Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is expected to announce a run for governor in his home state of Ohio by the last week of January, a source close to the multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur told Fox News Digital.
The development on his timetable comes two days after multiple sources confirmed to Fox News that Ramaswamy, who along with Elon Musk is co-leader of President-elect Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative, was likely to launch a gubernatorial campaign “shortly.”
“Vivek’s base plan remains [the] same: to get accomplishments at DOGE and then announce a run for governor shortly,” an Ohio operative familiar with Ramaswamy’s thinking told Fox News on Friday.
Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine is term-limited and cannot seek re-election in 2026.
DeWine on Friday announced that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted would fill the U.S. Senate seat that was held by former Sen. JD Vance until earlier this month, when the vice president-elect stepped down ahead of Monday’s inauguration.
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Before the Senate announcement, Husted had planned to run for governor in 2026 to succeed DeWine. Ramaswamy, for his part, had expressed interest in serving in the Senate.Â
DeWine’s decision to choose Husted to fill the vacant Senate seat appeared to accelerate Ramaswamy’s move toward launching a run for governor.
Ramaswamy, 39, who launched his presidential campaign in February 2023, saw his stock rise as he went from a long shot to a contender for the Republican nomination.
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Ramaswamy campaigned on what he called an “America First 2.0” agenda and was one of Trump’s biggest supporters in the field of rivals, calling Trump the “most successful president in our century.”
He dropped his White House bid a year ago after a distant fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump, becoming a top surrogate on the campaign trail.
Ramaswamy was named along with Musk, the world’s richest person, to lead DOGE, in an announcement in November by Trump.
Ohio, which was once a top general election battleground, has shifted red over the past decade as Republicans have dominated statewide elections.
