Vivek Ramaswamy gets a political education in a grueling Ohio governor’s race

By Patrick Svitek, CNN

Woodsfield, Ohio (CNN) — Holding a town hall Saturday in the second least populous county in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy seemed further than ever from the presidential campaign trail where he made his political debut three years ago.

President Donald Trump barely came up. The war in Iran wasn’t mentioned.

Instead, Ramaswamy fielded multiple questions in Monroe County, along the Ohio-West Virginia border, about how he would pay for the property tax cuts he’s promising if he’s elected, which he touts as the largest such rollback in state history.

“There are some things that are out of control of a governor, and I’m not going to give you just some fake promise,” Ramaswamy said at one point.

The biotech entrepreneur is attempting a rare route in politics, going from national notoriety as a presidential candidate to running for state office, toning down the hard-charging and provocative style of his presidential campaign. He’s making his pivot during an election cycle where headwinds are blowing against all kinds of Republicans.

And on top of it all, he’s trying to convince an overwhelmingly White, Christian and middle-class state to make him its first Indian American governor, first Hindu governor and first billionaire governor.

It has not been easy. Even though Trump endorsed him early on, Ramaswamy has had to weather Republican second-guessing. He’s drawn a Democratic opponent in Amy Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, who refuses to debate him, saying she will not platform a “serial liar.” Polls show the contest remains close even though his campaign and allied groups have poured over $120 million into advertising in the state, more than triple the spending on Acton’s side.

It amounts to a herculean effort to muscle Ramaswamy through in a state that Trump won by 11 percentage points in 2024 — and it has come with a political education for the Cincinnati native.

“I think he’s learned some things as you travel around the state, particularly a state like Ohio that’s so big and diverse,” said Terry Casey, a Republican strategist in Ohio. “Learning all those nuances, talking with elected officials at the local level, you see and hear things and realize some of the realities.”

Ramaswamy acknowledges he does not fit the profile of a typical Ohio statewide candidate. His contest is in direct contrast with the Senate race, where two candidates with decades of experience in Ohio politics, GOP Sen. Jon Husted and former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, are duking it out in another tight campaign.

“I’m a businessman,” the 41-year-old Ramaswamy said Sunday at the Darke County GOP Hog Roast, speaking amid a parade of mostly older, White candidates already working in Columbus. “I’m not somebody who has grown up in Ohio politics. I’ll be the first person to admit that. I don’t have experience in Ohio government. A lot of the men and women you’re hearing from today do, and we’re going to rely on them. … But for my part, I’m an outsider.”

Speaking with CNN afterward, Ramaswamy said he has come to appreciate how impactful a governor can be, even if it is “not in ways that are part of the national cultural zeitgeist.” He pointed to property taxes, saying they have moved from a “top-five issue” for him to a “top-one issue.”

Democrats say Ramaswamy has come off as elitist and out of touch, pointing to his private jet travel between campaign events. One of Acton’s latest ads shows Ramaswamy joking about being “dirty rich” in an old TV interview.

Yet Ramaswamy’s allies say he’s running an energetic campaign against the odds.

“It’s a tough environment,” Sen. Bernie Moreno told CNN after Ramaswamy spoke Sunday at the Miami County GOP Picnic. “I think if we had $2-a-gallon gas … he’d win by 20 points. So you can’t separate what’s happening at the national level from just what’s happening, what’s going to happen on the ballot. But ultimately Vivek, I think, will win.”

Primary problems

On the day of Trump’s second inauguration in January 2025, Ramaswamy announced he would not join Elon Musk at the newly created Department of Government Efficiency as initially expected. A month later, Trump endorsed Ramaswamy on the day he announced his campaign.

Top Ohio Republicans were slow to consolidate behind him. Then-Attorney General Dave Yost kept his own gubernatorial campaign going for about another three months, dropping out after the state GOP endorsed Ramaswamy. Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, the championship-winning former Ohio State football coach, kept open the possibility that he could run until that September.

Outgoing GOP Gov. Mike DeWine withheld his endorsement until this January, bestowing it after Ramaswamy named state Senate President Rob McColley as his running mate.

Ramaswamy ended up drawing a May primary challenge from a little-known automotive engineer, Casey Putsch, who pitched himself as more of an everyman and leaned into ethnic grievances, suggesting Ramaswamy had contempt for “American cultural values.” Putsch received 18% of the vote and has refused to back Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy stands out as a practicing Hindu in a state where 64% of adults identify as Christian, according to a Pew Research Center Religious Landscape Study. Ramaswamy listened along Sunday in Darke County as a pastor led a prayer for Republican candidates to “submit” themselves to God.

Aaron Baer, the president of the Center for Christian Virtue in Columbus, said he backed Ramaswamy early partly to show the nominee was an ally of Christians. Baer said there were “a lot of us who were concerned” in those early days, but it no longer feels like a source of tension.

