News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Vivek Ramaswamy Wins Ohio Primary For Governor By Wide Margin I ndian American Vivek Ramaswamy won the Ohio primary for Governor by a huge margin, leaving his fellow Republican Casey Putsch biting the dust. Ramaswamy, who was endorsed by President Trump, won the May 5 Republican primary with 82.1 percent of the vote, and Putsch secured 17.9 percent, Ballotpedia reported. At least 3 other Republicans who had registered as candidates for the Gubernatorial race, withdrew their candidacy. On winning the primary, Ramaswamy released the following statement – “I know the American Dream ex- ists because I’ve lived it right here, in the state where I was born and raised. We’re going to revive that American Dream in Ohio once again —with lower costs, bigger paychecks, and better schools for all Ohioans. I am grateful to everyone who helped us win today’s election by historic margins, and I look forward to a decisive vic- tory again in November.” President Trump’s endorsement of the Indian Ameri- can candidate early on, was decisive for Ramaswamy. Top GOP leaders like Vice President J.D. Vance, and assassinated young Republican Charlie Kirk, as well as Senators from Ohio and other states were behind his race. He also won the support of unions like the Ohio Conference of Teamsters, Ohio State Association of Plumbes and Pipefitters, Affiliated Construction Trades, and Central Midwest Regional Council of Carpenters. In addition farmers’ organization – Ohio Corn &Wheat Growers Association and the Ohio Cattlemen’s Associa- tion lined up in his favor. Since he declared his candidacy in February 2025 after a short stint as co-director with Elon Musk, of the Depart- ment of Government Efficiency (DOGE) department, Ramaswamy has championed President Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda. But he has also pitched himself as a leader of a new generation A serial entrepreneur, Ramaswamy, who ran for Presi- dent against Trump, and was recruited to his inner circle after the 2024 elections, will go to the November 3 general election along with Robert McColley his Lieutenant Gov- ernor. In Ohio, the two offices are on the same ballot. Cook Political Report rates the Ohio Governor’s race “Likely Republican” in a March 19, 2026 update. In an April 27 assessment in its ‘Partisan Voting Index’ the Cook Political Report gave Republicans a +5 advantage, based on President Trump’s performance. Ramaswamy may emerge the winner November 3 against his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, a physician and professor, who has served as the director of Project L.O.V.E. and was appointed by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican to serve as director of the Ohio Department of Public Health in 2019. The 40-year old Indian American candidate is married to Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy, a throat surgeon at Ohio State, and the couple has two sons. Ramaswamy ran an energetic campaign even before the primary, visiting all of Ohio’s 88 counties, he noted on his campaign website. Born in Cincinnati and raised in Ohio, Vivek Ganapa- thy Ramaswamy, son of Vivek Ganapathy and Geetha Ramaswamy, has spoken frankly of his Hindu faith, and has spoken out against “wokeness”. He attended Harvard University to study biology and then Yale University to get a law degree. He went on to work for a hedge fund and started a pharmaceutical company, Roivant Sciences, a biotechnology pharmaceu- tical company in 2014 when he was 29 years old. Other companies he started include Strive Asset Management and Sio Gene Therapies. If Ramaswamy wins in November, he will be the 3rd Indian American governor in the history of the nation, following in the footsteps of two former Republican Governors – Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina. By Ela Dutt PHOTO:@VIVEKFOROHIO.COM Vivek Ramaswamy, his wife Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy and their children. Cover Story News India Times (May 9, 2026 - May 15, 2026) May 15, 2026 5 -CINCINNATI V ivek Ramaswamy didn’t men- tion the racist taunts that follow him online or the GOP primary opponent who said he’s not a real American. But the Ohio gubernatorial candidate who clinched his party’s nomi- nation this week alluded to bigotry on the right in his opening message to a town hall full of young Republicans. Ramaswamy, a Hindu son of Indian immigrants, warned the crowd against adopting the same “victim” mentality that he said had afflicted the left. “The number one factor that determines whether you achieve your goals in life … is actually you,” he said at the May 1 event. “It’s not the Jews,” Ramaswamy added. “It’s not theWhite people. It’s not the pa- triarchy. It’s not the Black people. It’s not the foreigners.” It was a striking message from a candi- date who has long cast racism as an obses- sion of Democrats and has more recently confronted it on the right. After building his political career denouncing “woke- ness” on the left, at one point dismissing “the myth of white supremacy” during his 2024 presidential campaign, he is trying to steer his party away from the extremist fringes that have flared up in his own race. Ramaswamy, 40, won the GOP nomi- nation easily Tuesday, but an obscure primary opponent, Casey Putsch, secured about 18 percent of the vote while assail- ing “third worlders,” invoking “blood and soil” language used by Nazis and attack- ing Ramaswamy as an “Indian boy [who] cosplays an American.” Many Republicans dismiss people like Putsch as online agita- tors who are best ignored - but some are still unnerved by the traction they have gotten despite their embrace of open bigotry. The ugliness has made the Ohio governor’s race one front in a broader GOP debate over extremism and what to do about it, stoked by the rise of white supremacist influencer Nick Fuentes and other like-minded commentators. Some Republicans want to draw a harder line against them and the racial resentments that others on the right have stoked to win elections and cultural influence. In an op-ed late last year in the New York Times, Ramaswamy raised alarms about the rise of “groypers” in Fuentes’s mold, lamenting “real reluctance frommy former anti-woke peers to criticize the new identity politics on the right.” But many Republicans are also wary of giving any attention to the right’s most extreme figures. “These people live off of the oxygen that we give them,” said Alex Triantafilou, the chair of the Ohio Republican Party. Similar tensions are playing out in By Hema Parmar Anti-Woke Vivek Ramaswamy Confronts Racism In His Run For Ohio Governor - Continued On Page 6