OHGov

Columbus, Ohio- New reporting from The Columbus Dispatch caught Vivek Ramaswamy in yet another lie on his desperate quest to scam as many Ohioans as possible. Ramaswamy’s ad features Linda Caudill, longtime GOP operative, who blames Dr. Acton for her mother’s death, but records show the woman lived and died in Kentucky and passed away six weeks after Dr. Acton stepped down as Ohio Health Director.

“Lying Vivek Ramaswamy is again resorting to baseless and easily disproven lies because he’s desperate to salvage any thread of his failing campaign,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “While liar Ramaswamy grapples with the fallout from getting caught red-handed in another lie, Ohioans will be hearing the truth about his alleged ‘pump-and-dump’ scam that made him rich.”

READ: Ad blames Acton for isolating dying mom during COVID. There’s more to it

• A new ad from Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign features a GOP activist who blames Amy Acton for isolating her late mother during the COVID-19 pandemic, but records show the woman lived in Kentucky and died weeks after Ohio ended its stay-at-home order.

• In Ramaswamy’s ad, Linda Caudill, a member of the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee, said her mother went into a nursing home shortly before Acton “shut down the state” and died two months later.

• The ad doesn’t identify the nursing home or specify where Caudill’s mother spent her final months. But her obituary… indicates she was from Erlanger, Kentucky; belonged to a church in Elsmere, Kentucky; and died July 25, 2020, at a hospice facility in Edgewood, Kentucky, six weeks after Acton stepped down as health director.

• Additional public records list northern Kentucky addresses for Caudill’s mother that date back decades.

• The woman’s death also came two months after DeWine lifted Ohio’s stay-at-home order and travel restrictions, though officials encouraged high-risk people to stay home when possible. The order, when it was in effect, included exceptions for Ohioans who needed to care for elderly loved ones.

• Caudill is no stranger to Republican politics in Ohio. She served as a delegate for Trump in 2016 and 2024. She also sparked controversy as a volunteer for former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci’s 2017 campaign for governor, in part for sharing a meme that suggested violence against then-Secretary of State Jon Husted.

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Columbus, Ohio- Today, candidate for lieutenant governor David Pepper joined families impacted by Alzheimer’s disease in Columbus to slam Vivek Ramaswamy’s alleged pump-and-dump scam that gave false hope to patients and their families and ripped off investors while Ramaswamy made millions of dollars. 

Ramaswamy served as “the frontman” for a “dubious pharmaceutical company” and “cashed out weeks before its dramatic crash.” He hired his own mother to manipulate data from failed clinical trials to make the drug look promising, despite her lack of clinical trial experience. Ramaswamy used his own mother’s analysis to scam his way into hundreds of millions of dollars.

“My wife and partner of 48 years has Alzheimer’s. It’s devastating to see her brilliant and quirky mind taken away from us,” said Ohio Alliance for Retired Americans President Norm Wernet. “There are good and dedicated scientists out there working to mitigate and resolve this disease, but Vivek Ramaswamy is not one of them. It’s clear Ramaswamy will exploit anyone, even Alzheimer’s patients and their families, in order to make money for himself.”

“In the past years, two of my brothers took the long dreadful walk into the darkness of Alzheimer’s,” said Cincinnati AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Brian Griffin. “The idea that people who are in these circumstances would be taken advantage of in this heinous manner is despicable. How could we make someone like this governor?”

“Vivek Ramaswamy’s record is one of false hope and false hype that never adds up. Instead, Ramaswamy exploits everyday people while he gets rich,” said candidate for lieutenant governor David Pepper. “This is a pattern in Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign, whether it’s his property tax scam or alleged ‘pump-and-dump’ scam. Ohioans can’t trust Vivek Ramaswamy.”

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Columbus, Ohio- New reporting from The Ohio Independent details how Vivek Ramaswamy wants to privatize Social Security and “leave Ohioans with less retirement income and increased healthcare costs.” Ramaswamy has called Medicare and Medicaid “mistakes.” His hostility toward these foundational programs would be dangerous for the millions of Ohioans who rely on Social Security, Medicaid, or Medicare to make ends meet.

“Ohioans are working harder than ever to keep up with rising costs, but Vivek Ramaswamy says privatizing Social Security is ‘a reasonable conversation to have’ which would gut retirement income and increase healthcare costs for working families; he can’t promise their Social Security is safe for when they retire,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy wants to gamble with our Social Security to line his own pockets. He isn’t just out of touch; he’s clearly only out for himself.”  

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy backed Social Security privatization

• Vivek Ramaswamy is running for Ohio governor on a plan to “put more money in your pocket and give your kids a world-class education.” His proposed changes to entitlement programs, however, might leave Ohioans with less retirement income and increased healthcare costs.

