Ohio Senator Jon Husted voted to confirm each of the nominees on this page, and two of his votes decided the outcome: Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, confirmed 50 to 50 with the Vice President's vote, and Todd Blanche as attorney general, confirmed 50 to 49. Hegseth then ran the Iran war, in which three airmen of an Ohio Air National Guard unit died.
Husted also voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department cut the CDC and took back grants that Ohio's health department said had paid for disease reporting and lab testing; Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin, whose department ended protected status for thousands of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio; Mehmet Oz, whose Medicaid work rule is projected to cut Ohio enrollment by about 337,000; and Russell Vought, who directed federal layoffs.
Jon Husted's Cabinet Confirmation Votes and What the Officials Did
- Husted Cast One of the 50 Votes That Confirmed Pete Hegseth, Who Ran the Iran War. On January 24, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Pete Hegseth as secretary of defense, and the vote was 50 to 50 with the Vice President breaking the tie, so Hegseth would not have been confirmed without him. Husted also voted to confirm Stephen Feinberg as deputy secretary of defense and General Dan Caine as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They led the war with Iran that began February 28, 2026, in which 21 service members have died and 865 have been injured, at a Pentagon-estimated cost of $43.6 billion. Three of the dead served in the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Whose Department Cut the CDC and Rewrote Vaccine Policy. On February 13, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as secretary of health and human services, 52-48. The CDC lost 30%, or more than 3,800 employees, between March 2025 and May 2026. In June 2025 Kennedy fired and replaced all the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and the U.S. has reported nearly 3,887 confirmed cases of measles as of October 1, more than in any year since 1991, KFF reported in 2026. In Ohio, the state health department said the $250 million in grants lost had helped with disease reporting and public health lab testing, and Columbus laid off 11 people who worked on investigating infectious disease outbreaks.
- Husted Voted to Confirm the Homeland Security Leaders Who Ended Protected Status for Springfield's Haitians. Husted voted to confirm Kristi Noem as secretary of homeland security on January 25, 2025, Rodney Scott as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection on June 18, 2025, and Markwayne Mullin as Noem's successor on March 23, 2026. Their department ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians after a 6-3 Supreme Court ruling, and thousands of Haitians in Ohio lost their legal status in late July 2026. Nationally, nearly 70,000 people are in ICE detention as of March 2026, and ICE recorded 31 detainee deaths in 2025.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Mehmet Oz, Whose Agency Projects 2.3 Million Fewer People on Medicaid. On April 3, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Mehmet Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 53-45. In June 2026 his agency issued the rule carrying out the Medicaid work requirement, projecting that "enrollment would be reduced by 2.3 million individuals in FY 2027". For Ohio, the Center for Community Solutions estimates a drop of around 337,000 Medicaid enrollees in Ohio in the first year.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Pam Bondi and, With a Deciding Vote, Todd Blanche to Run the Justice Department. Husted voted to confirm Pam Bondi as attorney general on February 4, 2025, Todd Blanche as deputy attorney general on March 5, 2025, and Blanche as attorney general on August 8, 2026, when his vote was needed. Their department indicted the President's critics James Comey and Letitia James in cases a judge dismissed, its January 2026 release of the Epstein files had thousands of redaction failures on behalf of nearly 100 individual survivors, and it terminated crime-prevention and victim-services grants initially valued at about $820 million, according to the Council on Criminal Justice.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Russell Vought, Who Directed Federal Layoffs and Canceled Funds Congress Approved. On February 6, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Russell Vought as budget director, 53-47. His office directed agencies to plan large layoffs, and by August 2026 the government workforce was 264,000 employees smaller, a decrease of about 12%. His office also used a pocket rescission to claw back $4.9 billion in funding in August 2025, a method the Government Accountability Office says is not allowed: "The President may not force the expiration of budget authority Congress has already enacted and did not rescind."
- Husted Voted to Confirm the Commerce Secretary and Trade Representative Behind the Tariffs Still in Force. Husted voted to confirm Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary on February 18, 2025 and Jamieson Greer as trade representative on February 26, 2025. Their agencies' tariffs still in force include steel and aluminum duties raised to 50 percent and Greer's July 2026 tariffs on 60 economies, and the Yale Budget Lab estimated that tariffs under current law cost households about $1,100 a year.
