Vivek Ramaswamy, if he succeeds in becoming Ohio’s 65th governor, may be the most unlikely occupant of that office in the state’s history.
The governor who started his political career as a failed candidate for the Republican presidential nomination and went on to fail in his bid for appointment to a vacant U.S. Senate seat in January.
What he has been good at is making money. He is a billionaire worth $1.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Only a few months ago, the Cincinnati-born biotech billionaire wasn’t even thought of by most people in Ohio as a politician. The only time his name has ever been on a ballot was in 2023 when he was a candidate in the January 2024 Iowa caucuses. His candidacy crashed and burned on caucus day, with only 7.6% of the vote. Donald Trump won the Iowa caucus with 51% in a crowded field.
The next day, Ramaswamy hopped on a plane to join Trump in New Hampshire, the first presidential primary state, where he endorsed Trump and pledged his unwavering loyalty.
Well, that loyalty may be about to pay off.
After a brief stint in January as Elon Musk’s partner in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency Ramaswamy returned to Ohio to apply for the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by JD Vance’s election as Trump’s vice president.
The appointment fell to Gov. Mike DeWine, who talked to Ramaswamy about it. But as far as giving him the Senate seat, the governor was having none of it. Instead, he appointed his own lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, to the seat.
Almost immediately after being passed over, Ramaswamy decided that his true ambition was to become governor of his native state.
Ohio governors — Republican and Democratic — have generally worked their way up the political ladder to become Ohio’s chief executive. Jim Rhodes, the four-term governor of the 1960s and 1970s, did that. So did Democrat Dick Celeste, and Republicans George Voinovich, John Kasich, and DeWine himself.
Ramaswamy has none of that experience. He’s never even sniffed another political office.
David Niven, professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati, said that previous Republican governors have something Ramaswamy lacks.
“All of those Republican governors were deeply rooted in Ohio,” Niven said. “Ramaswamy is not. You get the feeling from him that he could be pursuing the same office in Pennsylvania, Michigan — just about anywhere. His roots here are not deep.”
He has something he clearly believes is better than experience — the endorsement of Donald Trump, who has won Ohio’s electoral votes in three straight presidential elections.
Mark R. Weaver, a lawyer and longtime GOP strategist in Ohio, believes Ramaswamy has a clear path to the GOP gubernatorial nomination.
“It’s hard to see anything stopping Vivek from becoming the nominee,” Weaver said. “His momentum is real and it would take a political earthquake to reverse it.”
Hard to argue with that. Ohio’s political seismograph detects no earthquake activity at this point.
But, then again, it’s early. The primary is still a year away.
But Ramaswamy’s potential rivals for the GOP nomination have either gone on to better things, dropped out of contention, or haven’t made up their minds.
In 2024, Husted was the front-runner for the gubernatorial nomination. Thanks to DeWine, though, he’ll be on the ballot next year — to keep his Senate seat, not as a candidate for governor.
Attorney General Dave Yost ended his campaign for governor last Friday after the Ohio Republican Party’s central committee voted 60-3 to endorse Ramaswamy in the governor’s race.
After the vote in Columbus, Ramaswamy told the press the endorsement is a “major milestone” in his campaign.
“I think it expresses unprecedented unity in the Republican party,” Ramaswamy said.
Yost thought about it for a few days and concluded that there was no point in going on.
“I do not wish to divide my political party or my state with a quixotic battle over the small differences between my vision and that of my opponent,” Yost wrote in a message to his supporters. “I am simply not that important.”
The only other serious candidate who may or may not get into the race is former Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel, who was appointed by DeWine as lieutenant governor when Husted joined the Senate.
All Tressel has said so far is that he is considering running for the nomination. Clearly, DeWine would like to see that; he chose Tressel because he wants him to follow him in the governor’s office.
Niven said he doubts that Tressel will actually run. Under normal circumstances, Niven said, Tressel might be the ideal candidate — smart, sensible, more out of the mold of previous Republican governors.
“I could be wrong, but I can’t imagine that he’d be willing to fight this fight the way the political landscape is today,” Niven said.
“But if you’re going to have a football coach in office, Jim Tressel’s a lot smarter than Tommy Tuberville,” Niven said, referring to the senator from Alabama who briefly coached the University of Cincinnati Bearcats football team.
At the moment, Amy Acton — the former Ohio director of public health under DeWine — is the only declared Democratic candidate for governor. Former Democratic congressman Tim Ryan — who has run unsuccessful campaigns for president and the U.S. Senate — also is considering getting in the governor’s race.
Acton’s candidacy offers Democrats a chance to get back in the game in Ohio, Niven said.
“She has a unique advantage. She enters the race without the baggage of the normal politician,” Niven said. “It would be a steep hill to climb, but she could be a breakthrough candidate.”
And, if Acton is the nominee, Ramaswamy won’t be able to campaign against her for a lack of experience as an elected official. They’d be on even ground on that score.
Trump has won Ohio in three straight elections, but national polling shows clearly that neither he nor his policies are very popular right now. And it could get worse should the economy tank due to tariffs. There’s no reason to believe that Ohio is the exception to the rule.
Ramaswamy is tied inextricably to Trump, for good or ill.
A race against Ramaswamy — by Acton or anybody else — will be a test of what the Ohio Democratic Party is made of, Niven said.
“If they can’t beat somebody who is clearly unqualified and whose businesses took jobs away from Ohio, they might as well close down shop,” Niven said.
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