JD Vance’s Top Political Advisers to Lead Ramaswamy Running for Governor of Ohio

Vice President JD Vance’s The political team, including two top advisers, will soon join Vivek Ramaswamy, who has announced the 2026 Ohio Gubernatorial Run, a source with knowledge confirmed to Fox News.

The news follows conversations between Ramaswamy and Vance, who until he dropped out earlier this month to assume the vice presidency was a senator from Ohio, added the operator, who asked to remain anonymous. speak more freely.

Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotech entrepreneur And the former GOP presidential candidate has been putting the pieces together for weeks to launch a gubernatorial campaign in the race to succeed GOP Gov. Mike Dewine of Ohio, who is term-limited and cannot seek the reelection

“Expect Vivek to announce his candidacy in mid-February,” the source told Fox News.

Ramaswamy made Doge as he heads to the campaign trail

Ramaswamy was among the contenders who challenged President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out of the race and becoming a Trump ally and surrogate.

Vance’s two advisers are Andy Surabian and Jai Chabria, who played major roles in Vance’s 2022 Senate race and his vice presidential campaign last summer and fall, after Trump named the first-term senator as managing partner

Musk and Ramaswamy ignite Maga war over skilled worker immigration

The Based in Ohio Chabria, a veteran of Buckeye state politics, is expected to serve as a general consultant to Ramaswamy’s campaign.

Surabian, who is also a top adviser to Donald Trump Jr., the president’s eldest son, and a senior figure in the MAGA movement, will lead an outside political group allied with Ramaswamy.

Tony Fabrizio, the veteran Republican pollster who worked on Trump’s 2016 and 2024 campaigns as well as Vance’s 2022 Senate campaign, is also on board, the source said, as is Arthur Schwartz, another close Vance ally and Donald Trump Jr.

Vance, who has known Ramaswamy since they were both at Yale Law School, has made his mark on Ohio politics since winning his 2022 Senate election in the key swing state to the right over the past decade.

Vance approved now. Bernie Moreno ahead of 2024 GOP Senate primary victory and key members of Vance’s political team ran Moreno’s campaign.

“It should come as no surprise that JD’s top operatives are working with Vivek, given that JD and Vivek have had a long-standing friendship,” a source in Vance’s political orbit told Fox News.

An Ohio-based Republican operative, who requested anonymity to speak more freely, said Vance is “sending a message” with the move.

He added that the advisers joining Ramaswamy’s effort are “an All-Star caliber campaign team.”

Click here for the latest Fox News reports on Vivek Ramaswamy

Also part of that team, according to the source, are three veterans of Ramaswamy’s White House campaign: Ben Yoho, Mike Biundo and Chris Grant.

Ramaswamy, now 39, launched his presidential campaign in February 2023 and quickly saw his stock rise as he went from a long shot to a contender for the Republican nomination.

He campaigned on what he called an “America First 2.0” agenda and was one of Trump’s biggest supporters in the challenger camp, calling Trump the “most successful president of our century.”

Ramaswamy dropped his bid for the White House a year ago after a distant fourth in the Iowa caucuses and quickly endorsed Trump, becoming a top surrogate on the campaign trail.

Trump, in the days after his November presidential election victory, appointed Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, along with Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency Initiative, which is better known by its acronym Doge.

But last Monday, when Trump was inaugurated, the new administration announced that Ramaswamy was no longer serving at Doge. Ramaswamy’s departure appears to clear the way for Musk, Trump’s top donor and key ally, to run Doge without having to share the stars.

“It was my honor to help support the creation of Doge. I am confident that Elon & Team will succeed in streamlining the government. -In to help President Trump make America again! “, wrote Ramaswamy.

Dewine announced a week and a half ago that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted would fill the U.S. Senate seat Vance held until he stepped down ahead of the Trump/Vance inauguration.

Before the Senate announcement, Husted had planned to run for governor in 2026 to succeed Dewine. Ramaswamy, meanwhile, had expressed interest in serving in the Senate.

Dewine’s decision to pick Husted to fill the vacant Senate seat appeared to accelerate Ramaswamy’s advance toward launching a run for governor.

Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, a key Trump ally in the Senate, endorsed Ramswamy’s gubernatorial bid on Monday.

“I have had the privilege of working closely with Vivek G. Ramaswamy, and he is totally focused on trying to save our country,” Scott said in a social media post.

The race for the GOP gubernatorial nomination could be competitive. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, 68, announced late last week that he is running for governor.

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Ramaswamy’s move to run for governor also comes a couple of weeks after he and Musk sparked a firestorm among Trump hard core MAGA supporters over their support for H-1B temporary worker visas for highly qualified workers from foreign countries.

Ramaswamy’s comments criticizing an American culture that he said “worships mediocrity over excellence” received a great deal of momentum from some voices on the right, as well as some in the political circle. from Trump

Once a general election battleground, Ohio has turned red over the past decade as Republicans have dominated statewide elections.