- Husted Voted to Confirm the Leaders of the VA and Social Security as Both Lost Thousands of Staff. Husted voted to confirm Doug Collins as veterans affairs secretary on February 4, 2025 and Frank Bisignano as Social Security commissioner on May 6, 2025. The VA was "on pace to reduce total VA staff by nearly 30,000 employees" in 2025, and by fiscal 2026 the VA Dayton Healthcare System in Ohio designated 41 occupations as severe staffing shortages. Social Security lost 165 staff in Ohio, 13 percent, from January 2025 to April 2026, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities found.
- Husted Voted to Confirm the Agriculture, Education and Housing Secretaries Who Cut Their Departments. Husted voted to confirm Brooke Rollins at Agriculture on February 13, 2025, Scott Turner at Housing and Urban Development on February 5, 2025 and Linda McMahon at Education on March 3, 2025. USDA cut its staff by about 20 percent in 2025, Civil Eats reported; HUD went down to roughly 6,300 workers; and the Education Department's workforce fell from 4,133 employees to 2,183, the Hechinger Report found.
- Husted Voted to Confirm the EPA Administrator Who Terminated Solar Aid for Low-Income Households and Repealed Vehicle Emission Standards. Husted voted to confirm Lee Zeldin at the EPA on January 29, 2025. In August 2025 Zeldin's EPA terminated the $7 billion Solar for All program, intended to bring solar power to nearly one million low-income households across the country, and a federal judge vacated the termination on September 18, 2026, ruling that the EPA had acted illegally. Zeldin's EPA also finalized its repeal of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for cars and trucks.
- Husted Voted to Confirm the Civil Rights Chief Who Shrank Voting-Rights Enforcement. On April 3, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Harmeet Dhillon to lead the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. The staff of its voting section dwindled from approximately 30 lawyers down to about 6, the Brennan Center found, and the division moved to dismiss lawsuits against the Louisville, Kentucky and Minneapolis police departments.
- Husted Voted to Confirm Kelly Loeffler, Who Cut the Small Business Administration's Staff by 43 Percent. On February 19, 2025, Husted voted to confirm Kelly Loeffler to lead the Small Business Administration. A month later the agency said "the agency will reduce its workforce by 43%", leaving fewer staff to process small-business and disaster loans.
What the Cabinet Officials Jon Husted Confirmed Did to Ohio
- Ohio airmen. Three airmen of the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker died in a refueling plane crash in Iraq on March 12, 2026, during the war run by the defense secretary Husted's vote confirmed.
- Public health. Ohio's health department lost grants it said helped upgrade disease reporting and public health lab testing, and the Jackson County health department was left half a million dollars short and laid off community health workers, KFF Health News reported.
- Social Security offices. Ohio's Social Security workforce fell by 165 people, including 127 customer-facing staff, a 13 percent cut, from January 2025 to April 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions About Jon Husted on Cabinet confirmations
What is Jon Husted's record on cabinet confirmations under Trump?
Jon Husted voted to confirm each of the nominees on this page, and his votes decided two: Pete Hegseth at Defense, confirmed 50 to 50 with the Vice President, and Todd Blanche as attorney general, confirmed 50 to 49. The officials he confirmed ran the Iran war, cut the CDC and the VA, ended protected status for Haitians in Springfield and issued a Medicaid work rule projected to cut Ohio enrollment by about 337,000.
Did Jon Husted cast the deciding vote for Pete Hegseth?
Yes. Jon Husted voted to confirm Pete Hegseth on January 24, 2025, when the Senate split 50 to 50 and Vice President Vance broke the tie, so Hegseth would have lost without any one of the 50 yes votes. The Pentagon's inspector general later found Hegseth had sent sensitive, nonpublic, operational information over the Signal app.
Did Jon Husted vote to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?
Yes. Jon Husted voted to confirm Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on February 13, 2025, and he was confirmed 52-48. Kennedy's department canceled nearly 700 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants nationwide, and Ohio, whose Republican leaders did not sue, is one of the five states with the most canceled grants.
Last updated: 2026-10-25