Vivek Ramaswamy formally threw his hat into the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial race on Monday night, outlining his platform in a fiery speech in Cincinnati.
Ahead of the big speech, the 39-year-old spoke exclusively to The Post about his vision to make Ohio “the state of excellence in America.”
“There are conservative solutions and approaches that have not yet been tried in any of the other 50 states,” Ramaswamy told The Post. “I want Ohio to set the standard,” he said, adding that the “most distinctive element” of his platform is his education policy.
He’s proposing a slew of changes to the state’s school system, including maintaining universal school choice and making public school teacher pay performance-based, to fight what he sees as an “education crisis.”
He told The Post that “the end goal is the prosperity and health and education of our kids.”
Ramaswamy plans to continue to support Ohio’s existing school choice policy but also pledged not to abandon Ohio’s public schools, which are ranked 27th in the nation according to US News and World Report.
“I’ll take Ohio to the next level on school choice,” he told The Post. “But we also need to equip our public schools to actually compete.”
Ramaswamy called for abolishing the Department of Education on the 2024 campaign trail, an initiative President Trump plans to follow through with, giving states vastly more discretion over education.
As governor, he says he would implement a cell phone ban in schools.
“The data is crystal clear. Getting cell phones out of the schools is unambiguously and uncontroversially a strict improvement to helping close the achievement gap and improving educational results.”
Ramaswamy, who currently lives in Columbus, Ohio, also proposed making public school teachers’ pay merit-based to make Ohio a magnet for teaching talent.
“The best teachers are, I believe, significantly under-compensated,” he told The Post. “But we’re not attracting the very best anymore because there’s no meritocracy in compensation.”
During his speech, he said he doesn’t “plan to wage war on public school teachers’ unions” to amend teacher pay but pledged not to “back down from a fight if that’s necessary.”
Ramaswamy is also proposing a civics test as a requirement for high school graduation as a remedy to declining patriotism. He laments the fact that just 16% of Gen Z say they’re proud to be an American.
“That prepares kids to love their country, not through just superficial pep rallyism but through actual knowledge of their history and their civic culture,” the candidate, who has two sons with his otolaryngologist wife Apoorva, told The Post. “As a parent of young kids, it’s really tangible for me.”
Fellow Republicans who have tossed their hats into the race to succeed current governor Mike DeWine include Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and former school board member Heather Hill. The only Democrat running thus far is former state health department director Dr. Amy Acton.
When he ran in the 2024 presidential primaries, the then 37-year-old Ramaswamy was the youngest Republican candidate. He dropped out of the race in January 2024 and endorsed Trump.
He was later tapped by President Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Elon Musk but stepped down from the position following a spat with Musk over H1B Visas on January 20th, alluding to his ambitions to run for Ohio governor.
Trump has not yet endorsed Ramaswamy, but there has been speculation that he may. And, though he’s no longer a part of DOGE, the gubernatorial hopeful pledged to “slash and burn waste, fraud, abuse, bureaucracy, and red tape” in Ohio during his speech.
The Cincinnati native, who attended Yale Law School alongside Vice President J.D. Vance, also made a call for investment in new industries in Ohio during his speech, including semiconductor production, nuclear energy, biotech, and Bitcoin.
Ramaswamy made his big announcement Monday at aeronautics manufacturer CTL Aerospace, an unorthodox setting partly inspired by his father, an Indian immigrant and aerospace engineer.
“In the first industrial revolution, Ohio led the way in rubber production and glass production … and I believe Ohio can lead the way again,” he told The Post. “Silicon Valley led the way in the American economy for the last ten years, and I want it to be the Ohio River Valley for the next ten on my watch.”
An entrepreneur himself, Ramaswamy is the founder of Roivant Sciences, a biotech healthcare company which is valued at over $7 billion and has offices in New York City, Boston, Basel, and London.
During his speech, he also suggested bringing Ohio’s state income tax “eventually to zero.”
Ramaswamy also repeatedly pledged his commitment to uplifting younger people.
“The decisions we make are going to fall on the shoulders of the next generation,” he told The Post. “I think it’s essential to make sure that the kind of people who lead us to the future are those who have skin in the game.”
