Vivek Ramaswamy has suggested that he will seek a second term as governor of Ohio, despite not yet having been elected, or even officially announced his bid for office.
The biotech entrepreneur and former Republican presidential candidate is expected to announce his campaign formally this month. Though it is currently a long road to the statehouse, he told the Wall Street Journal that if successful, he intends to be a two-term governor.
“Those eight years will go by quickly,” he told the outlet.
Despite a recently bumpy relationship with Elon Musk, Ramaswamy hopes his campaign will get the backing of the ‘First Buddy’ billionaire and Donald Trump.
Ramaswamy was appointed and then left the controversial Department of Government Efficiency, now helmed by Musk alone, last month, but has signaled he plans to take the ethos of the newly created department into his gubernatorial run.
Ramaswamy told the WSJ his campaign will focus on trying to “shred the regulatory barriers to new business creation" and that Ohio should be at the “bleeding edge of a new kind of industrial revolution” from “biotech to cryptocurrency to aerospace to defense to AI.”
Musk, the world’s richest man, referred to him as “Governor Ramaswamy” this week while live on X, suggesting that he would throw his weight behind his former DOGE colleague.
It comes after rumors of a rift between the pair causing Ramaswamy’s exit from the department. However, he later denied claims that Musk had “fired” him, saying they had had “different and complementary approaches,” and that his exit was to pursue the governor’s mansion.
Ramaswamy’s latest foray into politics comes off the back of his unsuccessful bid to challenge Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
An endorsement from the president, especially ahead of the GOP primary in May 2026, will give Ramaswamy the edge in the race to replace current Ohio governor Mike DeWine, whose term is currently scheduled to end in January 2027.
Ramaswamy has already been overlooked for a government spot by DeWine, who last picked his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by vice president JD Vance. “I wanted someone who knew Ohio,” DeWine told reporters at the time. “I wanted a workhorse.”
While the president has not yet given explicit backing, several top political advisers to Vance have joined Ramaswamy’s team ahead of his anticipated campaign announcement. Both men crossed paths briefly at Yale Law School.
So far, polling looks positive for Ramaswamy’s run, with a WSJ survey of 600 likely Republican primary voters in Ohio on January 26 to 27, showing him winning 52 percent of a primary vote.
