During a recent appearance on "Watters World" on the Fox News Channel, Ramaswamy - a former GOP presidential candidate – confirmed that he left his position with the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) because he intends to seek political office. He hinted that that office will be governor of Ohio in 2026. He reportedly could make the official announcement as soon as next week.
While on Fox, Ramaswamy extolled the potential he sees for the Buckeye State:
"We look at the country over the last 20 years. Silicon Valley was at the bleeding edge of the American economy," he said. "I think the Ohio River Valley can be at the bleeding edge of the American economy for the next 20 years.
"People leaving this state from New York or California, right now, they go to Florida or Texas. I think places like Ohio should be where they're headed."
AFN spoke with Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio-based We the People Convention. He says the problem with the Buckeye State has been lousy government.
"That's why we're not Florida or Texas. We've got everything," he offered. "We've got more energy you can shake a stick at. We've got highways. We've got giant cities. We've got farmlands. We've got mining. We've got lakes. We've got rivers. We've got railroads.
"We've got everything – so if Vivek Ramaswamy comes in and 'DOGE's' Ohio and we start having in-migration to Ohio like we should have? Yeah, people are going to vote for that."
In a memo earlier this week, the polling group Fabrizio, Lee & Associates reports Ramaswamy "is the overwhelming frontrunner" to be the GOP nominee for governor of Ohio, leading the nearest potential competitor by an almost 3-to-1 margin.
As for his reason for leaving DOGE, Ramaswamy denied having a fallout with Elon Musk, the other high-profile entrepreneur behind DOGE.
The two had "different – and complementary – approaches" to implementing government efficiency, he explained: Musk employed a "technological mindset" while he focused more on a constitutional, legislative-based approach.