“There’s always the online trolls and there’s that kind of stuff, but actually on the ground, it’s gone so well,” Baer said.

Former state Rep. Jena Powell, who previously represented a solidly red district in rural western Ohio, said she has been “all in” on Ramaswamy and urged fellow Republicans to unify.

“People have, you know, different ideas of who they may have wanted as governor,” Powell said, “but as I tell every Republican, the primary is over, we have Vivek and we want to have him as our Republican governor.”

Ramaswamy’s blue-collar appeal was under the spotlight Saturday in Monroe County, a working-class GOP stronghold in the heart of Appalachia. He was introduced by a fellow statewide candidate from the region, Jay Edwards, who acknowledged they “come from two different worlds” and “wealth classes.”

“I’m going to hold his feet to the fire,” Edwards said, “but I don’t think he’s going to need it.”

Ramaswamy’s message there resonated with one attendee, Chris Wilson, who said he was a coal miner for over a decade and now works in an industry that is being hurt by Trump’s tariffs on Canada. Ramaswamy seems to be for “blue-collar America,” Wilson said.

“If that’s who he’s willing to help, then I don’t care what walk of life he comes from,” Wilson said. “I’m interested in what his policies are and what that’s going to do for us.”

The general election

Ramaswamy is not running to the center. He’s promising to be the “most conservative” Ohio governor ever. And Ramaswamy, whose 2021 book “Woke Inc.” birthed his political rise, still rails against “transgenderism” and “climate-ism.”

But even then, he’s run into the realities of governing versus campaigning. He’s faced questions about how he plans to fund public education and other state services under his plans to bring down property taxes and phase out the state income tax.

Ramaswamy also caused a stir earlier this year when he suggested shutting down some public colleges in Ohio to help fund a reduction in the income tax. He avoided repeating that when asked about it Saturday, but generally promised to make tough decisions to address declining enrollment.

“If there’s one person who will save our higher education system in Ohio, it’s me,” he said.

Casey, the strategist, said the episode was an example of how Ramaswamy has started with a “broad brush” in some policy areas and refined them as he has grown as a candidate.

Ramaswamy has also had to respond to growing voter concerns about data centers, issuing a proposal in August to block any new projects unless they meet three conditions, including that they provide free electricity to nearby residents. Acton has proposed her own “conditional” data center moratorium and highlighted past comments by Ramaswamy where he called the proliferation of data centers in Ohio “a good thing.”

Nick Owens, a self-described lifelong Republican who runs the anti-data center group Conserve Ohio, said he has seen Ramaswamy evolve on the issue.

“There’s definitely a greater awareness to how hyperscale data center developments are affecting rural Ohioans to Vivek,” Owens said. “I think he was looking at it as a pure economic development lens and didn’t really quite grasp the impact on everyday Ohioans and many Ohioans which make up the MAGA base.”

Ramaswamy seldom went out of his way to tie himself to Trump while stumping over the weekend, another contrast with his presidential bid, where he lavished praise on Trump even while running against him.

Some distance could be helpful in the midterms. After watching Ramaswamy speak in Miami County, a local GOP activist, Tom Matthew, said he has “reservations” with some Trump policies these days but found Ramaswamy to be “fresh air.”

Acton’s appeal

In Acton, Ramaswamy has an especially galvanizing opponent for Ohio Republicans due to her leading role in the state’s Covid-19 shutdowns. They refer to her as “the Anthony Fauci of Ohio.” In Darke County, a life-size cutout of Acton wearing a mask awaited Republicans at the end of the dessert line.

Acton has generally defended her record and made a point of noting she was working under a Republican governor in DeWine, who earlier this year defended her against a Ramaswamy ad claiming she decided to delay Ohio’s primaries in 2020. And she’s also appealed to independents and Republicans by breaking with her party on issues such as transgender athletes’ participation in sports.

But her decision not to debate Ramaswamy has proven especially animating for Republicans and fueled the perception she is running a more buttoned-up campaign. Ramaswamy mentioned her refusal to debate no fewer than a dozen times throughout the weekend.

In a statement for this story, Acton said Ramaswamy “isn’t just out of touch, he’s out for himself.”

“It’s no surprise the only people who would benefit from his plans are billionaires like him,” she said.

As Ramaswamy campaigned across three solidly Republican counties this weekend, a handful of voters said they were firmly opposed to Acton but still coming around on Ramaswamy. One of them, Charlene Pickerill-Bowman, said she walked into the Darke County hog roast undecided on Ramaswamy and left a supporter.

Another woman, Darla Medal, said she was “leaning toward” Ramaswamy after hearing his bold campaign promises in Monroe County.

“If he can do it all, that would be great,” she said. “I just think that it’s been bad lately, the last couple of years. I think the Democrats (have) put us there and the Republicans are going to have to pull us out, hopefully — hopefully — and it just depends on who’s going to do it.”

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