser pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide and was sent to the psychiatric institute due to mental illness in 2018.
Weier pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. She was also sent to the psychiatric center but was granted release in 2021 to live with her father and was ordered to wear a GPS monitor.
Three psychologists who have been working with Geyser since she was committed to the institute testified at Thursday's hearing that she's made impressive progress in just the last six months and should be released.
Dr. Brooke Lundbohm testified that Winnebago staff weaned Geyser off her anti-psychotic medications by early 2023 and she's suffered no symptoms since then.
Dr. Deborah Collins said Geyser is always at risk of reoffending simply because she almost killed someone but she has worked on her coping skills, improved her emotional control and retreats into fantasy less frequently. Collins added that Geyser told her that she hates what she did to Leutner and can't forgive herself.
Dr. Ken Robbins told the judge that she could become dangerous if she remained confined at Winnebago and lost hope.
“The longer she's there, at this point, the harder it's going to be to re-integrate,” Robbins said.
Waukesha County Assistant District Attorney Ted Szczupakiewicz argued that Geyser couldn’t be trusted, noting that she claimed during evaluations last year that she faked her delusions about Slender Man and actually attacked Leutner as a way of escaping her abusive father. He hinted that was a ploy to make the release more likely.
The judge shrugged that off, saying it's not unusual for mental illness diagnoses to evolve.
This story has been updated to correct that the judge denied Geyser's third petition in April.
Morgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Morgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Morgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Morgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Morgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Morgan Geyser appears in a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday, Jan. 9, 2025, in Waukesha, Wis. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