• During his unsuccessful presidential campaign, Ramaswamy said he favored privatizing Social Security, replacing it with a system that would allow the government or individuals to invest retirement funds in stocks and bonds.  

• One such reform he brought up during a New Hampshire town hall event in August 2023 was investing Social Security funds. “If we had just allowed that money to be invested by Social Security in the same way that your financial advisor would recommend that you invest your money, in a diversified portfolio, we would be swimming in surplus today,” he said.

• Ramaswamy made similar comments in February 2024 interview with AARP, telling the nonprofit group, “I think we have to be honest about learning from a prior mistake: 20 years ago we should have allowed people to actually invest their Social Security money or the government to invest Social Security money in the same way that we would have allowed any private citizen to do in the stock market and in bonds and otherwise.” 

• Experts say investing Social Security money in the stock market could leave future beneficiaries with much less money in retirement if the investments go downhill or the stock market crashes. Instead of a fixed monthly payment, benefits would depend on whether the investments gain or lose value.

• In an October 2024 interview on the “Ezra Klein Show,” Ramaswamy was asked whether Medicare and Medicaid were mistakes. “I believe they were, with the benefit of retrospect, particularly Medicaid, particularly the welfare state, without work attachments required attached to it,” he replied. “What I think of as the welfare state, my principal issue with it is that it actually, I think the evidence would show, in my opinion, that it has harmed the very people that it was created to actually help.”

• More than 2 million Ohioans receive Social Security benefits, about 2.5 million get health insurance through Medicare, and another 3 million are covered by Ohio Medicaid. An estimated 65,000 of those Medicaid subscribers are veterans and 44% of Ohio’s kids are covered by the program.

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Columbus, Ohio — Today is National Aviation Day, a favorite holiday for longtime private jet lover Vivek Ramaswamy. He’s flown to destinations as close as Akron and all the way across the ocean to Paris, France, on the Fourth of July. Despite running for governor of Ohio, Ramaswamy has used his private jet to spend nearly 40% of 2026 outside of Ohio.

In 2025, Ramaswamy spent more than $780,000 on private jet travel, more than Bernie Sanders spent on all air travel during his nationwide tour last year.

“Ohio is proud to be the first in flight, but Vivek Ramaswamy wants to be the first governor who is always flying away from the state he claims to want to lead while calling our workers ‘lazy,’” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “On the ground, Ohioans are struggling with rising costs and deserve more than a governor who can’t even bring himself to take a drive up I-71.”

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Columbus, Ohio- There are less than three months to go until the November election, and it just keeps looking worse for Vivek Ramaswamy. This week, new reporting revealed Ramaswamy hired his own mother to “massage” data from a failed trial for an Alzheimer’s drug, and his former bodyguard pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges. Ramaswamy was caught calling the privatization of Social Security a “reasonable conversation to have” and calling the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters “small” and not “important.”

“Pump-and-Dump Scheme” Revealed: New reporting revealed Vivek Ramaswamy’s role in a “kind of pump and dump” scheme that gave patients and their families suffering from Alzheimer’s false hope and cost his investors hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ramaswamy served as “the frontman” for a “dubious pharmaceutical company” and “cashed out weeks before its dramatic crash.” He hired his own mother to “massage” data from failed clinical trials to make the drug look promising, despite her lack of clinical trial experience. Ramaswamy used his own mother’s analysis to secure himself a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Bodyguard Blues Back Again: Ramaswamy’s bodyguard and his wife pleaded guilty to federal drug trafficking charges following their arrest in late 2025 for participating in a “narcotics conspiracy involving bulk amounts of fentanyl and meth.” Meanwhile, Ramaswamy is pushing a “property tax scam” that would defund the police and fire departments on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic across the state. How can Ohioans trust Ramaswamy to protect Ohio families?

Ramaswamy’s New Social Security Scam: Just ahead of the 91st Anniversary of the Social Security Act signing, an unearthed clip showed Ramaswamy claim privatizing Social Security — gambling with millions of Ohioans’ retirement benefits on the stock market — is a “reasonable conversation to have.” Privatizing Social Security would leave Ohioans more vulnerable to market changes as they’re already grappling with higher costs. Ramaswamy can’t be trusted to protect our Social Security.

Jealousy Looks Bad on Ramaswamy: In a recent clip, Ramaswamy refers to first responders in the Ohio Association of Professional Firefighters as “small” and not “important” after addressing their endorsement of Dr. Acton. Ramaswamy makes his anti-worker views clear as he blatantly disrespects the first responders who put their lives on the line to keep Ohioans safe. 

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