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Vivek floats gubernatorial run in state that shows him winning by a landslide

October 2, 2024 | | Print Article

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy let it be known during an appearance on the PBD Podcast that a run for governor in Ohio is not entirely out of the question.

Host Patrick Bet-David cited a recent poll showing his guest drawing a commanding 40% of responses from those surveyed on who they’d most likely vote for if the election for Ohio governor was held today. The second highest total was 26%, coming from those “completely undecided.”

“If you asked me six months ago, I would have said no, I mean, it wasn’t even in my headspace,” the billionaire entrepreneur said. But I will tell you, as I live in Ohio, I was born and raised there. This is the number one thing that people across the state will come — literally plead with me, beg me to do.”

“And so when people are in your own state begging you to do something that you’re not — it’s not something that I view as a pleasurable job,” he continued. “It’s not something that I have always aspired to in my whole life, but public service is about serving the public, right? And so would I consider it? Yes, I would consider it.”

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is currently serving his second term and is ineligible to run in 2026, meaning there will be a wide-open Republican primary.

While stressing that he’s “not definitively on any specific path right now,” Ramaswamy said he wants to see how the election play outs out in November.

“I prefer to have clarity. And when I’m clear and called into doing something with clarity, then I’m good to go.,” he explained. “But I will tell you that it does have an impact on me.

Ramaswamy recalled a town hall he held recently in Springfield, Ohio, which has been at the center of political discussion recently due to a massive influx of Haitian migrants.

“The number one thing coming out of there that everybody, even that town, there’s hundreds of people that were in the room — there were 2000 people that wanted to come,” he said. “And the overwhelming mandate, I wouldn’t call it an ask, it was a mandate. It was a demand of me, is you need to come actually take our state to the next level.”

Suggesting that Ohio is “actually a deeply conservative state,” Ramaswamy insisted that the state could be “competitive with, if not even then some, versus a Florida or a Texas.”

“And that’s what many people in Ohio want to see — is a state that’s, you know, it’s not a zero tax state, it’s not a state that has constitutional carry. It’s not a state that has universal school choice,” he said. “But you look at the reason why people are drawn to places like Florida and Texas. Ohio could be a magnet like that.”

“And so whether it’s me or somebody else, I think that’s an untapped opportunity that I hope somebody steps into that void and definitely leads the state to even new heights,” Ramaswamy continued. “But I love the place. I had not aspired to it. Am I thinking about it? Well, if you see stuff like this and people demanding you to, you got to give it some thought, but we’ll wait till after the election.”

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story, as seen on X:

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