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Vice President JD Vance cast the casting vote in favor confirms Pete Hegseth as the next U.S. Secretary of Defense late Friday and might feel a little like Ohio State quarterback Will Howard.
Vance, an Ohio State alumnus, celebrated Hegseth’s confirmation with an anecdote that referenced his alma mater recent 34-23 national championship win over Notre Dame.
“As I learned with the Buckeyes just a week ago, when you win a championship, it doesn’t matter what the score was. We won a championship on this one. We have a great secretary of defense. We’re proud of him, and he’s going to do a great job,” Vance said. .
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Vance has been on the receiving end of sports analogies lately.
After former President Joe Biden falsely insisted that the Constitution was amended to include the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment, Vance mocked the idea with baseball comparison.
Vance responded to Biden’s statement in a post on X, joking that Biden should put the late disgraced MLB icon Pete Rose in the baseball hall of fame.
“Hey Joe, if we’re doing fake s— on the way out, can you make Pete Rose a Hall of Famer?” Vance wrote, referring to the infamous baseball debate. Rose, MLB’s all-time leading scorer, who died in September, was banned for life from the sport for illegal betting on games.
Vance, meanwhile, witnessed the Buckeyes’ first national title since 2014 on the same day he and President Donald Trump were inaugurated. Vance was a proud, vocal supporter of Ohio State football throughout his political career as a former state senator.
Vance even joked that he would skip Monday’s inauguration to watch the Buckeyes play Notre Dame in Atlanta.
Usha Vance stood out from the crowd wearing a pink coat on Inauguration Day. (Chris Kleponis)
“I hope everyone agrees that I skipped the inauguration so I could go to the national title game,” Vance joked in a social media post.
During the campaign, Vance revealed that he told Trump that his loyalty to the Buckeyes could affect Trump’s chances of winning the key battleground state of Michigan.
“When he first asked me to be vice president, I said, ‘Well, you know, we hope we don’t lose Michigan by about 900 votes, because you’re going to regret it. ‘Cause that’s probably only a thousand p—obnoxious Wolverine fans who wouldn’t voted for Buckeye,” Vance said during an appearance on OutKick’s “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.”
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“But I think most Michiganders will be able to put sports rivalries aside and put country first, which, of course, we all believe is the most important thing.”
The Democratic National Committee tried to use Vance’s connection to Ohio State in a campaign strategy in Michigan in early September. The DNC flew a plane over a Michigan football game on September 7 with a banner that read: “JD Vance [loves] Ohio State [plus] Project 2025.”
However, the Trump-Vance ticket ended up easily carrying Michigan.
Ohio State players celebrate their national title and JD Vance (Getty Images)
Hegseth, 44, a former Minnesota National Guard officer who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, secured the Pentagon leadership role after weeks of intense political drama surrounding his nomination and public scrutiny of his personal life.
The Senate was deadlocked 50-50 with three Republicans — Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. — joining Democrats in opposing Hegseth’s confirmation.
The stalemate forced Vance to cast the deciding vote, securing his confirmation.
“It’s not the first time a headline has read ‘Junior Recruit Marine Vouches for Junior Army Officer,'” joked Hegseth, a former Fox News host, referring to Vance’s previous service in the U.S. Marine Corps.
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