Vivek Ramaswamy: The ambitious Indian-American eyeing Ohio’s governorship

“I don’t do well as a number two. I am at my best when I am leading, not following,” says Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for governor of Ohio. In many ways, the statement sums up the high-profile Indian-origin billionaire, who has never been shy about his ambitions or his belief in his own abilities.

While the statement was not made during his current campaign, it reflects his self-confidence. He sees himself as a cut above the rest. In fact, he reiterated the claim in 2023, when he told reporters that neither he nor Donald Trump would “do very well in a No. 2 post”.

Campaign ad sparks backlash

Brash, talented and ambitious, Ramaswamy is also given to stirring up controversy. A controversial advertisement released by his campaign in the last week of October has triggered a backlash, even among Republicans. The ad features Democratic rival Amy Acton's estranged mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a liar and questioning her fitness to hold public office.

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Acton was removed from her mother's custody as a child after her stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping her when she was 12. Her mother subsequently remained married to the man. The two have not been in contact for nearly five decades.

The advertisement, which Ramaswamy's campaign initially said it would spend $4 million to air, drew widespread condemnation. President Donald Trump defended Ramaswamy at a rally in Ohio, saying: “She (Acton's mother) said worse than that, horrible things about her own daughter, and the press, the fake news, criticised him (Ramaswamy).”

Ramaswamy also defended the advertisement. However, it is no longer being aired. His campaign said it had run its course, although the controversy drew considerable criticism, including from within the Republican Party.

The making of Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Indian-origin parents. His family migrated to the US in 1970. His mother worked as a geriatric psychiatrist, while his father was an engineer and patent lawyer at General Electric.

He had a comfortable middle-class upbringing and excelled academically. He imbibed much of Hindu religion and culture through regular visits to the temple in his neighbourhood and annual family holidays to India during his childhood.

He went on to study biology and graduated with distinction from Harvard in 2007. He subsequently worked for a hedge fund, where he is said to have made $7 million over seven years. In 2013, he earned a law degree from Yale. At 29, he founded Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company focused on developing drugs that larger companies had abandoned or shelved. His business ventures made him enormously wealthy, with Forbes estimating his fortune at around $630 million in 2023.

His conservative views aligned well with those of the Republican right. Like Trump, he does not believe climate change should dictate government policy. He has said people should be “proud to live a high-carbon lifestyle” and claimed that “more people are dying of bad climate change policies than they are of actual climate change”.

Ramaswamy supports conservative Republican positions on issues such as abortion and opposes affirmative action. He has also advocated restrictions on birthright citizenship.

Ramaswamy first came into the national spotlight with his presidential bid in the 2024 elections, positioning himself as an “America First”, anti-woke entrepreneur in the Republican primaries, where Donald Trump was the leading contender. He withdrew from the race on January 15, 2024, after finishing fourth in the Iowa caucuses, and quickly endorsed Trump.

After the election, Trump named both Elon Musk and Ramaswamy to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Ramaswamy eventually stepped aside to pursue his political ambitions in Ohio.

His pitch to Ohio voters

Ramaswamy's vision is to make Ohio the most affordable state in America, with abundant opportunities. He promises to put more money back in people's pockets and give their children a world-class education. Bringing down the cost of living is a major plank of his campaign.

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Recognising public anger over the proliferation of data centres across America, Ramaswamy has proposed pausing new projects until safeguards are put in place. He wants data centres to be located on abandoned industrial sites rather than fertile farmland. They must also provide electricity-cost relief to neighbouring residents and meet standards on water quality, noise and transparency.

Ramaswamy has also promised to phase out Ohio's state income tax, arguing that this would attract more people and businesses to the state. Several US states, including Florida, Texas, Washington, Nevada and South Dakota, do not levy a broad-based personal income tax. Such states rely more heavily on other revenue sources, including sales and property taxes, although their tax structures vary.

Ramaswamy believes that eliminating income tax will make Ohio more attractive to investors and encourage people to stay in the state.

Ramaswamy’s campaign received a boost from President Trump’s endorsement. Ohio voters last elected a Democratic governor in 2006; since then, Republicans have held sway. Trump won Ohio in 2016, 2020 and 2024. However, Ramaswamy faces a tough fight this time. Amy Acton is a physician who has been campaigning on the rising cost of living for ordinary Americans.

Other Indian Americans in fray

Apart from Vivek Ramaswamy, several other Indian Americans are contesting the November midterms. Some of the more prominent candidates are:

Ro Khanna is a House Democrat seeking re-election from California. Khanna is identified with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party and had backed Bernie Sanders as a presidential candidate in the 2016 primaries.

He is an experienced politician seeking a fifth term representing California’s 17th Congressional District. He has been a House Democrat since 2017.

He was in the news earlier this year when, during a visit to the West Bank, he and his delegation were stopped and detained by armed Israeli settlers carrying American-made M4 rifles. The settlers opposed the team's visit to a Palestinian village that had earlier been attacked by Jewish settlers. An altercation followed, and the IDF and police arrived and sided with the villagers. Ro Khanna and his team were finally allowed to leave only after the US embassy in Jerusalem intervened.

Khanna was born in Philadelphia to Indian immigrant parents who moved to the United States in the 1970s. His father is a chemical engineer, and his mother is a teacher. He graduated in economics from the University of Chicago and later obtained a law degree from Yale. Before entering politics, he taught at Stanford. He also served as deputy assistant secretary of commerce in the Obama administration. He is being challenged by another India-born American.

Ritesh Tandon, the Republican challenger to Ro Khanna, was born in India and moved to the US at the age of 28. He studied in India and holds a degree in mechanical engineering, as well as an MBA from Santa Clara University. He is the CEO of Kricel Corporation.

Tandon’s campaign focuses on lowering living costs, reducing taxes and regulations, promoting innovation and expanding AI education, strengthening border security, enforcing immigration laws and creating a fair system for legal immigration.

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Pramila Jayapal's name is remembered in India largely because of an incident involving External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. During a visit to Washington, he refused to meet a group of senior US congressional delegates because she was part of it. Jaishankar wanted to register India's displeasure with Jayapal for co-sponsoring a resolution calling on New Delhi to lift the communication embargo in the Kashmir Valley following the scrapping of the state's special status in 2019. Jaishankar demanded that Jayapal be dropped from the delegation. The lawmakers refused, and the meeting was called off.

Jayapal is a prominent progressive who has championed immigration reform, workers’ rights, income equality and affordable healthcare. She was first elected to Congress in 2016 and is serving her sixth term in the House, representing Washington state. She is the first South Asian American woman elected to Congress.

Saritha Komatireddy is a Republican contesting for the post of New York attorney general. A former federal prosecutor, she is challenging Democratic incumbent Letitia James.

Nithya Raman was born in Kerala and moved to the US with her family at the age of six. She is running for mayor of Los Angeles as a Democratic challenger. Raman holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a master’s degree in urban planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.