OHGov

Columbus, Ohio- In another interview full of the disprovable lies that we’ve come to expect from billionaire scammer Vivek Ramaswamy, he now claims he “loves long drives” around Ohio. 

“Vivek Ramaswamy is desperate to hide his disdain for Ohio after calling workers lazy and claiming Ohio is not the best state. He loves flying 30 miles to avoid driving with Ohioans on the ground,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy’s out-of-touch message won’t land with Ohioans who know they can’t believe a word he says.”

READ MORE about how Ramaswamy treats Ohio like a flyover state:

Heartland Signal: Records show Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy dropped $780K on private jet flights last year

• Campaign expenditure filings for Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy show that the Republican spent more than $780,000 on private jet travel in 2025.

• The former biotech pharmaceutical executive spent $10,721.97 more on private jet travel while campaigning in Ohio — the 34th largest state in the U.S. in square miles — than U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spent on all air travel (public and private) during his Fighting Oligarchy Tour last year, during which he visited 29 cities across the country.

Tribune Chronicle: Ramaswamy proposes Ohio university consolidation

• According to flight records, Ramaswamy flew on his Cessna 750 Citation — owned by his V Leasing LLC — from Columbus the day before the event to the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport and then flew home after the event ended.

• Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotech entrepreneur, flew in and out of the area’s airport six times last year.

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Columbus, Ohio- Earlier this spring, billionaire conman Vivek Ramaswamy told Ohioans gas prices could always be worse. Now, Ohioans are paying an average of $1.71 more per gallon than this time one year ago, or a 56% increase per gallon.

Ramaswamy: Ask yourself what gas prices would be if we had not produced more oil over the course of the last year in this country.

REMINDER: Ramaswamy, who spent $800,000 traveling by private jet last year,says that the higher costs Ohioans are facing are just a “perceived” problem and believes affordability is just a “buzzword.” 

“As Ohioans are paying skyrocketing prices at the gas pump, Vivek Ramaswamy’s message to them is that it could always be worse. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happening for every Ohioan who travels by car and truck, not private jet,” said Ohio Democratic Party Spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Conman Ramaswamy hopes Ohioans won’t believe their eyes, or their bank accounts, as he pushes policies that would only make their lives more expensive.”

Columbus, Ohio – On Saturday, an analysis by The Plain Dealer found that Vivek Ramaswamy’s dangerous plans to eliminate the state income tax, cancel the capital gains tax, and abolish property taxes would “involve significant hikes to other taxes” and “major cuts to government services.” 

Ramaswamy’s scam proposals would raise costs on working families already struggling to make ends meet and have a “far more dramatic effect on government finances” Republican Governor Mike DeWine called it “absolutely devastating.”  

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy vows bold tax cuts if elected Ohio governor; How would he pay for them?

• So far, the Columbus-area Republican is silent about how he would pay for such moves – which, if implemented, would likely involve significant hikes to other taxes and/or major cuts to government services.

• …Ramaswamy’s campaign platform, if passed, would have a far more dramatic effect on government finances than what Acton has put forward so far, an analysis by cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer found.

• One of the cornerstones of Ramaswamy’s campaign platform is a vow to phase out Ohio’s state income tax completely over an unspecified number of years.

• But the state’s income tax has brought in roughly $10 billion per year over the past five years. That’s about a third of Ohio’s total annual state tax revenue.

• Filling a state budget hole of around $10 billion per year would require substantially raising other state taxes (such as the sales tax or commercial activity tax), making substantial cuts to state government spending (such as Medicaid, education, and other core public services) or some combination of the two.

• Critics of ending Ohio’s income tax have pointed to what happened in Kansas more than a decade ago, when major tax cuts – passed by Republicans amid promises that the economic growth they would create would cover their cost – led to a state budget crisis.

• Ramaswamy… favors effectively eliminating the 20-mill floor, a policy mechanism that often contributes to higher tax bills when property values rise.

• Property taxes, which are levied by school districts and other local governments around Ohio at varying rates, are the main funding source for the state’s K-12 public schools. Some local levies also raise money for roads, parks, libraries and local governments, among other things.

• But the more such taxes are cut, the more schools and municipalities would have to slash budgets and/or raise other local taxes.

• Gov. Mike DeWine has warned that sales tax rates could hit 20% if property taxes are done away with altogether – a move that Ramaswamy initially called for.

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“I can’t say it’s the best state.”

Columbus, Ohio- In newly unearthed footage, candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy said that Ohio wasn’t “the best state” in another comment revealing his dim view of Ohioans. Ramaswamy previously called Ohio workers “lazy” and said affordability is just a “buzzword” as Ohioans see gas prices surge close to $5 per gallon. 

WATCH THE CLIP BELOW:

“One thing all Ohioans can agree on is that Ohio is the best state. We are proud of our state’s natural beauty, unique communities, and of course, our winning college football teams. Ramaswamy does not understand Ohio. His decision to run a campaign for governor that focuses on how Ohio isn’t the best state and our workers are lazy highlights how everything he says is a scam designed to raise our costs and line the pockets of billionaires like himself,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer.

Columbus, Ohio- Yesterday, in a rare move for a university president, Kent State University’s President joined a growing group of Ohioans slamming Vivek Ramaswamy’s plan to close colleges and universities across Ohio. 

“Vivek Ramaswamy’s plan to shut down colleges and universities, including Kent State, is so dangerous for our state that even university presidents are speaking out,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy’s only experience with the communities he wants to destroy is from the window of his private jet while he plots to rip away opportunities, jobs, and healthcare from countless Ohioans.” 

Read the full piece about how Ramaswamy’s plan would harm Kent State here: 

• The public university system in Ohio wasn’t assembled carelessly. It was built by elected leaders responding to real public demand. Republican Gov. James Rhodes came to office in 1963 on a campaign promise to place a public university within 30 miles of every Ohio citizen. […] This was not a waste. This was Ohio investing in itself.

• The universities didn’t drift into this moment. Even though public investment was quietly withdrawn over decades, our institutions have continued to deliver ever-improving results.

• There is also a community argument that deserves to be made. What happens to Salem without its Kent State campus? To Ashtabula, to Geauga, to Tuscarawas County and all the other communities in which Kent State maintains a vital presence?

• The campuses Gov. Rhodes envisioned aren’t redundancies. They are lifelines – for the students, for local employers, for the civic identities of communities that have built themselves, in part, around the presence of a university in their midst. To abandon our regional campuses would be to abandon our state’s small-town heartbeat.

• As Ohio’s fourth-longest-serving public university president, I offer these words not to protect turf, but because the conversation Ohio deserves is grounded in facts. Indeed, my colleagues at the other public universities have equally powerful, distinctive stories of success to share, and together, Ohio’s public universities advance the future of all Ohioans.

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