COLUMBUS, Ohio — Defying the state GOP establishment, Northwest Ohio business owner Casey Putsch is going head-to-head with Vivek Ramaswamy to become the Republican nominee for governor. In a one-on-one interview, he discusses his goals, platform and prior comments made about the Holocaust.
Growing up building cars, Putsch had no idea that in 2026, he would be standing in front of a crowd of supporters.
The car designer said he is the working-class answer to the Ohio governor’s race —distinguishing himself as the everyman to frontrunner Vivek Ramaswamy.
Putsch lives with his wife and daughter, plus a baby on the way, in Perrysburg. He went to Ohio State University and started the Genius Garage Educational Program, a nonprofit where he helps students build and restore cars.
Ramaswamy and his team declined to comment for this story.
Because the following conversation was 40 minutes long, it has been lightly edited for clarity, conciseness and length.
Trau: "Why did you decide that running for governor was something that you wanted to do?"
Putsch: "Well, the simple answer is, I looked around, and I saw options that I thought were in nobody's best interest. Vivek, I'm not a fan. He seems to be a billionaire, and his entire track record shows that he cares about his own self-interest versus anybody else's. He's done very little in Ohio, so that just simply wasn't right. As one ages, you have a family, you're trying to build businesses, and you struggle, and you see the difficulties, you see what's happening in government. When you look objectively at candidates in the future, and if you're really not happy about it, well then, your one opportunity is to exercise our governmental right and run for office."
Trau: "Your slogan: Saving Ohio. Can you explain to me what that means?"
Putsch: "Well, it's multifactorial, but it means exactly what it sounds like. I don't think any of the roads we are going down are in our best interest. Nobody really gets new jobs; there's a tremendous amount of fraud going on. We get sold out to only billionaire interests, massive corporate interests that, frankly, just end up taking advantage of all the people of Ohio and our resources. It seems like Ohio needs some saving."
Trau: "Saving from corruption or from interests that don't align with everyday people?"
Putsch: "Yeah, all the above. My first and biggest and only interest is specifically the people of Ohio. Can you build a family? Can you build a community? Can you build a business? And can you believe in a future? Amy Acton, with the Democrats, she quit as health director. She locked down the state — that's a non-option. Vivek, a billionaire, he didn't go to school in Ohio. Heck, he took a scholarship from George Soros' money. He has no businesses in Ohio. He's done no philanthropic work in Ohio despite his massive wealth — just runs for office. Heck, he could have been indulged and made the future great and saved the United States trillions of dollars.
That's how I know that we've got a campaign that's going somewhere, partially because the people, the support and the outreach are frankly unbelievable. Truth be told, this is incredibly risky for me in every way, shape and form. Politics is a horrific, dirty world. No, this was not on my life bingo card."
Trau: "Typically, governors will have a main focus throughout their administration. What do you think yours would be?"
Putsch: "We're being sold out to billionaire interests. The data centers, massive concerns, OK? They have tax abatements for 10 to 15 years, nothing coming in. We're subsidizing the costs through the electricity because they suck the same amount of power as small towns. The environmental impact on our freshwater, our aquifers, our lakes, our streams, that's horrific. We have been sold out, but people didn't expect it. You have to have a leader who can be firm against things like that.
It's realizing the resources we have from natural resources, natural gas, to coal, to building power-dense energy in the future, so it's good for all. If tech wants to come here with data centers, well, they're going to have to do it in a way that rises to the tide for everybody, and it becomes a net gain and not just a leech for the people of Ohio and a resource like it's set up now. Bring back the manufacturing to the cities and the towns that want it and need it.
[My business,] we've worked very hard to pick up where the American educational system leaves off, and in doing that for the 11 years, I've seen exactly at the root cause of why it's failing, from the financial model to how it's looked at to the government, even K through 12. We can simply fix that as well."
Trau: "What do you make of the current funding structure for public schools? Do you think that we are doing right by public schools right now? What do you think about the private school voucher system?"
