Mina Kimes is taking over as television host of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and the ESPN NFL analyst hopes to use her outsider's perspective to capture the excitement of the 101-year-old competition.
Kimes, whose hiring was announced Tuesday, becomes the first celebrity host for the bee since LeVar Burton in 2022. That was the year Scripps took over the broadcast from ESPN, its longtime TV home, and began airing it on ION and Bounce, both of which are owned by the Cincinnati-based media company.
Scripps has also brought in a new production team for the broadcast, led by Michael Davies — currently the executive producer of “Jeopardy!” — as it seeks to reverse a decline in ratings.
This year's bee runs from May 26 to 28 at a new venue, Constitution Hall in downtown Washington, with 247 spellers competing for a trophy and more than $50,000 in cash and prizes.
“My goal in this is to give it the big-game feel,” Kimes told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of the announcement. “Any event that requires skill and knowledge and preparation can have that feel if it's presented with enough care and pride on television.”
Davies, whose credits also include “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “Reading Rainbow” and “Good Morning Football,” shares Kimes' appreciation for the bee, and he told AP his goal is to “make it bigger and make it more famous.”
“We really need to focus the entire broadcast and everything we're doing around the stakes of the competition and the incredible winning moment, the winning word that happens at the end of the final,” he said.
A Yale-educated journalist, the 40-year-old Kimes is known for using extensive research and study of game video to explain the strengths and weaknesses of NFL players and coaches. She said her preparation for the bee has been similar.
“It honestly does feel a little bit like watching game tape because I really think these kids are elite competitors, not just in terms of being the best of the best, but you can see all of the work that they so clearly put in,” Kimes said. “The way they get to the right answer is fascinating to me and the more you watch, the more you see the way their brains work. I see a lot of similarities to what I do with football, and I'm so pumped to be a part of this.”
Although she never competed on the national stage, Kimes has a history in spelling, winning bees at the school level in the second, third and fifth grades.
Spellers qualify for the National Spelling Bee by winning regional bees around the country and are eligible to compete through the eighth grade. Even the most gifted kids, many of whom study and train year-round under the tutelage of paid coaches, often get only one or two chances to win the most prestigious spelling competition in the English language before they age out.
Over the last few years, Scripps has relied mostly on former spellers as on-air hosts and commentators. Longtime analyst Paul Loeffler, a sports broadcaster, former speller and the brother of bee executive director Corrie Loeffler, will return in that role.
While Scripps touted bigger potential audiences from its move to ION, which is available in more households than ESPN, ratings have been stagnant and dipped slightly over the past two years, according to Nielsen data. The combined audience for the primetime finals on ION and Bounce was 609,000 in 2022, 641,000 in 2023, 461,000 in 2024 and 488,000 last year.
The bee drew over 1 million viewers on ESPN in 2012. The finals of the last three pre-pandemic bees on ESPN had viewership of 606,000 (2017), 550,000 (2018) and 559,000 (2019).
Ben Nuckols has covered the Scripps National Spelling Bee since 2012. Follow him at https://x.com/APBenNuckols
FILE - Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, reacts as he wins the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
FILE - Faizan Zaki, 13, of Dallas, holds the trophy after winning the 2025 Scripps National Spelling Bee, Thursday, May 29, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
FILE - Mina Kimes arrives at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, Wednesday, July 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Vice President JD Vance landed in Iowa on Tuesday, marking his first visit since taking office to the state where Republicans in less than two years will cast the initial votes to pick their party’s next presidential nominee.
Vance, who is seen as one of the GOP’s strongest potential candidates for president in 2028, is making the trip to campaign on behalf of Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, who faces a competitive race to keep his Des Moines-area seat in the November midterms.
Vance, a former U.S. senator who represented Ohio and became vice president before the end of his term, departed Washington earlier Tuesday accompanied by one of his young sons. He stopped first in Cincinnati to vote in Ohio's primary elections and told reporters he was voting for Vivek Ramaswamy in the governor's race. Asked about U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who's running in a special election to serve out the remainder of Vance’s term, Vance said he thinks Husted's “going to do a great job” and has been “good for Ohio.”
His 6-year-old son, meanwhile, filled out a ballot for children, which the vice president showed to the poll workers when he cast his own ballot. “He voted for the Easter bunny over the tooth fairy,” he said of his son, who's also named Vivek.
Before arriving in Iowa, Vance also appeared in Oklahoma City to hold a fundraiser in his role as finance chair of the Republican National Committee.
But the visit to Iowa offers Vance an opportunity to test his reception before Iowa’s voters, whose leadoff caucuses give them an outsized role in determining the next presidential nominee. Campaigning for a local congressman in his role as the sitting vice president gives him an opening chance to make an impression on Iowa Republicans, seasoned evaluators of those who seek the nation’s highest office before the campaign begins in earnest.
Vance’s appearance comes days after Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who is also considered a possible 2028 candidate, spoke to a group of evangelical Christians who are influential in Iowa’s GOP contest.
Des Moines-based Jimmy Centers, a Republican political consultant, said the 2028 contest is “light-years away” but said the Republicans who hear Vance speak on Tuesday will be evaluating how he might measure up in an election for the White House.
“I certainly think, as of right now, Vice President Vance would probably be a straw-poll winner of Iowa Republicans for 2028. But I don’t think anyone is saying, ‘We won’t consider anybody else,’” Centers said.
Vance, who has not said whether he will run for the presidency in 2028, is scheduled to appear with Nunn at a manufacturing facility in Des Moines. His office did not comment on the trip's impact on Vance's political future.
The vice president’s visit follows a trip President Donald Trump made in January to tout the administration’s tax cuts, part of a string of stops they’re making this year on economic issues before midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
But Vance’s visit comes when his own political prospects — and the message he’s expected to deliver on the economy — have been complicated by the war in Iran.
The vice president, who has long been skeptical of foreign military interventions, has seemed a reluctant defender of the 9-week-old war, for which Trump has struggled to find an off-ramp. Iowans, like much of the rest of the country, are grappling with higher gas prices because of the conflict. But the state’s farmers are also feeling the pinch of high fertilizer costs from the war and have been hurt by tariffs Trump has imposed.
While Iowa’s farmers have steadfastly supported the president, they have been looking to the White House for assurances that the current troubles won’t last.
Vance’s visit to Iowa was originally scheduled for last week, but the timing shifted because the House moved to pass a sweeping farm bill that Nunn was due to vote on.
The vice president also had been slated to appear last week at an Iowa State University event with Turning Point USA, but the organization said it was not able to reschedule the event with the university until the fall.
Kim Schmett, a longtime Iowa GOP activist, said the presidential cycle starts “deceptively slow.”
Republican figures testing the waters often drop by the Westside Conservative Club, which Schmett hosts, but he said it's still too far out from the caucuses, which are typically held in January of the presidential election year.
He said Trump’s Make America Great Again political movement “is very alive and going here” in Iowa, which would benefit Vance — as well as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also thought to be a potential candidate.
“I think there’s going to be a lot of MAGA support,” he said. “And Vice President Vance and Marco Rubio seem to be the recipients of where that is going at the moment.”
But Schmett cautioned, “It’s awfully, awfully early in the process.”
On the Democratic side, at least half a dozen presidential prospects have been making visits to the states with the earliest presidential primary contests, including recent visits to Iowa by former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Michigan U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin.
Meanwhile, potential Republican presidential candidates “are treading very lightly,” said GOP strategist Alex Conant, who worked on Rubio’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“I think Republicans are going to be very reluctant to get in Trump’s way until Trump gives the green light for the campaign to start,” Conant said.
That means much of the groundwork to meet with donors or activists or recruit political staffers might happen slowly and subtly – for now.
After the midterms? Conant said: “It’ll be irresistible.”
Price reported from Washington.
Vice President JD Vance, alongside his son Vivek, votes at a polling location at St. Anthony of Padua Maronite Catholic Church in the state's primary election, Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Vance is stopping in Ohio to vote in the state's primary election before continuing on to Oklahoma and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance and his son Vivek, walk off Air Force Two upon arrival at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Vance is stopping in Ohio to vote in the state's primary election before continuing on to Oklahoma and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance casts his ballot to vote at a polling location at St. Anthony of Padua Maronite Catholic Church in the state's primary election, Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Vance is stopping in Ohio to vote in the state's primary election before continuing on to Oklahoma and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance, alongside his son Vivek, votes at a polling location at St. Anthony of Padua Maronite Catholic Church in the state's primary election, Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Cincinnati, Ohio. Vance is stopping in Ohio to vote in the state's primary election before continuing on to Oklahoma and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance boards Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Vance is traveling to Ohio, Oklahoma, and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance arrives at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in Hebron, Ky., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Vance is stopping in Ohio to vote in the state's primary election before continuing on to Oklahoma and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance boards Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Vance is traveling to Ohio, Oklahoma, and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance and his son Vivek, are escorted as they walk to board Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Vance is traveling to Ohio, Oklahoma, and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
Vice President JD Vance and his son Vivek, walk to board Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Vance is traveling to Ohio, Oklahoma, and Iowa. (Roberto Schmidt /Pool Photo via AP)
FILE - Vice President JD Vance speaks in the Oval Office at the White House, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
