COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has a competitive Republican primary for governor, but there are few signs that the top candidate sees it as a competitive race.
Vivek Ramaswamy has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with President Donald Trump into a record fundraiser that he is tapping for ad spots targeting the November election. He is using campaign rallies and ads to criticize his would-be general election opponent, Democrat Amy Acton, the state’s former public health director.
Ramaswamy feels so confident of gliding into the May 5 primary that his campaign has so far ignored his GOP challenger.
“I believe this year we’re going to face the biggest difference between two candidates in the history of a governor’s race in Ohio,” he told Republicans at a recent party fundraising dinner, referring to the general election. “We face the most consequential election for governor in our state’s history.”
However, the primary season has exposed potential weaknesses for the 2024 presidential candidate.
Ramaswamy faces growing headwinds within a GOP base disaffected over the rising cost of living, the unrelated release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, growing demand for data centers and a war with Iran. Ramaswamy has also come under fire for some of his proposals such as strengthening the state’s university system and raising the voting age to 25 years. Critics say those views put the Ivy League-educated biotech billionaire out of touch with average Ohioans.
Criticism has taken a personal form, manifesting as racial and ethnic hostility toward Ramaswamy, a descendant of Indian immigrants.
If Ramaswamy is the nominee, his supporters worry less about factors that could upset the conservative vote or that Republicans will switch sides and vote Democrat. If enough voters stay home in the fall, Ohio could see its first Democratic governor in 20 years.
“We have three opponents in this race right now,” Ramaswamy’s running mate, state Senate President Rob McCauley, said in remarks to Republicans in rural Marion County that were shared by WGH Talk. “We have Amy Acton, we have the national political climate and then we have complacency. I would argue that the third opposition is probably the most dangerous opponent we have.”
‘He’s a man like me’
Discontent among a segment of Ohio’s conservative voters has been funneled into curiosity about Casey Putsch’s campaign.
An engineer and vehicle designer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” Putsch has drawn fans with provocative YouTube videos trolling Ramaswamy and criticizing national Republicans for the Epstein files, locations in energy-guzzling data centers and support for Israel.
His events are sparsely attended and his campaign has raised only $123,000, but the putsch has won over some conservative voters. Tyler Morris, an ambulance construction worker from central Ohio, is among them.
“When I hear people like Casey speak, he’s just like me,” said Morris, 32, who was on his way to watch Putsch speak in Columbus Park. “He’s a guy who gets angry one day. He’s not a politician. He’s like, you know what — I want to speak for the average, everyday Ohioan.”
Morris said he used to support Trump, but has since turned against him and won’t support a candidate the president has endorsed, as Ramaswamy has.
“I say I’m politically cynical, because it’s like no matter who I vote for, I feel like the average Ohioan, things seem to be getting worse for everybody,” he said.
A campaign to highlight ethnic conflict
Putsch’s message went beyond pitching to improve the lives of working-class Ohioans. He has been accused of contributing to racial hatred against Ramaswami, including repeatedly raising the issue of the candidate’s Indian heritage and Hindu faith.
When he was launching his campaign, Putsch said that Ramaswamy disrespected “American cultural values”. In an online video, he asked Ramaswamy to “get destroyed”.
Days after the putsch began, a Ramaswamy opinion piece in The New York Times urged Republicans to reject far-right, white nationalist elements within the Republican Party in favor of an “ideals-based” vision of American identity.
“No matter your ancestry, if you wait your turn and become a citizen, you are an American of Mayflower descent as long as you subscribe to the creed of the American founding and the culture born of it,” he wrote. “It makes American exceptionalism possible.”
Ramaswamy, who was born and raised in Cincinnati, followed the column by rebuking racism and anti-Semitism within Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, angering some members of his own party.
Amid the aftermath of that speech, Ramaswamy’s social media posts were drawing increasingly ugly and racist responses. The putsch has also pushed racial epithets, including depicting Ramaswamy as a stink bug as he sprays pesticides and challenging him to a game of “cowboys and Indians”.
In January, Ramaswamy announced that he was leaving Instagram and social media site X.
“Leaders dependent on social media to gauge public opinion look through a broken mirror,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal column.
Putsch mocked Ramaswamy for the decision, posting to X that his opponent “can’t take the heat.”
National star power, but will it be enough?
Ohio Republican Party Chairman Alex Trantafilo dismissed Putsch’s attacks as typical of a primary election.
“The online right these days, the message that we’re on the ground as a party is meaningless,” Trantafilo said.
He cited Ramaswamy’s national profile, his political skills and his ability to raise funds — a record $50 million in total contributions, though about half came from Ramaswamy’s own fortune.
“In every possible category of what we want in a candidate, he has it,” Trantafillo said.
Aaron Baer, president of the Columbus-based Center for Christian Virtue, rejects Pusch’s insults about Ramaswamy’s background, including questioning his ability to lead a “Christian state.”
“Bottom line is Vivek Ramaswamy, while he doesn’t share the Christian faith with me and millions of other Ohioans, he shares our values,” Baer said.
Ramaswamy drew impressive crowds during his tour of each of Ohio’s 88 counties, in what appears to be a general election campaign. His strategy seems to be working for voters, said Pam Koch, a 70-year-old pharmacy worker who attended the Lincoln Reagan Day dinner where Ramaswamy was the featured speaker.
Koch described herself as an anti-abortion Christian and said she came to the event “to see where he stands, you know, spiritually and (on) everything that we value.” Later, she said she was happy with what she heard.
“I think he fits all of our values, so I’m excited about that,” she said.
Ron Eccles, a retired communications activist, is sticking with Putsch, partly because of qualities the candidate shares with Ramaswamy, such as being a native of Ohio and building his own business. But he believes Putsch is strong on gun rights and likes that Putsch is an Ohio State University alumnus. Ramaswamy was educated at Harvard and Yale.
Pusch’s severe economic weakness in the primary doesn’t bother him.
“I believe in miracles,” Eccles said.
