“We have a lot of work ahead,” he said to the few hundred people in attendance as he announced his run for Ohio governor. “This is just the beginning of that journey.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Ramaswamy, who was born in Butler County, laid out a plan in his speech, pronouncing a goal of making Ohio a state of economic and educational excellence. He said neither political party is talking enough about improving education in Ohio. That includes improving proficiencies in the basic core subjects, specifically reading and math, he said.
He said he wants everyone who believes in his vision of economic and educational excellence for Ohio, no matter their political ideology, on his team. He said he’ll attract Democrats and political orphans across the state.
“We’re not going to agree on everything and that’s okay, it’s a beautiful thing. We love our diversity of thought in the state of Ohio, but if you want to put more money in your kid’s account, you want to have the same shot at the American Dream that this state and this country gave me, then we’re on the same team, and we will work with you to take our state to the next level,” he said. “You will have a seat at the table if we share those two goals in common.”
The Monday-afternoon stop was the first of a two-day, four-stop announcement tour for Ramaswamy. After his West Chester Twp. stop, he planned to address supporters at Axium Packaging in New Albany Monday evening, then stop in at Glass City Center in Toledo and The Local Bar in Strongsville on Tuesday.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
In addition to working on education reform — which ranges from public school education improvements to vocational and higher education — Ramaswamy said he’s “not going to seek picking a fight with the teachers unions” as he will “do whatever is required to stand for the achievement of our students.”
But he also acknowledged the low wages public school teachers and administrators receive, and part of his educational reforms includes the goal of making Ohio the first state in the country “that implements merit-based pay for every teacher, principal, superintendent, administrator in our public schools,” he said. “Our best public school teachers actually deserve to be paid a lot more than they are right now.”
Ohio’s race for governor is wide open on both sides of the political aisle, especially on the GOP side with former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted out of the potential running. Husted was nominated to succeed Vice President JD Vance in U.S. Senate.
Ramaswamy is now the third Republican in the gubernatorial race. Heather Hill, a former Morgan County School Board president, and Dave Yost, Ohio’s sitting attorney general, have also declared Republican bids for the seat currently occupied by 78-year-old Gov. Mike DeWine, who cannot seek another term due to term limits.
Ramaswamy, who has strong ties to President Donald Trump, helped the president and billionaire Elon Musk form the Department of Government Efficiency initiative. Some who said they were considering running for governor are now backing the Trump-tied candidate, including Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague, who endorsed the tech millionaire and is running for Ohio Secretary of State.
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Credit: Michael D. Pitman
Previously, Ramaswamy sought the GOP nomination for president in 2024, but dropped out to back Trump.
Amy Acton, who served as DeWine’s Ohio Department of Health director from 2019 to 2020, is the only Democrat who’s declared, though former congressman Tim Ryan and former Ohio Democratic Party chairman Chris Redfern have expressed interest.
Acton, who announced her gubernatorial candidacy in early January, said, “It’s clear Vivek Ramaswamy doesn’t know the same Ohioans I do. Where he sees laziness and mediocrity, I see our strength, our grit, and our opportunity. Where he sees an opportunity to gut Medicare, Medicaid, and attack a woman’s right to choose."
Acton was critical of a comment Ramaswamy made in December on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) that, “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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
“Never again will we bend the knee to an Anthony Fauci knockoff,” he said, ... referring to Acton’s work at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters doesn’t believe a Ramaswamy administration would improve the Buckeye State, saying he is someone “who cares more about his bottom line than Ohioans.”
“It’s Day 1 of his campaign, and it’s clear that Ramaswamy is only out for himself and elite special interests,” she said. “Ohioans will reject them both at the polls.”
Several notable people spoke in support of Ramaswamy‘s candidacy, including Ohio Sen. George Lang, R-West Chester Twp., who said, the tech entrepreneur will put business first and “when you vote business first, you succeed.”
“We need a governor of our state that knows what it takes to unleash the entrepreneurial spirit in Ohio so businesses can flourish and our businesses can prosper,” he said.
Ramaswamy reminisced about the time when Ohio was a “state of excellence” as astronauts Neil Armstrong and John Glenn “gave the self confidence to go to the outer frontiers of outer space.”
“We were the state of excellence and we can be the state of excellence again,” he said. “God has blessed our state with every gift we could possibly imagine. All we need to do is to step up and start believing in ourselves again.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
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