With the election more than a year away, a political group founded by Vivek Ramaswamy’s political allies is launching the first major TV ad campaign of Ohio’s 2026 election campaign season.
The group, the full name for which is “V-PAC: Victors Not Victims,” has reserved at least $482,000 on TV stations in Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Zanesville so far, according to Scott Schweitzer with Strategy Group for Media, a political ad firm in Columbus with ties to Ramaswamy. The reservations are still being recorded and the number could go up as more information comes in. NBC News reported Monday the spending will total $3 million. The organization is a super PAC, which means it can accept and spend unlimited amounts of money supporting Ramaswamy’s campaign.
The ads are scheduled to start airing Tuesday and run through the end of the month. V-PAC previously was funded by another pro-Ramaswamy political action committee, American Exceptionalism PAC, which was founded to support Ramaswamy’s unsuccessful campaign for president in 2024.
American Exceptionalism PAC gave V-PAC $116,816 in December, federal campaign finance records show. V-PAC was called “Make America Greater” at the time but filed paperwork last Friday formally adopting its new name.
American Exceptionalism dissolved shortly after making the contribution. V-PAC has not yet disclosed any more recent financial activity, including that associated with the new TV ad campaign.
The campaign is the latest salvo against Ramaswamy’s early election opponents. Attorney General Dave Yost is Ramnaswamy’s main opponent in the Republican primary for governor. Ramaswamy is considered the frontrunner in the race thanks to an early endorsement from President Donald Trump, whose support has been decisive in recent Ohio Republican primary elections.
Dr. Amy Acton, the former state health department director, is the only Democrat running for governor so far.
Yost also has an affiliated super PAC called the Buckeye Freedom Fund. That group has sent out several campaign mailers painting Ramaswamy as too liberal on transgender issues since Ramaswamy launched his campaign late last month.
More about Super PACs
Super PACs have flourished in the modern era of politics following the landmark Citizens United decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010. Unlike official campaign committees, they can accept and spend unlimited amounts of money in support of a candidate.
The caveat is they aren’t allowed to directly coordinate with any candidate.
But it’s become commonplace for a candidate to set up and launch an official super PAC meant to be a primary form of support for that candidate once their campaign officially launches.This helps them accept large, unlimited contributions from individual donors, who can only give around $16,600 to a single statewide candidate under state campaign finance limits.
Super PACs typically spend most of their money on ads supporting their preferred candidate. But some Super PACs do more than that – one supporting now-Vice President JD Vance in the 2022 U.S. Senate election blazed trails by also conducting polling and candidate research while drastically outspending the official campaign, sharing information with the campaign by posting it on a little-noticed website.