Vivek Ramaswamy Launches Ohio Gubernatorial Bid

Vivek Ramaswamy and Susie Wiles arrive before the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States takes place inside the Capitol Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Monday, January 20, 2025.

Following his 2024 run for the White House and former introduction as a head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has officially announced his 2026 gubernatorial campaign for the state of Ohio.

“President Trump is reviving our conviction in America. We require a leader here at home who will revive our conviction in Ohio, and that is why today I am honored to announce that I am running to be the next Governor of a great state at the heart of the greatest nation known to mankind,” Ramaswamy stated at a Monday launch event in Cincinnati.

“I will lead Ohio to be the top state in the country where patriots across America actually flock to instead of Florida and Texas. I will lead Ohio to be the state of excellence in America,” he said.

Even when he ran against Trump for the GOP nomination last year, Ramaswamy remained an outspoken supporter of the 47^th GOP president. He was later chosen to work with tech mogul Elon Musk to work in tandem with DOGE.

However, he left that committee last month, hinting at “future plans in Ohio” which many had already assumed was referencing a gubernatorial bid.

In an apparent reference to the subject line of a Trump administration email offering buyouts to all federal employees, Ramaswamy began his Monday remarks by highlighting his previous efforts to get Trump back into the White House, calling the 2024 election “a fork in the road.”

Last month, Robert Sprague, who serves as the 49^th and current Ohio Treasurer of State since 2019, changed his mind and endorsed Ramaswamy, rather than running for the gubernatorial bid — which many in the state had anticipated.

Mike DeWine, the 70^th governor of Ohio, chose former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, a Republican, who was also viewed as a possible candidate — to fill Vance’s Senate vacancy.

Jim Tressel, a former football coach at Ohio State University, was then selected by DeWine to serve as lieutenant governor. Tressel stated that he had a “singleness of purpose” for his new position during a press conference announcing his candidacy, though he did not specifically rule out a future bid for governor.

Political analysts say that Ramaswamy will benefit greatly from his connection with Trump in Ohio, which Trump won by 11 points in November.

However, Ramaswamy has also faced criticism from some Republicans for his past opinions, such as when he suggested that the U.S. might need to take in more “skilled” immigrants in the field of tech via the H-1B visa.

“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy posted on X, seemingly suggesting that the U.S. does not produce skilled tech workers.

The H-1B is a foreign worker visa in the U.S. that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in so-called specialty occupations.

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture,” failed GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley responded to Ramaswamy, in a post. “All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers.”

Meanwhile, other detractors have also argued that it’s not that foreign workers are more skilled or intelligent, it’s the fact that H-1B visas allow businesses to replace American workers with much lower-paid foreign workers, taking away American jobs in order to bring in more profit.

The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 26, 2024

Among other problems, Ramaswamy disregards the fact that 30% of the seats at Harvard and MIT each year are reserved for Chinese and Indian exchange students.

Not because these students are superior in natural talents or merit to Americans, but because these colleges are… https://t.co/nBUZSlIep2

— Paul Ingrassia (@PaulIngrassia) December 26, 2024

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