Trump’s DOGE co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy reportedly announcing campaign for Ohio governor
Vivek Ramaswamy, the billionaire biotech entrepreneur joining Elon Musk to recommend drastic cuts to federal spending in Donald Trump’s administration, reportedly plans to run for governor of Ohio.
Ramaswamy — who was reportedly considering a run for J.D. Vance’s open U.S. Senate seat, with Trump’s encouragement — is expected to announce a campaign to replace the state’s term-limited Republican Governor Mike DeWine, according toThe Washington Post.
On Friday, DeWine tapped the state’s Lt. Gov Jon Husted to fill the vacant Senate seat instead, after Vance’s resignation to serve as vice president under Trump.
Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native who now lives in the Columbus area, is working with Musk and members of Congress with Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, a newly created outside advisory group, which is expected to recommend mass firings and slashed federal budgets to the new administration.
Trump has said the group’s work must be completed by “no later” than July 4, 2026, ahead of a November 2026 election for the next governor of Ohio.
Ramaswamy, who unsuccessfully ran for the Republican presidential nomination as a Trump booster, has never held public office.
The Independent has requested comment from Ramaswamy.
Husted, a Republican, will join Ohio’s congressional delegation alongside recently elected GOP Senator Bernie Moreno, who entered office earlier this month after defeating Ohio’s incumbent Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in November. Husted’s interim term ends in 2026, after which there will be an election to determine who holds the seat.
“I believe and know that Jon is prepared to be United States senator from the state of Ohio,” DeWine said Friday. “The U.S. Senate rewards hard workers. It rewards those who master the facts. It rewards those who focus on getting things done.”
Ramaswamy, meanwhile, is expected to compete for the GOP nomination for governor against state attorney general Dave Yost, who has notably fought to defend the state’s six-week anti-abortion law. Former Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton recently announced her campaign to run as the Democratic nominee.
Ramaswamy’s expected announcement also follows his ignition of inter-party outrage over immigrant visas, after he bizarrely argued that ubiquitous 1990s sitcom tropes about high school “nerdiness” only “venerated mediocrity” and produced fewer American engineers.
His comments amplified a schism between Trump’s anti-immigrant allies and Silicon Valley Republicans, with Trump eventually saying he “always liked” the H-1B visa program, despite restricting them during his first term and calling the program “very bad” when he first ran for office in 2016.