“We have a lot of work ahead,” he said to the few hundred people 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 is speech, pronouncing a goal of Ohio being a state of economic excellence and educational excellence. And when it comes to education, 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.
But he wants everyone who believes in his vision of economic and educational excellence for Ohio, no matter their political ideology, on his team. And he’s going to attract Democrats across the state and political orphans.
“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 is 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 early evening, and then stops on Tuesday in at Glass City Center in Toledo and The Local Bar in Strongsville.
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 it is required to stand for the achievement of our students.”
But he also acknowledge 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 lieutenant governor 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 had said or were considering runs at the Ohio governor’s office 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.
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 Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s Public Health director with the Ohio Department of Health, and was critical of Ramaswamy’s comments in December claimed on the social media network 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, a reference to Acton’s work in addressing at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
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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