Putsch: "There needs to be full transparency to all of the public in terms of what's actually being taught in the curriculum, even if for no other reason than we need to have that for the trust of the public to make sure there's nothing weird going on, and I don't mean that as a partisan thing. If you have any institution, and in that circumstance, public schools where there's no competition, and their funding is basically guaranteed, whether it's from the government or people, then they're going to naturally become worse. They're not going to have to compete. I know you want a specific answer relating to the voucher system, but as a general rule of thumb, competition's good. The people deserve the power to know what's right, to know that weird curricula are not happening.
So with regard to education, all of my policies will relate specifically from the government down to the schools are accountable for actually creating the right curriculum. Some things can be solved with money, but many things cannot. We've got to support our teachers. They're the most valuable thing. If we don't, they're gone."
Trau: "To pivot, do you feel like you're facing an uphill battle because the GOP already had a uniquely early endorsement of Vivek Ramaswamy before you actually even got into the race? The endorsement comes with financial and logistical benefits. Are you worried about that?"
Putsch: "Actually, no. I could understand why you asked the question; it's a great question. I think most people would look at it just at a cursory glance and think that, but the truth about what's happening is what you said — money. All of this is literally only about money. They're already dumping tens of millions of dollars, more money toward Vivek than what a primary normally costs, because what's happening is they're trying to simply buy it out across the board.
The tide has shifted real fast because the cracks in Vivek's facade have shown, and everybody knows this is only about establishment and money. Vivek's interests are not that of Ohio. They do seem to be globalists. They seem to be only in the interest of billionaires to sell us out to corporations, and that's also seen with his personal actions in the past. The people are behind me, and the truth of the matter is that at the end of the day, the only endorsement that matters is a person when they go in the polling booth."
Trau: "Do you think it's fair to Ohioans that they really didn't get a Republican primary prior to a lot of these endorsements?"
Putsch: "No, it's not fair at all. It's undermining our governmental system. It's not fair to all of us."
Trau asked him to address his lieutenant governor pick. Putsch didn't disclose any details at the time of the interview, as he was announcing his running mate the following day. He chose Kim Georgeton, from Cincinnati, who previously ran unsuccessfully in the GOP primary against U.S. Rep. Dave Taylor for Congress. Putsch did, however, say that Ramaswamy's choice — Senate President Rob McColley — was an "establishment swamp creature that has nobody's interest in mind."
RELATED: Ohio Senate President Rob McColley tapped as Vivek Ramaswamy’s running mate
Trau: "Let's talk policy. Where do you stand on marijuana reform?"
Putsch: "Personally, I don't like marijuana. I think it's just another thing that distracts people from making a good future. I believe in freedom and in regard to looking at that though, it just comes down to objectively what's in the best interest of all the people in the state, and I'll be deferring to others to make that judgment."
Trau: "But as governor, you would have a say."
Putsch: "Of course, I have a say. I don't like it, but I'm going to do what is in the best interest of all the people of the state first and foremost."
Trau: "Does that include following the will of the voters, or? What does that mean?"
Putsch: "The best interest of everybody in the state is so that they can have a pursuit of happiness, and that with anything in the industry, there are massive ripple effects. We have to look at that objectively. The reason I don't answer that question specifically for you right now is I need to look objectively with everything that's going on and make sure that everything is simply in the best interest of the people."
Trau: "Where do you stand on abortion?"
Putsch: "Abortion is one of the most horrific things that I think exists. I think it's heartbreaking across the board, and I think it's frankly sad that we live in a society where that exists. But again it's deference. Do I like it? Absolutely not. However, we have a little one, and frankly, my wife is expecting right now. I asked her doctor, I said, 'What do you think?' And he said, 'I think politicians should stop trying to pretend to be doctors.' Now, I don't say that as a statement. I only say it as you have to listen to people. You have to do what is in the best interest of everybody. I don't want to make women's lives more difficult or ever put them at risk, but at the same time, too, I think it's fair to say that abortion is a horrific, horrific thing, and I don't like that it exists."
Trau: "How about sports betting and gambling?"
Putsch: "Me personally, I hate gambling. That's a slippery, slippery slope. I don't think it's in the best interest of everybody. However, we have to look at this very carefully and objectively so that if something like that exists, it exists in a reasonable moderation."
