President Donald Trump plans to nominate an Ohio state judge recommended by Vice President JD Vance to a federal trial court seat in the state.
Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday that he would nominate Matthew Byrne to the US District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, which includes courthouses in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Dayton.
Trump said Vance “strongly recommended” Byrne, who’s currently a judge on Ohio’s Twelfth District Court of Appeals. Vance was an Ohio senator before becoming Trump’s second-term vice president.
Byrne graduated from Ohio State University Moritz College of Law in 2007, and has served on the state appeals court since 2021. Prior to his election to the court in 2020, he practiced in labor and employment law at Jackson Lewis and Taft, Stettinius & Hollister, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Byrne, if confirmed, would fill a vacancy created after George W. Bush appointee Judge Michael H. Watson took senior status last November.
Trump also said Ohio’s current Republican senators, Bernie Moreno and Jon Husted, also back Byrne.
Byrne’s wife, Julie Byrne, is an attorney at Ashbrook Byrne Kresge Flowers, the same law firm as a pending Trump nominee for the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Ben Flowers.
Byrne is active on social media, and frequently posts on X about his attendance at local GOP events. In September 2025, he posted a photo with Vance’s mother from an event hosted by the Fayette County Ohio Republican Women’s Club.
(Updates with reference to Byrne's social media activity.)
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