A resurfaced video from January 2023 probably won’t help Vivek Ramaswamy’s chances of winning the Ohio governor’s race.
In the video, taken at Hillsdale College, a conservative Christian school in Michigan, the former Republican presidential candidate and brief DOGE co-chair, seems to damn his home state with faint praise.
Ramaswamy began his speech titled “The Rebellious Entrepreneur” with a few remarks about looking for possible interns while at the school before relating a conversation he had with a student from Indiana named Emily.
She asked him what his favorite state was and wanted to know if it was his home state, Ohio.
Ramaswamy, who has a 7.7% stake in BuzzFeed, the parent company of JS, told the audience, “Ohio’s a good state, I just can’t say it’s the best state.”
Ohio GOP Chair Alex Triantafilou seemed unconcerned that the 2023 remarks would affect the 2026 race.
“These kinds of out-of-context ‘gotcha’ clips aren’t going to decide the race in Ohio,” Triantafilou told JS. “One line from one speech used out of context won’t decide this race. Ideas will. Vivek is a man of ideas for the future of Ohio. ”
Others felt differently, including, not surprisingly, Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton.
“Another position I disagree with Vivek Ramaswamy on,” said Acton, who is in a statistical tie with Ramaswamy, according to RealClearPolitics.
Acton campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock told JS that Ramaswamy is “an out-of-touch billionaire who moved his business to Texas, calls Ohioans ‘lazy’ and ‘mediocre,’ and looks down at Ohio from the seat of his private jet.”
She added: “So it’s not surprising that he won’t call Ohio the best state.”
The “Ohio is a good state, not a great state” quote hasn’t been Ramaswamy’s only unforced error during his campaign.
Back in November, he posted a video proposing a nine-hour school day from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day, and the suggestion was so extreme that many people were convinced it was a Democratic smear.
You can hear Ramaswamy’s complete speech from 2023 below.