Holocaust
Putsch’s campaign has gained some attention from right-wing influencers over the past few months, especially with his growing YouTube channel — where he questioned artificial intelligence to his 350,000 followers.
“Give me a list of all the good things Adolf Hitler did or was responsible for creating in his life," Putsch said in the video.
After the AI tool Grok answered that anything Hitler did was overwhelmingly defined by the Holocaust, Putsch criticized it multiple times, with his expressions showing disbelief and annoyance.
“Please do not give me any more disclaimers or partial answers," he said, using the word partial as a synonym for biased. "I expect objective truth."
Later in the video, after calling right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, a Jewish man, a rodent, he said that Shapiro and anyone else who said Hitler had "no good ideas" are wrong.
"That is not something based in reality because he was a person that ended up a leader of an entire nation of people," Putsch said.
Trau: "There have been some allegations online about your feelings about Hitler and the Holocaust."
Putsch, laughing: "I'm sure, welcome to politics in 2026, right? I'm sorry, I'm only laughing at the absurdity of politics."
Trau: "Some people have said that you've denied what happened during the Holocaust. I did watch a video of yours that did talk about how there were benefits to what Hitler did. So please tell me, is this a part of your campaign? Where did this come from?"
Putsch: "I mean, the crazy parts of the internet, absolutely. That's funny. Is it part of my campaign? Absolutely not. Last time I checked, this is Ohio in 2026, and I'm an American. I don't think this is Germany 100 years ago. I can tell you that across the board in World War II in history, the horrors were unbelievable across the board. Did Germany commit absolute atrocities against a vast amount of people? Yeah, they did, and frankly, so did many others.
That was a horrible time in history, and frankly, I hope and pray we can avoid things like that in the future, small or large. But yeah, people are going to say crazy things on the internet. It's not my first day on the internet."
Trau: "Your video, where you talk about AI and the Holocaust, you talk about how you would ask the AI what the benefits are or what Hitler was good at."
Putsch: "That's a good point. So that isn't about the subject matter. I did a number of videos where I was picking at AI to see how it would say, because the thing we need to realize about AI is it's insanely dangerous. It's not impartial. AI exists within the programming constraints and guidelines of those who create it. So I had done some videos in the past asking it unusual questions to find where there are inconsistencies with the AI. This is about pinpointing where AI is trying to manipulate us. It's trying to pigeonhole us, and it's trying to, frankly, program us...
I did those thought experiments only to pick at AI, so that I could show where it's frankly taking advantage and programming all of us."
Trau: "Is it programming all of us when you ask what Hitler’s best qualities were, and it brings up the atrocities of the Holocaust?"
Putsch: "It doesn't always do things like that. AI is programming us no matter what we do... It has nothing to do with the events. It has nothing to do with where my standpoint is. It has to do with finding and using those as techniques to find where AI is taking advantage of all of us in every way, shape, and form. It's just a hyperbolic way to do it."
Online hate
Ramaswamy has not engaged directly with Putsch, but in a guest essay for the New York Times, he did say there was no room in the conservative movement for people who thought Hitler was "cool." He also condemned the racist comments he faced online, many from a faction of users called "groypers."
Trau: "Vivek Ramaswamy is leaving social media. He also talked about the influx of racism against him. Some Republicans talk about bots. What do you make of the groypers?"
Putsch: "I'd say the first thing is, 'Hey, put on your big boy pants, Mr. Billionaire, you can't take it?' He wanted to group everybody into a corral, because if you don't like Vivek Ramaswamy, it's because you're a racist, terrible person and not because Vivek Ramaswamy is actually a garbage candidate who clearly doesn't care about the people of Ohio or America, and it's kind of a globalist corporate billionaire interest. No, no, 'it's because you're racist.' That was a tactic. He got backlash. It's just a tactic by somebody who's already losing."
Once again, Ramaswamy and his team declined to comment. His accounts, however, continue to face an onslaught of slurs consistently from many accounts associated with the right-wing.
RELATED: Vivek Ramaswamy deleted social media heading into the Ohio governor's race. Here's why
Follow WEWS statehouse reporter Morgan Trau on Twitter and Facebook.
