OHGov

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy’s bait-and-switch campaign exposes GOP weaknesses: Brent Larkin

• Vivek Ramaswamy is the most unlikeable candidate for governor in the lifetime of anyone reading this column. 

• Now there is new evidence the Ramaswamy campaign is in trouble; that the state where Republicans have won eight of the last nine elections for governor is very much in play. And if Democrat Amy Acton beats him in November, Ramaswamy might accomplish something a Republican hasn’t done in 40 years – take down the entire ticket.

• Consider these numbers from the May 5 primary election in Ohio: Unlike some states, Ohio’s primary elections are open. A voter does not need to be a registered Republican or Democrat to request a specific party ballot at the polling place. At the start of the primary voting process, there were 678,833 registered Democrats in Ohio. But 807,716 Ohioans chose to cast Democratic ballots in the primary. 

• It was because a huge number of independent voters were so disenchanted with the GOP leadership that controls their governments that they asked for a Democratic ballot.

• As encouraging as those crossover voting numbers were for Democrats, the opposite was true in the Republican primary. As voting began, there were 1,292,651 registered Republicans in Ohio, but only 901,338 Ohioans voted in the GOP primary.

• Put another way, the Democratic turnout rate was 119% of previously registered Democratic voters. The Republican rate was only 69.7% among the registered Republicans.

• But Ramaswamy needs to create a phony issue that just might motivate MAGA voters and increase turnout in November. This has nothing to do with eliminating vote fraud. It has everything to do with propping up a horrible candidate for governor.

• The answer is obvious. He’s losing.

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Columbus, Ohio – Another week, another flop from Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign. His latest scam policy rollout on Medicaid fraud didn’t go as planned after reporting revealed his own running mate voted to dissolve Ohio’s Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee. Ramaswamy and McColley didn’t exactly turn their fortunes around when McColley said a bill banning child marriage requires “further exploration.”

Another Medicaid Mistake: After rolling out his latest Medicaid policy scam to distract from having called Medicaid and Medicare “mistakes,” reporting revealed Ramaswamy’s own running mate, State Senate President Rob McColley, voted to dissolve Ohio’s Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee. Even Republican State Representative Jennifer Gross, who was at Ramaswamy’s press conference on Tuesday, said the committee could’ve helped fight fraud.

“Republicans Blaming Republicans”: This week, Ohioans are reading all about how Republicans, who have been in charge of state government for nearly two decades, are now falling over themselves to blame other Republicans at Ramaswamy’s “rage-baiting” press conference. Ramaswamy’s press conference with the politicians who own the corruption in Ohio’s Statehouse made it clear his policies are a scam that would only benefit him and his billionaire friends.

McColley Fails to Protect Ohio Children: Legislation banning child marriage was abruptly pulled from the Ohio Senate planned committee vote, with Rob McColley, Ramaswamy’s running mate, saying it needed “further exploration.” McColley is the President of the Ohio Senate and is responsible for setting the legislative agenda.

This appears to be a pattern for Ramaswamy. He failed to return donations from known Epstein associates, attempted to scrub his website of endorsements from Ohio legislators accused of being sexual predators, and mocked his opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, for sharing her story of surviving childhood sexual abuse.

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Ohio Senate President and Ramaswamy LG Rob McColley Refuses to Take Strong Position Against Child Marriage

Columbus, Ohio – Vivek Ramaswamy’s running mate Rob McColley said child marriage needs “further exploration” after legislation banning the practice was abruptly pulled from a planned committee vote. McColley is the President of the Ohio Senate and is responsible for setting the legislative agenda, in addition to leading the Ohio Senate Republicans.

This appears to be a pattern for Ramaswamy. During Ramaswamy’s presidential campaign, he claimed to be the “first and most vocal proponent of releasing all Epstein related documents” and said he would release the client list “without exception.” But in his run for governor he went “silent,” running from reporters, and trying to change the subject, including refusing to return a $100,000 donation to his Super PAC from Epstein associate Glenn Dubin, despite pledging to do so. 

Ramaswamy also proudly touted endorsements from two state lawmakers accused of sexual misconduct and then scrambled to scrub his campaign website after the fact. Ramaswamy touted his endorsements from Rep. Rodney Creech for months after he was accused of climbing in bed with a minor female relative, and Rep. Gary Click, who reminisced about talking to young girls about sex. Click’s endorsement was added back to Ramaswamy’s website within hours of removal. If that wasn’t low enough for Ramaswamy, he truly hit rock bottom when he mocked his opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, for sharing her story of surviving childhood sexual abuse. Ramaswamy said Acton was only “complaining about what someone else did to her.” 

“Vivek Ramaswamy owes Ohioans answers after his running mate said a bill banning child marriage needs further exploration,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “McColley’s failure to protect Ohio’s kids is unsurprising given he’s running alongside Vivek Ramaswamy, who mocks child sexual abuse survivors and refuses to return donations from Epstein co-conspirators. Ramaswamy’s lies, scams and ‘exploring’ something as simple as ending child marriage proves Ohioans can’t believe a word he says when it comes to keeping their families safe.” 

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Columbus, Ohio – Vivek Ramaswamy’s press conference to roll out his latest policy scam didn’t quite go as planned. Ohioans are reading all about Ramaswamy’s “rage-baiting” press conference full of “Republicans blaming other Republicans.” If that wasn’t bad enough, reporting revealed Ramaswamy’s running mate, Senate President Rob McColley, voted to dissolve a key panel in charge of Medicaid oversight.

