News this week likely caused a bit of a jolt for Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, the biotech billionaire from Cincinnati.
The Cook Political Report — which people in politics consider to be holy writ — has moved Ramaswamy’s race against Democrat Amy Action from “leans Republican” to “toss-up.”
It may not sound like much, but in the world of politics it is a 7.2 earthquake, moving the tectonic plates of the entire race.
The big money people in politics read the Cook Political Report as intensely as betters at the horse track study the Racing Form.
Jessica Taylor, an editor at Cook Political Report summed up Ramaswamy’s situation this way: ”Ohio Republicans we talked to are not optimistic about Ramaswamy and believe it’s a very tight race,” Taylor said.
She went on:
“ 'This was the wrong guy to roll the dice with in this political environment,’ one GOP source told us. Unable to bolster his own image so far, Ramaswamy will have to spend millions to try to dent Acton’s image before she can reintroduce herself. While she reported a record-breaking $9.4 million in the last quarter, she hasn’t gone up on air yet.
“It’s also worth noting that bottomless coffers like Ramaswamy enjoys have not guaranteed wins for other recent self-funders this cycle. For now, this race moves into the Toss Up category."
Acton is the former director of the Ohio Department of Public Health, who, during the COVID pandemic, was a constant presence in daily briefings for the public with her then-boss, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, until she suddenly walked away from the job.
Ramaswamy’s campaign and a PAC that supports him began running ads accusing Acton of closing schools and shutting down the state during the pandemic.
DeWine has said that any decisions made to shut down schools and businesses during the pandemic were his and his alone.
The Republican candidate for governor also caught flack for flying his private jet to Paris where he spent the 250th birthday of this country while Acton was in Ohio attending Independence Day events.
“This rating shift reflects what Dr. Acton hears on the ground every day: Ohioans are ready for change,” said Acton campaign manager Phillip Stein in a written statement. “Ohioans know that Dr. Acton is the only candidate in this race who will lower costs, tackle the cost of corruption, and build an Ohio where all of us can get ahead. While Vivek Ramaswamy is far from Ohio, globetrotting aboard his private jet, Dr. Acton is fighting for a state where all of us can thrive.”
Ramaswamy made up for his foreign travels by attending the Clinton County Fair Tuesday, where he roamed the fairgrounds and made a speech at the Republican Party booth.
Ramaswamy’s campaign hasn’t responded to a request for an interview with the candidate, but he did make a recent appearance on the talk show of northeast Ohio conservative Hugh Hewitt, where he said he has campaigned in all 88 Ohio counties. He also disputed a June AARP poll that showed him trailing Acton.
"First of all, good polling has dried up — good public polling," he told Hewitt. "The thing I don't mind, though, Hugh, is I don't mind Republicans and conservatives across the state having an important sense of urgency about this election, because we all should. I mean, in the end, the government we elect is the government we deserve."
He went on to say that he "would be the most conservative, the most pro-enterprise, most pro-freedom governor this state has ever had."
David B. Cohen, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said he believes Ramaswamy is his own worst enemy.
“He’s super arrogant,” Cohen said. “He thinks he knows best. He thinks Ohio voters are stupid. And he doesn’t seem to realize that running as a Trump Republican is not a very good idea. Trump is not very popular in Ohio these days.”
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