Vivek Ramaswamy Launches Bid for Ohio Governor

Businessman and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy officially launched his bid for Ohio governor on Monday during a campaign rally at CTL Aerospace Inc. in his hometown of Cincinnati.

Ramaswamy’s Monday announcement was expected given he filed the necessary paperwork with the Ohio secretary of state’s office to launch a bid for governor earlier this month and has been teasing a run for the role since his exit from the federal Department of Government Efficiency.

“There’s a new Industrial Revolution underway around the world right now, and I believe deep in my bones that we can lead the way again,” Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign website reads.

Ramaswamy, who lives in Columbus with his family, graduated summa cum laude in Biology from Harvard and received his J.D. from Yale Law School while he was working at a hedge fund.

He then went on to start the biotech company Roivant Sciences, where he oversaw the development of five drugs that went on to become FDA-approved.

In his bid for Ohio governor, Ramaswamy is running on the same platform of 10 “truths” he said he believed to be “pure” and “cold hard facts” while he was running for president.

Those ten “truths” are:

God is real.
There are two genders.
Fossil fuels are a requirement for human flourishing.
Reverse racism is racism.
An open border is not a border.
Parents determine the education of their children.
The nuclear family isn’t a bad word, it is the greatest form of governance known to mankind.
Capitalism is the best system known to man to lift us up from poverty.
There are three branches of government, not four.
The U.S. Constitution is the strongest and greatest guarantor of freedom in human history.

Ramaswamy said he wants Ohio to become the state of “excellence.”

“I want Ohio to become the leading state in the country to grow a business; the leading state in the country to raise a young family; the leading state in the country for kids to get a world-class education, starting from a young age, where they excel in math, reading, writing, and critical thinking; the leading state in the country where we give young people the tools to be victors (not victims) in a global economy; the leading state in the country where we embrace capitalism and meritocracy, instead of apologizing for it; the state where we take a hatchet to red tape and regulations; the bleeding-edge of innovation in the sectors of the future, from aerospace to AI to semiconductors; the state where patriots across the country pack their bags to flock to, instead of Florida and Texas,” Ramaswamy writes on his campaign website.

Ramaswamy, who is 39-years old, joins three other candidates – two Republicans and one Democrat – who have officially thrown their hats into the ring to be Ohio’s next governor: Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, entrepreneur Heather Hill, and former Ohio Department of Health (ODH) Director Amy Acton.

Ohio Treasurer Robert Sprague also launched a short-lived bid for governor as he quickly dropped out of the race and endorsed Ramaswamy on February 5.

Last month, Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio-based We the People Convention, said Ramaswamy is likely to be the favorite Republican candidate among Ohioans in the 2026 gubernatorial race due to his ability to likely earn an endorsement from President Donald Trump and self-fund his campaign.

Ramaswamy largely self-funded his presidential campaign as his personal contributions accounted for more than half of all funds he raised before suspending his bid and endorsing President Donald Trump in the race.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy.