OHGov

Columbus, Ohio — New reporting from Signal Ohio spotlighted how Jake Underwood, a Cleveland-based conservative radio host, slammed Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign and predicted he would lose if the election were held today. Underwood spoke out after “dozens of complaints” at local Republican functions.

“If there’s one thing that brings Ohioans together despite their political differences in this year’s election, it’s that they just don’t like Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite the tens of millions in ad spending to try to prop him up, voters see through Ramaswamy’s lies and cost-raising policy scams. In less than 100 days, they’ll vote to send him and his private jet flying off into the sunset on a permanent vacation,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer.

READ: Vivek catches friendly fire from radio host

• Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is running a poor campaign and would lose the November election if it were held today. Or at least, that’s what a conservative Cleveland radio host contended during a recent show.

• Jake Underwood spent an entire 60-minute segment on July 20 delivering an extensive criticism of Ramaswamy’s political performance ahead of the November election. His concerns include what he sees as Ramaswamy being too focused on the Republican base at the expense of independent voters. He described Ramaswamy being late for a Medina County Republican Party function last winter, the same day he attended an Ohio State football game. Underwood also said Ramaswamy doesn’t talk enough with local media – including refusing to come on Underwood’s show – choosing instead to sit down with national podcast hosts and produce social media videos.

• In an interview, Underwood, a former top staffer for the Medina County Republican Party, told Signal Statewide he heard dozens of complaints about Ramaswamy at local Republican functions before he finally decided to air them out via his show. 

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Columbus, Ohio—Today marks the 61st anniversary of Medicaid and Medicare being signed into law. These programs help millions of Ohioans afford care; however, Vivek Ramaswamy has said he believes they were “mistakes.”

Medicaid and Medicare are the backbone of Ohio’s healthcare system. More than three million Ohioans enrolled in Medicaid and 2.5 million Ohioans on Medicare, and rural hospitals in particular rely heavily on Medicaid reimbursements to keep their doors open. A reduction in coverage would disproportionately affect rural hospitals and nursing homes, forcing Ohioans in rural communities to travel farther for routine appointments and emergency care. 

“The real mistake here is Vivek Ramaswamy flippantly dismissing critical healthcare programs that keep costs down for Ohioans,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy’s policy scams would slash healthcare and raise costs for patients across the state, including children, seniors, and veterans. Ohio patients can’t afford Vivek Ramaswamy.”

WATCH THE CLIP BELOW

READ MORE on the programs Vivek Ramaswamy called “mistakes”: 

• 40% of all births in the United States are covered by Medicaid, and a reduction in coverage would create even more struggles for mothers and infants in Ohio, where the infant mortality rate is one of the worst in the country. 

• 65,000 Ohio veterans rely on Medicaid for healthcare coverage.

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Columbus, Ohio- Independent economists slammed Vivek Ramaswamy’s extreme proposal to close Ohio public colleges and universities in the Ohio Capital Journal. The economists surveyed largely agreed that Ramaswamy’s college closure scam would slash economic output and drive college graduates away from Ohio.

Their analysis comes after numerous Republicans including Gov. Mike DeWine and Sen. Jerry Cirino also panned the plan. DeWine said he was “not in favor” of the plan, while Cirino slammed Ramaswamy, saying: “I don’t know how much he knows about how higher ed works.”

READ: Ohio governor candidate suggested consolidating universities. Economists think it’s a bad idea.

• Republican nominee for governor Vivek Ramaswamy in March said that consolidating Ohio’s public universities would make higher education better and more affordable.

• The strong consensus of economists surveyed on the topic this month said such a move would reduce the number of graduates in Ohio and reduce economic output. They split on whether it would even save any money.

• A panel of Ohio economists surveyed by Scioto Analysis wasn’t sold on the argument. None believed it would help the Ohio economy in the long run.

• Asked whether they agreed that, “Reducing the number of universities in Ohio would reduce long-term economic output in the state of Ohio,” 11 agreed and 4 were uncertain.

• None said they thought cutting the number of public universities would increase economic output.

• The Ohio economists overwhelmingly agreed that getting rid of public universities would cut the portion of Ohioans who get college degrees. 12 said it would and 2 were uncertain.

• While Ramaswamy said his college-consolidation plan would save Ohioans money, the economists didn’t seem to believe the matter was so clear-cut.

• Six said it would save money, six said it wouldn’t and two were uncertain.

• Even some of the economists who said consolidation would save money questioned the wisdom of doing so.

• “It would save money for the state in the short run but would be penny wise and pound foolish in the long run,” said Bob Gitter of Ohio Wesleyan University. “Education is one of the primary functions of government.”

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Columbus, Ohio- New reporting from WEWS’ Morgan Trau caught Vivek Ramaswamy desperately lying about his plan to shut down Ohio colleges and universities to fund his extreme income tax scam.

WATCH THE CLIP HERE:

“In the spring, Ramaswamy posted a video to social media and wrote an article encouraging the state to shut down what he called struggling universities. He called out Cleveland State, University of Akron, Kent, and Central State University as problem colleges. He tripled down on that idea at a Turning Point USA event in April. ‘I don’t think you should be funding subpar universities.’”

Students, university presidents, and even Republicans including Governor Mike DeWine and State Sen. Jerry Cirino pushed back on Ramaswamy’s idea. DeWine said: “I’m not in favor of consolidating our colleges or doing away with any of our 14 public universities. It’s important to have them all over the state so frankly, people who can’t afford to live at the college and pay room and board, they can commute. We still have commuters.” When asked about Ramaswamy’s proposal, Cirino said, “I don’t know how much he knows about how higher education works.”

“Con man Vivek Ramaswamy is lying again because he knows shutting down colleges and universities is deeply unpopular with Ohioans, just like the rest of his costly and out-of-touch policy scams,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ohioans know they can’t afford Vivek Ramaswamy’s schemes and they can’t trust him to stand up for their communities — he’s only out for himself.”

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Columbus, Ohio – Vivek Ramaswamy has spent the past few weeks traveling via his private jet to Paris, Geneva, Atlanta, Hilton Head, and, as of today, Aspen. Ramaswamy has only spent 40% of the year in Ohio while Ohioans have spent 100% of the year fighting higher costs of living. 

Check out where Ramaswamy has been over the past few weeks alone:

• After making a brief public appearance on July 4th, Ramaswamy hopped on a flight to Paris to celebrate America’s 250th. He didn’t stop there and made the most of his trip halfway across the globe by continuing on to Geneva, Switzerland. 

• Just days after his weeklong getaway to Paris and Geneva, Ramaswamy was caught jetsetting to Atlanta at the same time as the World Cup Semifinal. Ramaswamy has a clear case of FOMO. Why watch the World Cup in Ohio when you can fly to see it in person? 

• Two days ago, Ramaswamy took a flight to Hilton Head on a luxury vacation that many Ohioans would be grateful to afford. As if the past few weeks haven’t been enough, Ramaswamy is now in Aspen, Colorado, taking a hard-earned vacation from his vacation(s).

“There’s nothing wrong with a getaway now and then, but Vivek Ramaswamy’s penchant for private aviation to exotic destinations has proven to Ohioans over and over that he has no interest in working for anyone but himself,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy even said Ohio is ‘not the best’ state. How can we trust him to fight for Ohio’s working families or lower costs when he is never here?”

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