Vivek Ramaswamy is planning to run for governor of Ohio

Vivek Ramaswamy plans to run for governor of Ohio, according to a person with knowledge of his thinking, but does not plan to immediately step down from his top role in the Donald J. Trump administration’s success project. .

Mr. Ramaswamy told Ohio allies of his plan on Friday after the state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, called Ohio’s lieutenant governor, Jon Husted. , to fill the US Senate seat vacated by Vice President-elect JD Vance.

Mr Ramaswamy’s candidacy in his home state comes after some tumultuous encounters in Mr Ramaswamy’s orbit. Trump.

Mr. Ramaswamy, a wealthy pharmaceutical businessman who is running for president in 2024 and lives near Columbus, has been considered for the Senate seat, and Mr. Trump recently told him that he’s a good fit. Mr. DeWine met last weekend with Mr. Ramaswamy, who cannot seek a third term as an Ohio lawmaker, the governor said.

Currently, Mr. Ramaswamy plans to continue working with Elon Musk on the new Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He hopes to make progress before turning his attention to running for governor, which opens in 2026, this person said.

Mr. Ramaswamy, whose net worth was estimated by Forbes at $960 million a year ago, is already involved in government cost-cutting projects. He and Mr. Musk gathered on Capitol Hill and announced a big – and many believe it is unreasonable – plan to cut $ 2 trillion from the federal budget.

Considering the wealth and profile of Mr. Musk, it was not an equal partnership, and Mr. Musk, Steve Davis, is actually overseeing the effort.

News of Mr. Ramaswamy’s plans in Ohio may put to rest some speculation that had grown in Republican circles about whether he intended to join the federal government full-time.

At times, Mr. Ramaswamy’s role in the incoming administration has seemed complicated to some in Trump’s inner circle. Complaints about Mr. Ramaswamy have come repeatedly from people close to Trump, and, at times, from Mr. Trump himself.

Mr. Ramaswamy was present on site X, Mr. Musk, with articles that cause anxiety for the president-elect. But in recent weeks, after clashes with some of Mr. Trump’s most vocal supporters, he has appeared to remove some of his activities from the site, sparking controversy among online activists.

People close to Mr. Trump said he was unhappy with Ramaswamy’s intervention in a heated online debate among conservatives over whether American companies should use H1B visas to bring in workers. able

In a lengthy December article in X, Mr. Ramaswamy blamed an American culture that venerates “anxiety over competence” as the reason such a license is needed.

An America that “celebrates prom queens over math Olympiad champions, or athletes over valedictorians, will not produce the best engineers,” he wrote. His letter: “More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. There are more books, less TV. Create more, chillin’ less. More extracurriculars, less hanging out at the mall. “

His comments, which many saw as derogatory and echoed the defense of Mr. Musk’s H1B visa and criticism of American workers, has caused a lot of opposition from allies of Mr. Trump. They include some of the most prominent figures in the right-wing media, including Stephen Bannon, who served as Mr Trump’s chief strategist in his first term. and now commands a large audience of Trump voters through his podcast.

Both Mr. Ramaswamy and Mr. Mr. Musk would have sold American workers to Mr. Bannon. And while Mr. Trump has publicly supported their pro-H1B stance, he’s also said to be particularly unhappy about what many see as insults to the Trump camp by his two wealthy allies.

During the campaign, in an article in X in support of the visa, Mr. Musk agreed with someone who used a derogatory term that conveys intellectual disability to describe American workers.

Mr. Trump is not happy about being dragged into a big fight, and people close to him are not happy about spending money on allies on the issue. But unlike Mr. Musk, who supported Mr. Trump with hundreds of millions of dollars in donations, Mr. Ramaswamy is seen as less useful in Mr. Trump’s new orbit. Trump.

There has also been friction in recent weeks between Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy over their approach to successful government projects. Both have allies and lawyers who work with them, and Mr. Ramaswamy has been highly critical of Mr. Ramaswamy in private. Musk.

Mr. Ramaswamy has been speaking privately for a long time about the campaign in Ohio. He entered the national political scene in 2023 as a long-shot presidential candidate. And then he gave an early endorsement to Mr. Trump as he withdrew from the Republican primary.