Vivek Ramaswamy: Republican for Ohio Governor

Vivek Ramaswamy is a businessman and former presidential candidate who is now the GOP nominee to serve as Governor of Ohio. Ramaswamy initially dismissed election denialism before opportunistically adopting conspiracy rhetoric during the 2024 presidential primary, creating a contradictory record that shows how thoroughly unprincipled he is in appealing to whatever absurdities he thinks will help him secure power.

Worst moments:

• Went from acknowledging that no Republicans have ever presented convincing evidence that the 2020 election was stolen to claiming that “the 2020 election was indeed stolen by Big Tech” and that January 6 was “an inside job.”
• Said Pence’s certification of the 2020 electoral votes was a “historic opportunity that he missed”, and which he would have handled “very differently,” raising questions about whether he would fulfill his duty to certify Ohio’s 2028 results if elected in 2026.

History of election denial

Ramaswamy initially saw election deniers’ claims for the sore loser conspiracy theories that they are. His 2022 book says that all governmental institutions unanimously finding no evidence of significant fraud is “telling”; that no Republican at any level had ever presented convincing evidence the election was stolen and very few seriously tried; and that he didn't believe most Republican politicians actually thought it was stolen. As of September 2022 he was still criticizing the “Grand Old Party of Crybabies” for insisting, despite the lack of fraud evidence, that the election was stolen.

But as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Ramaswamy made an obvious pivot to appeal to the MAGA base by indulging their baseless beliefs in Trump’s 2020 victory. At the fourth GOP debate, he asserted that the January 6 insurrection “now does look like it was an inside job,” and that “the 2020 election was indeed stolen by Big Tech.” Elsewhere, Ramaswamy drew a distinction between tech “interference” and ballot fraud, saying he hasn't seen evidence of the latter, but saying that “the 2020 election was stolen in a limited sense," because the outcome would have been different had the Hunter Biden laptop story not been “suppressed.”

Fact checkers rated Ramaswamy’s “inside job” claim about January 6 as a “Pants on Fire”-level lie. At a CNN town hall days later, the moderator pressed him and he dug in rather than retreating: “we know that there were federal law enforcement agents in the field. We don't know how many.” There was no evidence of federal agents in the crowd. The town hall exchange arose after an insurrectionist quoted Ramaswamy's words at his own sentencing in an attempt to argue that “these conspiracy theories are no longer fringe,” demonstrating how Ramaswamy’s adoption of conspiracist rhetoric has legitimized election denial.

In August 2023, asked whether Pence did the right thing by certifying the 2020 election results, he said he would have done it “very differently” and called it a missed “historic opportunity.” He said he would have demanded single-day voting, paper ballots, and government-issued ID matching the voter file, then “on that condition certified the election results.” The Constitution makes clear the joint session exists to count electoral votes, not pass legislation, and a vice president has no such power. Pence's campaign called Ramaswamy’s statements “shocking and concerning.”

Influence over election administration

Trump endorsed Ramaswamy with a statement that included "Advance Election Integrity" in the list of things he would do as governor. The election-denier-in-chief clearly trusts Ramaswamy to deliver for him, and if elected Ramaswamy would be able to do so in two principal ways:

• The certificate of ascertainment. Ohio’s governor is the official responsible for submitting the certificate of ascertainment identifying the state's electors unless state law in effect on Election Day says otherwise, and Congress cannot accept a slate from anyone else. Certification in every state is a ministerial duty, but Ramaswamy is on record arguing that the official holding that duty should have withheld performance to extract policy concessions.
• Veto and signature over election legislation. Ramaswamy has already made voter ID a signature issue. In a Cincinnati Enquirer op-ed he argued “Ohio must enshrine voter ID in its constitution,” acknowledging Ohio already has photo ID (among the strictest in the country, in place since 2023) but arguing it needs stronger protection, citing “low voter confidence” that ballots are counted accurately. The fact that low confidence comes as a direct result of Republican-amplified conspiracy theories went completely unmentioned. He called on the legislature to fast-track the amendment onto the November ballot; Republicans in the legislature introduced resolutions to do so the very next day.

A potential governor Ramaswamy would also hold the power to make vacancy appointments for statewide offices including Secretary of State, the official with the greatest ability to warp the rules in Republicans’ favor.