Biotech entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy looks set to romp home with the Republican nomination to be the next governor of Ohio, a year out from the party’s primary.
He has the backing of President Donald Trump, earned the formal support of the state party, and is leading in early polling.
Can anyone derail the Ramaswamy train, capture the president's attention, and snatch the nomination?
Possibly. Current term-limited Governor Mike DeWine, Politico reports, is not keen on Ramaswamy taking over from him, nor on his old Democratic rival, Sherrod Brown, winning if he were to run.
The governor appears to have a plan to advance his preferred candidate, Lieutenant Governor Jim Tressel.
Appointed to the role in February 2025 after former Lt. Gov. John Husted took over JD Vance’s Senate seat when he became vice president, Tressel potentially has something of an advantage in a statewide race.
He is the former Ohio State football coach who guided the Buckeyes to seven Big Ten championships and the 2002 National Championship. Prior to that, he also led Youngstown State University to the playoffs 10 times and won four national championships. Most recently, he returned to YSU from Ohio State as university president from 2014 to 2023.
Tressel is an Ohio hero.
Speaking to Politico, DeWine acknowledged the “conventional wisdom” regarding Ramaswamy’s current advantage and the state of the race almost a year out from the primary, but believes his lieutenant is unique.
“He told me he thinks he’s been to every high school in the state,” the governor said of the former coach. “He is Ohio; he really understands the diversity of this state.”
DeWine added: “Once you get beyond the introductions, then he’s got to obviously sell. I think he will.”
Tressel has neither confirmed nor ruled out his potential candidacy. If he does jump into the race, he will have a hill to climb against the Trump machine that took Vance to within a heartbeat of the presidency and that has already aligned behind Ramaswamy.
Can a storied history as a state football hero compete with the Trump machine? Or could it even turn the president’s head?
Trump has given dual endorsements before, though Ramaswamy’s polling numbers would indicate that this may be unlikely in this case, given that he had 64 percent support from prospective GOP primary voters in April, compared to Tressel’s 14 percent.
Nevertheless, Tressel is testing the waters, making appearances at county Republican events, some now renamed as Lincoln-Reagan-Trump dinners, underlining the changing nature of the party in the state and nationwide.
While he is attracting uniform respect from attendees, Politico notes that most feel the primary is already decided, with one strategist telling the outlet that “it would take Vivek making some cataclysmic mistakes now” to alter that perception.
Recalling Ramaswamy’s boisterous debate performances in the Republican presidential primaries leading up to the 2024 election, that’s not out of the question.
As for when Tressel has to decide, he told Politico that he didn’t know the timing for signing up to run for office: “I don’t even know what you have to do to sign up to run for something.”
Prompted that his chief backer, Governor DeWine, would have a good idea, he added: “Well, and that’s why if I thought there was a timing problem right now I would hear about it from him.”
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