Vivek Ramaswamy snaps up JD Vance aides for Ohio gov campaign
Longtime political advisers to Vice President JD Vance are joining biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s expected 2026 campaign for governor of Ohio, The Post has learned.
Andy Surabian, who served as an adviser to Vance during the Republican’s 2022 Senate and 2024 vice presidential runs, confirmed to The Post he will oversee the outside political action committee aligned with Ramaswamy gubernatorial campaign.
Vance and Donald Trump Jr. ally Arthur Schwartz has added that he will work for the pro-Ramaswamy super PAC as well.
Other Vance alums in the pro-Vivek effort include Jai Chabria, who is going to serve as the campaign’s general consultant, and veteran Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, according to NBC News, which first reported on the hires.
“Expect Vivek to announce his candidacy in mid-February,” a source also told the outlet, noting that former Ramasamy aides Chris Grant, Michael Biundo and Ben Yoho were also joining the effort.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and state Treasurer Robert Sprague are among those known to be contending for the GOP gubernatorial nomination.
Ramaswamy, 39, and Vance, 40, are both Ohio natives and overlapped as students at Yale Law School in the early 2010s before heading up their own private investment firms.
Trump, 78, pushed Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to consider installing Ramaswamy in Vance’s open Senate seat earlier this month — but was rebuffed by the governor in favor of Lt. Gov. Jon Husted.
At the time, Ramaswamy was serving as a co-chair at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) but departed that non-governmental group to ready his second run for political office.
“It was my honor to help support the creation of DOGE,” he posted on Inauguration Day. “I’m confident that Elon & team will succeed in streamlining government.”
“I’ll have more to say very soon about my future plans in Ohio. Most importantly, we’re all-in to help President Trump make America great again!” he added.
The month before, Ramaswamy had posted a social media screed against “mediocrity” in American “culture” that earned the ire of MAGA insiders during a debate over providing H-1B visas for highly skilled tech workers.
“The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over ‘native’ Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture,” the “Woke, Inc.” author said at the time.
American culture has traditionally preferred “the prom queen over the math olympiad champ” and “the jock over the valedictorian,” Ramaswamy argued, leaving the US behind other countries in terms of developing engineering talent.
Ramaswamy unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination two years ago, dropping out and endorsing Donald Trump after the future 47th president recorded a smashing win in the January Iowa caucuses.