“Vivek Ramaswamy’s desperate attempt to distract from calling Medicaid and Medicare ‘mistakes’ was an embarrassing failure,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Despite Ramaswamy working overtime to pretend he cares about Medicaid fraud, his own running mate dismantled the Medicaid Oversight Committee in Ohio’s corrupt Statehouse. Ohioans know that Vivek Ramaswamy is a scam artist who is only out for himself.” 

Here’s what Ohioans are reading about Ramaswamy’s rollout of his latest scam:

Cleveland.com: Ohio Republicans are rage-baiting over Medicaid fraud, but they’ve run the program since 2011

• There’s nothing quite like watching politicians rage about a problem they created.

• Vivek Ramaswamy and a chorus of Ohio Republicans took to the stage to sound the alarm about Medicaid fraud, leaning heavily on a report claiming that Medicaid payments were flowing through clusters of home health care companies operating out of the same Columbus addresses.

• But if there is fraud, taxpayers should be the ones who are outraged, and that outrage should be directed at the Republicans on stage Tuesday.

• “If there’s Medicaid fraud, it is 100 percent default of the Republican elected leaders,” who Quinn said have been in charge of the state for 16 years, run the Medicaid office and send out the checks. “So for them to stand there and make a political issue out of it — it’s their fault. This is their scandal. If it’s a scandal.”

TiffinOhio.Net: Ramaswamy vows Medicaid fraud crackdown, but his running mate’s budget killed Ohio oversight panel

• Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy declared the fight against Medicaid fraud his “absolute top priority” at a Columbus news conference Tuesday — even as the running mate standing beside him helped engineer the dissolution of the legislative panel charged with watching over the program.

• At the heart of the story is a contradiction the AP laid out plainly: Ramaswamy’s running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, held key decision-making power over the state budget that last year eliminated Ohio’s Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, known as JMOC.

• The bipartisan panel — five senators and five representatives — had served as a single legislative checkpoint on Medicaid since 2014. 

• State Rep. Jennifer Gross, a Republican from West Chester who served on JMOC and chairs the House Medicaid Committee, told the AP on Tuesday that the panel could have helped accomplish exactly the fraud-fighting goals that Vance and Ramaswamy are now promoting.

Ohio Capital Journal: Ohio Republicans blame other Ohio Republicans for Medicaid fraud

• Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy wants to overhaul the state Medicaid system to combat unproven allegations of fraud, as GOP leaders blame Gov. Mike DeWine for a lack of oversight.

• After the right wing news outlet The Daily Wire published a story alleging rampant fraud, Ramaswamy has announced his plans to fight the not-yet-proven abuse.

What they’re saying online: 

• @RachelCoyleOhio: Ohio Republicans are rage-baiting over Medicaid fraud, but they’ve run the program since 2011. 

• @jbalmert: Ramaswamy running mate @Rob_McColley says Ohio needs leadership to “tackle the crisis of Medicaid fraud head on.” McColley is Ohio senate president.

• @RandyHeyyy: “Let us fix the problem we created.”

• @darreldrowland: GOP rep contests Medicaid fraud narrative by GOP leaders, noting they killed oversight panel. “I believe that if we had kept JMOC it always could have been something that we kept in place that could have morphed into a DOGE Ohio, an Ohio Medicaid DOGE”

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Columbus, Ohio – Desperate to hide the fact that he’s on video calling Medicaid a “mistake,” Vivek Ramaswamy unveiled his latest scam yesterday where he claimed he’d fight Medicaid fraud while standing with the very politicians who have been running Ohio for nearly two decades. But in a damning new report from the Associated Press, it was revealed that Ramaswamy’s running mate, State Senate President Rob McColley, was a key architect of a state budget that dissolved the Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee.

The Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee was charged with watching over Medicaid and served as a single point of contact between the legislature and the Medicaid system. It was quietly dissolved through a last minute provision in the state budget that McColley had significant influence over. Even Republican State Representative Jennifer Gross, who was at Ramaswamy’s Tuesday press conference, said it could’ve helped fight fraud.

“Ohioans know Vivek Ramaswamy thinks Medicaid is a mistake. His pathetic attempt at claiming he will fight Medicaid fraud while his own running mate dismantled the Medicaid Oversight Committee is proof of yet another Ramaswamy scam,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ohioans can’t trust a word Vivek Ramaswamy says because he only cares about himself.”

READ: Vance takes his fight against fraud to red Ohio, muddying waters for GOP’s Vivek Ramaswamy

• Vice President JD Vance’s decision to extend his fight against Medicaid fraud beyond Democratic states to his red home state of Ohio has set off a scramble among the state’s Republicans — including his close ally Vivek Ramaswamy, the party’s nominee for governor.

• A common theme at Ramaswamy’s news conference was the past failings of the state’s Department of Medicaid, overseen by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for the past seven years. The criticism was leveled not only by Ramaswamy, but by sitting Republican officeholders who have held sway over Ohio’s existing checks and balances of the program for years.

• Asked to what extent the ruling GOP establishment that has controlled government for more than 15 years should be held accountable for failing to catch more Medicaid fraud, Ramaswamy said he wouldn’t point fingers. “I’m not playing that game, OK?”

• Ramaswamy’s running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, held key decision-making power over the state budget that last year eliminated Ohio’s Joint Medicaid Oversight Committee, which was charged with watching over Medicaid, a joint federal-state healthcare program that covers more than a quarter of Ohio residents. The panel was investigating contracts with Gainwell, the nation’s largest processor of Medicaid claims, at the time.

• State Rep. Jennifer Gross, a Republican who served on the committee, said Tuesday that the panel could have helped accomplish Vance’s and Ramaswamy’s fraud-fighting goals.

• “I believe that if we had kept JMOC it always could have been something that we kept in place that could have morphed into a DOGE Ohio, an Ohio Medicaid DOGE,” she said.

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