OHGov

“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. 

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“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 Even though public investment was quietly withdrawn over decades, our institutions have continued to deliver ever-improving results.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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Columbus, Ohio- There’s only one week to go until the Ohio primary. Here’s five things voters need to know about billionaire scam artist Vivek Ramaswamy.

“After more than a year of getting to know Vivek Ramaswamy, Ohioans are heading to the polls for the first time, and the more they have gotten to know Ramaswamy, the less they’ve liked him,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Working families won’t vote for a billionaire scam artist who called affordable healthcare a ‘mistake,’ doesn’t care about rising costs, and would rather call them lazy than get to work to bring down costs.”

1. Ramaswamy called Medicaid and Medicare, programs that more than three million Ohioans rely on to afford healthcare, “mistakes.” Over 25% of Ohioans use Medicaid to afford care, while nearly 20% use Medicare. Without these programs, rural hospitals across Ohio would be in even greater danger of closure – forcing families to travel even farther for the care they need.

2. Ramaswamy doesn’t believe costs are going up (and doesn’t care). He said the “perceived” rising cost of living was only in Ohioans’ imaginations and called affordability a “buzzword.” Meanwhile, he spent $780,000 on private jet travel last year and used campaign funds to play pickleball with the Paul Brothers in Puerto Rico while working Ohio families struggle to keep up with sky-high costs.

3. He called Ohioans “lazy” and “mediocre” in an unhinged and revealing social media rant. Ramaswamy also moved his business to Texas just months before announcing his run for governor and was forced to drop out of a keynote speech at a conference advocating for outsourcing American jobs after facing online criticism from members of his own party.

4. Ohioans see straight through Ramaswamy’s lies, including in his own party. Republican Governor Mike DeWine denounced his latest campaign ad as false and when asked if Ramaswamy would rather be a national political celebrity or governor, answered “both.” In late 2025, Ramaswamy took home an award for worst use of social media for a policy proposal so bad his biggest supporters thought it was AI.

5. Ramaswamy doubled down on an unpopular proposal to close colleges and universities that would devastate communities across the state. He specifically singled out Kent State, Cleveland State, and Central State, public universities that serve tens of thousands of students and support jobs and small businesses in communities across Ohio.

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COLUMBUS, OH – Yesterday, Brent Larkin addressed the Ramaswamy campaign’s latest smear, in which they falsely claimed in an ad that Dr. Acton was responsible for delaying the 2020 primary election. 

READ: Turning facts into lies? Welcome to Campaign 2026 in Ohio: Brent Larkin

• As proven during his failed run for president in 2024, voters don’t much like Ramaswamy. He comes across as smart, but arrogant.

• Trump’s declining popularity, skyrocketing fuel and grocery prices, and Ramaswamy’s unlikability explain why a concerned Ramaswamy campaign has already spent $10 million in television ads. Notably, the ads do not feature Ramaswamy talking to the camera.

• This election is close. If it stays that way, if Ramaswamy’s attempt to buy the election with his own money doesn’t work, then his truth-shattering will accelerate. In one of its most recent television spots, the Ramaswamy campaign says Acton “called off” the 2020 primary election because of COVID-19.

• It’s a lie. And DeWine responded to the lie by again stating that the decision to delay the primary, not call it off, was his — not Acton’s.

• …Again, on numerous occasions, and both before and after Ramaswamy began airing his attack ad on Acton, DeWine has said he gave the order for Acton to postpone the March 17 election.

• If Ramaswamy is willing to obliterate (MAGA’s favorite verb) the truth about how and why all this happened during the most serious public health crisis in more than 100 years, maybe he shouldn’t be trusted to run this state.

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Columbus, Ohio- Vivek Ramaswamy is doubling down once again on his proposal to shut down Ohio colleges and universities to fund his disastrous tax scam. His plan drew immediate backlash from communities across the state who don’t want to jeopardize their small businesses, jobs and access to education.

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy still focused on shutting down ‘subpar’ Ohio universities

• Republican candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy is still pushing to shut down public colleges and universities if he believes they are ‘subpar,’ he said Tuesday evening.

• “I don’t think you should be funding subpar universities,” Ramaswamy said to a student asking a question.

• Cleveland State’s president, Dr. Laura Bloomberg, said consolidations can’t be the only option:

• “We need to honor the identity of our public universities, which were formed for specific purposes to meet the needs of their region. All options need to be discussed – there are many ways to think about programs and strategic partnerships that are far short of consolidation and achieve the goals of being more nimble, efficient institutions of higher education.

• Cleveland State is proud to call itself Cleveland’s university. We are a public research university located in the heart of the city. For more than 60 years, we have been essential to the region and the state. Our longstanding and growing relationships with the community and employers directly benefit our students. More than 85% of CSU graduates live and work in Northeast Ohio, contributing directly to our region’s economy.”

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