OHGov

Columbus, Ohio- In a recent video, Vivek Ramaswamy rolled out his new plan to shut down Ohio colleges and universities. More than 313,000 students attend public colleges and universities across Ohio. Local communities and families depend on these institutions for economic development, employment and healthcare access.  

“Ramaswamy’s plan to shut down Ohio colleges and universities would slash jobs, education, and in many cases healthcare that students and families across our state depend on,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy should get off his private jet and come clean with Ohioans about exactly which schools he wants to shutter to pay for his destructive tax scheme that even Republican Governor Mike DeWine called ‘absolutely devastating.’”

Here are five questions Ramaswamy must answer:

1. Which Ohio colleges and universities do you plan to close?

2. One in eight jobs in Ohio are supported by the public college and university system. How many of those will be lost under your plan to close colleges and universities? 

3. Many college and university systems are major providers of healthcare services. Under your plan, how many Ohioans will lose access to their healthcare provider and be forced to pick a more expensive option or go without entirely? 

4. What’s your message to residents of college towns across Ohio that would lose their main source of jobs and revenue?  

5. Would your plan to close colleges and universities affect funding for Ohio State football?

###

Columbus, Ohio- In a new video, Vivek Ramaswamy has rolled out a new plan for Ohio’s future: shutting down colleges and universities. Ramaswamy said Ohio has too many colleges and universities and did not specify which he would shut down. 

Ramaswamy: “I want us to have the best universities but we have too many of them. They need to be consolidated.”

This isn’t Ramaswamy’s first time rolling out a costly and wildly unpopular education policy that would harm Ohioans. In November, Ramaswamy faced backlash from his own party after posting a video proposing year-round school in Ohio. Some of his biggest supporters thought it was so absurd that it must have been AI-generated. It was real.

“Vivek Ramaswamy should get off his private jet, come clean with Ohioans and tell us exactly which schools he wants to shutter, and in the process slash jobs, education, and in many cases healthcare that students and families across our state depend on,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “From calling Ohioans lazy to telling families that rising costs are all in their heads to shutting down schools, every day Ramaswamy finds a new way to demonstrate how little regard he has for our state.”

###

Columbus, Ohio- Gas prices in Ohio have jumped by more than 64 cents per gallon in just over a week, the second highest spike in the country. Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy has said that gas prices are actually lower and “perceived” rising costs are just in Ohioans’ imaginations. 

Working families are already struggling to keep up with sky-high costs at the grocery store, the doctor’s office, and now the gas station. Costs are too high, and Vivek Ramaswamy will do nothing to bring down the cost of living that is making life difficult for Ohio families.

“While Vivek Ramaswamy is busy flying around in his private jet telling working families that rising costs are only in their imaginations, Ohioans down on the ground stopping for gas at the Goasis are facing sticker shock once again,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “If Ramaswamy can’t even admit that costs are going up, why would we ever trust him to make life more affordable for the rest of us?”

###

DeWine Called Vivek’s Tax Scheme “Absolutely Devastating”

Columbus, Ohio – Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to end property and income taxes on day one of his campaign and more recently invited an activist group working to pass this signature proposal into his home. Ramaswamy’s day one promise to implement a tax on working families would be devastating for Ohioans already struggling to make ends meet. 

Ramaswamy’s tax on working families would raise costs across the board for working families. Ohioans would pay even more at the grocery store after Ramaswamy’s 18% sales tax and keep less of the money they earn after his 15% income tax. For a $30,000 car, the sales tax would jump by $1,725 and the tax for a $1,300 refrigerator would jump from $75 to $234.

Even Republican Governor Mike DeWine said Ramaswamy’s plans would be “absolutely devastating” for working families. Ohio would be in a “huge crisis” if Ramaswamy’s plan became law and could wind up with an “astronomical” income tax rate that  is “by far the highest” in the country, said DeWine.

“At a time when Ohio families are already struggling with rising costs, Ramaswamy is entertaining house calls from fringe activists working to skyrocket costs for working families, and has signaled he would implement the same devastating policies as governor,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. “Ramaswamy’s proposals are on brand for a billionaire who called Ohioans lazy, told families struggling with costs to just earn more, and said the ‘perceived’ rising cost of living was just in Ohioans’ imaginations while flying over them in a private jet.”

###

Columbus, Ohio – More than a week has passed since reporting revealed billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy accepted a $500 contribution from a Nazi reenactor, and Ramaswamy is still silent. Despite repeated requests for comment, Ramaswamy has not indicated plans to return the funds.

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy silent after taking $500 from Nazi reenactor

• Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio gubernatorial campaign accepted a $500 donation from Richard Iott, a former Republican congressional candidate whose 2010 House bid collapsed after photographs emerged showing him wearing a Nazi SS Waffen uniform — and the campaign has still said nothing about it.

• Campaign finance disclosure records first reported by the Daily Mail show the donation was made on Aug. 15. Ramaswamy’s campaign has not responded to requests for comment, has issued no public statement, and has not indicated any plans to return the money.

• When contacted by The Atlantic at the time, Iott confirmed his participation in the Wiking reenactment group over several years. He said his interest was historical, not ideological, but added: “I’ve always been fascinated by the fact that here was a relatively small country that from a strictly military point of view accomplished incredible things. I mean, they took over most of Europe and Russia, and it really took the combined effort of the free world to defeat them. From a purely historical military point of view, that’s incredible.”

• Historians pushed back sharply on that framing. Charles W. Sydnor, Jr., a retired history professor and author of “Soldiers of Destruction: The SS Death’s Head Division, 1933-45,” told The Atlantic the group held “a sanitized, romanticized view of what occurred.” Sydnor noted that SS reenactments are illegal in Germany and Austria. Prof. Rob Citino of the Military History Center at the University of North Texas said: “It sends a shiver up my spine to think that people want to dress up and play SS on the weekend.”

###