One Week from Primary Day, Here’s What Ohioans Need to Know About Vivek Ramaswamy

One Week from Primary Day, Here's What Ohioans Need to Know About Vivek Ramaswamy

April 28, 2026

Columbus, Ohio- There's only one week to go until the Ohio primary. Here's five things voters need to know about billionaire scam artist Vivek Ramaswamy.

"After more than a year of getting to know Vivek Ramaswamy, Ohioans are heading to the polls for the first time, and the more they have gotten to know Ramaswamy, the less they've liked him," said Ohio Democratic Party spokeswoman Katie Seewer. "Working families won't vote for a billionaire scam artist who called affordable healthcare a 'mistake,' doesn't care about rising costs, and would rather call them lazy than get to work to bring down costs."

1. Ramaswamy called Medicaid and Medicare, programs that more than three million Ohioans rely on to afford healthcare, "mistakes." Over 25% of Ohioans use Medicaid to afford care, while nearly 20% use Medicare. Without these programs, rural hospitals across Ohio would be in even greater danger of closure - forcing families to travel even farther for the care they need.

1. Ramaswamy doesn't believe costs are going up (and doesn't care). He said the "perceived" rising cost of living was only in Ohioans' imaginations and called affordability a "buzzword." Meanwhile, he spent $780,000 on private jet travel last year and used campaign funds to play pickleball with the Paul Brothers in Puerto Rico while working Ohio families struggle to keep up with sky-high costs.

1. He called Ohioans "lazy" and "mediocre" in an unhinged and revealing social media rant. Ramaswamy also moved his business to Texas just months before announcing his run for governor and was forced to drop out of a keynote speech at a conference advocating for outsourcing American jobs after facing online criticism from members of his own party.

1. Ohioans see straight through Ramaswamy's lies, including in his own party. Republican Governor Mike DeWine denounced his latest campaign ad as false and when asked if Ramaswamy would rather be a national political celebrity or governor, answered "both." In late 2025, Ramaswamy took home an award for worst use of social media for a policy proposal so bad his biggest supporters thought it was AI.

1. Ramaswamy doubled down on an unpopular proposal to close colleges and universities that would devastate communities across the state. He specifically singled out Kent State, Cleveland State, and Central State, public universities that serve tens of thousands of students and support jobs and small businesses in communities across Ohio.

###