OHGov

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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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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