Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said during a recent podcast interview that he would consider running for Ohio Governor.
“This is the number one thing that people across the state will come literally plead with me, beg me to do,” the Ohio native told Patrick Bet-David during a recent interview on “PBD Podcast.”
Ramaswamy said if he was asked the question six months ago, the answer would have been no, but that’s changed as Ohioans have begged him to run.
“It’s not something that I view as a pleasurable job. It’s not something that I have always aspired to in my whole life, but public service is about serving the public, right?” he said. “And so, would I consider it. Yes.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, having already served two terms in office, is ineligible for reelection in 2026.
Another question proposed to the entrepreneur is whether he’d consider running for Sen. JD Vance’s seat in the Ohio Senate after Vance was announced as former President Donald Trump’s running mate in the November election.
In a July interview, Vance told Fox News Digital he’d also consider the question, but his focus is first on getting the two elected.
“I think JD is going to make for an outstanding Vice President. The top job is first get him and President Trump elected,” he said.
If that succeeds, he said he’d consider running for Senate if that’s what’s needed.
“Running for Senate wasn’t something that I thought I was going to be doing, but in the moment that we’re in, I’m called to do what I think will allow me to have the maximal impact on saving the country,” he said.
In January, Ramaswamy announced his withdrawal from the November presidential election at his Iowa watch party at Surety Hotel in downtown Des Moines.
“I am so proud of every one of you who have lifted us up,” he told a crowd at the time.
He said he had called Trump the night before to let him know he had suspended his campaign and was giving him his endorsement.
Ramaswamy finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses with 7.7 percent of the vote, trailing former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
In the same interview with Fox, Ramaswamy said one negative to Vance’s vice presidential selection is the big shoes he’s left to fill in the Ohio Senate.
“It does leave a big wake in the Senate, a vacuum. He was one of our toughest fighters, and he is one of our toughest fighters in the Senate,” he said.