Ramaswamy officially launches gubernatorial campaign in Ohio: ‘Best days are still yet ahead’

Vivek Ramaswamy formally declared his candidacy for Ohio governor on Monday during a rally in his hometown of Cincinnati where he outlined his plan to “revive our conviction” in the state of Ohio, where he says the “best days are still yet ahead.”

Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate, for weeks has been moving towards launching a gubernatorial campaign in the 2026 race to succeed GOP Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, who is term-limited and cannot seek re-election.

“I will lead Ohio to become the state of excellence in America,” Ramaswamy told the crowd. “Think that sounds unrealistic? It’s not. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that Ohio was that state. Today, young people on the internet make fun of something by saying ‘that’s so Ohio.’ But less than a century ago, people weren’t making fun of Ohio, they were aspiring to be Ohio.”

Ramaswamy, who’s now 39 years old, was among the contenders who challenged President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out of the race and becoming a top Trump ally and surrogate.

TOP JD VANCE POLITICAL ADVISERS TO PLAY KEY ROLES IN RAMASWAMY CAMPAIGN

He launched his presidential campaign in February 2023 and quickly saw his stock rise as he went from a long shot to a contender for the Republican nomination.

He campaigned on what he called an “America First 2.0” agenda and was one of Trump’s biggest supporters in the field of rivals, calling Trump the “most successful president in our century.”

Ramaswamy dropped his White House bid 13 months ago after a distant fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump, becoming a top surrogate on the campaign trail.

Trump, in the days after his November presidential election victory, named Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, along with Ramaswamy, to steer the Department of Government Efficiency initiative, which is better known by its acronym DOGE.

But last month, as Trump was inaugurated, the new administration announced that Ramaswamy was no longer serving at DOGE. Ramaswamy’s exit cleared the way for Musk, Trump’s top donor and key ally, to steer DOGE without having to share the limelight.

“It was my honor to help support the creation of DOGE. I’m confident that Elon & team will succeed in streamlining government. I’ll have more to say very soon about my future plans in Ohio. Most importantly, we’re all-in to help President Trump make America great again!,” Ramaswamy wrote at the time.

Musk and Ramaswamy recently sparked a firestorm among Trump’s hard-core MAGA supporters over their support for H-1B temporary worker visas for highly skilled workers from foreign countries.

Ramaswamy’s comments criticizing an American culture that he said “venerated mediocrity over excellence” received plenty of pushback from some leading voices on the right as well as some in Trump’s political circle.

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DeWine announced last month that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted would fill the U.S. Senate seat in Ohio that was held by now-Vice President JD Vance until he stepped down ahead of the Trump/Vance inauguration.

Before the Senate announcement, Husted had planned to run for governor in 2026 to succeed DeWine. Ramaswamy, for his part, had expressed interest in serving in the Senate. 

DeWine’s decision to choose Husted to fill the vacant Senate seat appeared to accelerate Ramaswamy’s move toward launching a run for governor.

Ramaswamy was raised in Evendale, Ohio, in suburban Cincinnati by parents who emigrated from India. His father worked as an engineer at General Electric Aviation and his mother was a geriatric psychiatrist. Ramaswamy and his family currently live in suburban Columbus.

Ramaswamy is kicking off his campaign at CTL Aerospace just outside of Cincinnati.  Sources with knowledge say CTL Aerospace, a privately held company that specializes in aviation repair and original equipment manufacturing, symbolizes Ramaswamy’s push for a new age of growth of industry in Ohio.

The candidate is also scheduled to make stops in the next 48 hours in the Columbus, Toledo and Cleveland areas.

The race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination could be competitive. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, 68, announced late last week his candidacy for governor.

“This is my heart, my home,” Yost said in a recent press release announcing his candidacy. “I work for the people of Ohio, and I love my bosses. From the time I get up in the morning until I go to bed at night, I’m thinking about them and our future.”

Ohio GOP Treasurer Robert Sprague, who filed paperwork to run for governor, changed course after Husted’s Senate appointment and announced he is running in the Republican primary for Ohio Secretary of State.

Sprague endorsed Ramaswamy, calling him “the leader we need to lead Ohio forward with a bold vision of conversation reform.”

Former Morgan County local school board member Heather Hill has also announced she is running for governor as a Republican.

Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a well-known former Ohio State University head football coach who was sworn in last month to succeed Husted, appears to be mulling a gubernatorial run.

Ohio, which was once a top general election battleground, has shifted to red over the past decade as Republicans have dominated statewide elections, and the eventual GOP nominee will be considered the clear front-runner in the 2026 election.

There’s speculation that former longtime Rep. Tim Ryan, the 2022 Democratic Senate nominee in Ohio, is possibly considering a gubernatorial bid, as well as Chris Redfern, a former longtime state representative and former state Democratic Party chair.

Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who was one of the prominent faces of the COVID-19 response in the state, has announced she is running for governor as a Democrat.

As Fox News confirmed last month, leading members of Vice President JD Vance’s political team, including two top advisors, are helping Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial bid.

The two Vance advisors are Andy Surabian and Jai Chabria, who played major roles in Vance’s 2022 Senate race and in his vice presidential campaign last summer and autumn, after Trump named the first-term senator as his running mate.

Tony Fabrizio, the veteran Republican pollster who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns, as well as Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign, is also helping Ramaswamy, as is Arthur Schwartz, who along with Surabian is a close ally to Vance and Donald Trump Jr.

The vice president, who has known Ramaswamy since they both studied at Yale Law School, has put his imprint on Ohio politics since winning his 2022 Senate election.

Vance endorsed now-Sen. Bernie Moreno ahead of his 2024 GOP Senate primary victory, and key members of Vance’s political team steered Moreno’s campaign.

“We don’t have to be a state in decline,” Ramaswamy said on Monday. “A decade from now, when we cure a genetic disease; when we send rockets to Mars; when we power our electric grid with nuclear fusion…the thing people are going to say is ‘that’s so Ohio.’ And this is just the beginning.”