CLEVELAND — The 2026 race for Ohio governor may still be months away from heating up, but in the lead-up, News 5 will be sitting down with the major party hopefuls from time to time. This week, we spoke with Republican hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on a visit to Cleveland.
The 39-year-old businessman and entrepreneur came on the political scene in 2023 when he launched his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination, later dropping out and endorsing President Donald Trump.
The president later tapped him to lead, along with Elon Musk, what was dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, which he stepped away from at the beginning of the year to announce his run for governor.
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In pointing out the long history of past Ohio governors who held previous elective office, we asked Ramaswamy what qualified him for the job.
"I think now is the time for a different generation of leadership in our state. I want to lead Ohio to our future, and if you think about our past, we were a state that led to the first industrial revolution. We were the wealthiest state in the union. The state that people moved to," he said.
"I think in some ways over the last 40 or 50 years we may have lost that position in the country. I want us to get that back," he said. "And I do think that's going to take an entrepreneur. I think it's going to take somebody who comes outside of traditional politics to be able to really deliver economic growth in this state."
He said that would happen if Ohio became the state of educational excellence in America.
"We are in the middle of an educational achievement crisis in our country. I want Ohio to be the state that leads our way out. I'm a product of Ohio education. I went to public schools in Cincinnati through 8th grade, I went to St. Xavier High School for high school and that education gave me the opportunity to live the American dream that I have as a businessman."
On the question of his business experience, we asked about the decision last November to move the company he founded, Strive Asset Management, from Columbus to Dallas. Ramaswamy pointed out he was no longer CEO of the company or on its board when that decision was made, but it's part of what prompted him to enter the race.
"The new CEO was pursuing a merger and acquisition with a company in Texas, and they had a decision to make about where was the more business-friendly environment to set up that business, and they made the decision to put that in Texas," he said. "To me, that was actually a moment that motivated me, that said I have a mission, a cause to make sure that we make Ohio more competitive than Texas or any other state in the country."
He said part of creating that business-friendly environment would be eliminating the capital gains tax in Ohio.
"That's part of the first step to eventually get to zero income taxation," he said. "The beauty of getting rid of capital gains taxation in Ohio is the fact that actually we don't even as a state derive that much revenue from it and yet it is a great point to draw other entrepreneurs and capital owners to the state."
"This isn't about left vs right this is about up vs. down and for Ohio I vote for up. That's what we want for this state. It's a revolution of common sense I want to deliver in part to the business environment. We're a red state but we shouldn't act like we're a state of red tape."
We asked Ramaswamy about the push this week by a couple of legislators in Columbus for a total abortion ban.
"To be crystal clear when you say pushed by legislators, my understanding and I don't know a ton about this issue, I haven't even seen a proposed bill. It might have been two freshman legislators in one of the chambers that proposed some language," he said. "The fact of the matter is look at what the people who have been around it have said, multiple pro-life groups in this state including the Ohio Right to Life correctly pointed out that there's no constitutional or legal basis for that in this state. So I prefer to focus on what actually matters as somebody who does stand for the importance of life and also family."
That is by establishing policies that promote family formation, the father of two young boys said. His wife is a throat surgeon at the cancer hospital at Ohio State.
Ramaswamy received the unprecedented early endorsement of the Ohio Republican Party and President Trump, which prompted Attorney General Dave Yost to drop out of the race for the nomination. The wild card remains Lt. Governor Jim Tressel, who hasn't said either way at this point whether he'd run.
"The reality is we are more united as a Republican party then we've ever been and I know that that comes as a bit of a shock to the Democrats who are hoping for a divisive primary on our side that they didn't get," he said.
We asked if that unity would be too big of an obstacle for anyone considering challenging him for the nomination to overcome?
"I would say that I'm highly confident that not only am I going to be the Republican nominee but hopefully given the honor of leading this state," he said.
So far, the only announced Democrat is Dr. Amy Acton, Governor DeWine's former Director of the Department of Health, who came to prominence during the COVID pandemic. Former Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown told News 5 last month he was ruling nothing out when asked if he would consider a run for governor. We asked Ramaswamy if he wins the nomination, if he had a preference for who he'd like to face.
"From a self-interested perspective, I would love nothing more than for the Democratic side to have a competitive primary with multiple candidates," he said. "But that's for them to decide because for me it's not about what I'm running against or who I'm running against. The question is, what am I running for, what are we running for?"
"The way I look at it is if some of those Democrats want to work with us with great ideas in a particular domain, I'll keep an open mind. We'll always listen even to the people who disagree with us. I've talked to many protestors at our events and we've had some great dialogue come out of that and I'll preserve that same commitment even to the people who run against me on the Democratic side."
