Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who will formally announce later today his long expected bid for the 2026 Republican gubernatorial nomination, told supporters in a message sent via a text link that he is running to be a “key partner” to President Donald Trump.
Ramaswamy joins Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost as the other major candidate running for governor in next year’s Republican primary election. Dr. Amy Acton, the former state health department director, is the only announced Democrat in governor’s race so far.
Ramaswamy said he’s taking on the “Democratic machine – at the helm in battleground Ohio,” though Democrats in the Buckeye State do not hold any statewide offices except one seat on the Ohio Supreme Court, and Republicans control both chambers of the Statehouse.
A suburban Cincinnati native who now lives just outside of Columbus, Ramaswamy didn’t mention Yost or other potential GOP challengers by name but described them as “bunch of anti-Trump Republicans.”
Ramaswamy enters the race as conservative celebrity
Ramaswamy enters the GOP primary as an early frontrunner, given his political celebrity among conservatives and his relationship with Trump, who holds singular influence among Republican primary voters. Trump’s endorsements have been decisive in Ohio’s most recent high-profile elections, helping two-first time office holders – now-Vice President JD Vance and now-Sen. Bernie Moreno – win two consecutive U.S. Senate election in 2022 and 2024.
Ramaswamy, 39, has never held elected office before. But this is his second run for one, having lost in his longshot bid to become president in the 2024 election. He dropped out of that race after finishing fourth in the Iowa Republican caucus.
Ramaswamy didn’t get many votes. But he got a lot of exposure, in the form of conservative media bookings, campaign appearances Trump and a prominent speaking bid at the Republican National Convention in July 2024.
After Trump won the November 2024 election, Ramaswamy was named to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency, a project to cut the federal government’s workforce and spending. But he left just a couple months later, after losing what national media described as a power struggle with the initiative’s other leader, mega-billionaire Elon Musk.
Ramaswamy has described his departure as a difference in philosophies – DOGE initially was described more as an outside advisory effort. But under Musk leadership, it’s become an official government office, which Ramaswamy said would have barred him from running for governor had he stayed.
Ramaswamy would become the first minority to hold the office
If Ramaswamy wins, he would be the first person elected as Ohio governor without prior political experience since Meyers Cooper, a businessman elected in 1928. Ramaswamy also would be the first racial minority to hold the office.
The son of Indian immigrants, Ramaswamy grew up in the Cincinnati area, graduating from St. Xavier High School. He then attended Harvard University for his undergrad and Yale Law School. He made his personal fortune founding and then selling Roviant Sciences, a company that develops drugs.
He first emerged on Ohio’s political scene in 2021, when he entertained running for U.S. Senate and published a book, Woke Inc., that helped him get his foot in the door in conservative media. Ramaswamy also served on the advisory board for InnovateOhio, a government modernization initiative led by then-Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
Ramaswamy is expected to hold several kick-off rallies around Ohio during the next two days, including one in Strongsville Tuesday evening.