COLUMBUS, Ohio — The sun hadn’t set on Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign launch in Ohio earlier this week before President Donald Trump posted his endorsement of the Cincinnati-born biotech entrepreneur and former Department of Government Efficiency co-chair.
On his Truth Social site, Trump praised the multimillionaire as “something SPECIAL,” describing him as “young, strong, and smart!”
“Vivek is also a very good person, who truly loves our country,” the president wrote. “He will be a GREAT Governor of Ohio, will never let you down, and has my COMPLETE AND TOTAL ENDORSEMENT!”
The timing of Trump’s announcement piqued the interest of Ohio political observers, who have watched over the years as his decisions to weigh in on key statewide races have ranged from days before the election to months, and now more than a year.
Robert Clegg, a long-time Republican campaign adviser in the state, speculated that it could be a message to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who is already running for the Republican nomination, or to newly appointed Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a popular former Ohio State Buckeyes football coach whose future political plans are unknown.
“This is awfully early in the game, and I expected an endorsement maybe later this year — as in, like the fall, or even wait until January,” Clegg told the crowd. “I wonder if the president doesn’t want to have a knock-down, drag-out primary here in Ohio.”
Trump teased Republican candidates in Ohio’s bruising 2022 U.S. Senate primary until just 19 days before the election, when he backed future Vice President JD Vance and pushed him to the finish line to secure the GOP nomination. Vance won the general election that fall.
A year later, three months before the primary, Trump endorsed Republican Bernie Moreno for Senate. Moreno went on to win the primary and general elections.
This time, Trump did not wait.
His endorsement is expected to bolster Ramaswamy’s early campaign efforts as he battles doubts about his lack of experience in statewide office in a state that has overwhelmingly voted for Trump three times.
In the run-up to the announcement, Ramaswamy, who unsuccessfully sought the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, had also lined up key political advisers who had assisted Vance with his 2022 Senate bid, as well as the endorsements of two sitting statewide officials and well-known conservatives nationally, including Utah Senator Mike Lee.
Still, Trump’s endorsements in governor’s races have had mixed results. In 2018, his support helped Texas’ Greg Abbott win, but not Wisconsin’s Scott Walker. In 2022, Trump’s endorsement helped Sarah Huckabee Sanders win the Arkansas governorship, but not Kari Lake in Arizona.
Tom Zawistowski, a tea party leader in Ohio, believes Trump’s expected support for Ramaswamy prompted then-Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, who had long been viewed as the state’s next governor, to accept an appointment to Vance’s former Senate seat.
“The fact is Jon Husted could not defend against a Trump endorsement and a very highly financed opponent in Vivek,” he told reporters. “So this is what’s going on—and then, shazam, here comes Jim Tressel. “Only in Ohio politics.”
Zawistowski speculated that Republican Gov. Mike DeWine chose Tressel as Husted’s replacement so that he can run as an establishment Republican if Yost’s campaign fails by the summer.
Yost, who is only in office for a limited time, attacked Ramaswamy from the start.
“I welcome Mr. Ramaswamy to the race for however long he sticks around,” Yost said in a statement. “We’ll see if he actually stays in — Mr. Ramaswamy quit on President Trump and DOGE on Day 1, he quit on Ohio and moved his company to Texas, and he quit his presidential campaign after a devastating fourth-place finish in Iowa.”
Buckeye Freedom Fund, a super PAC that supports Yost, has already sent out attack mailers against Ramaswamy, accusing him of siding with Trump’s predecessor, Democrat President Joe Biden, “in allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military.”
A spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign stated that when one campaign has the support of Trump, Elon Musk, and numerous other conservative leaders, “lesser campaigns have no choice but to twist words.”
Zawistowski referred to Tressel, who has served as both a college football coach and a university president, as a “institutionalist” and predicted that he would be able to raise large sums of money from Ohio State alumni and football fans, a massive nationwide community known as Buckeye Nation.
He said the state’s MAGA base is pleased with Trump, Musk, and DOGE so far, but he anticipates opponents of the effort attempting to persuade both moderate Republicans and Democrats to vote for Tressel in next year’s GOP primary rather than Democratic nominee Amy Acton in her party’s primary.
He speculated that Trump’s quick entry into the fray on Ramaswamy’s behalf could be due to an attempt to avoid such a scenario.
