Ohio’s 2026 governor’s race has been in the preseason so far, Vivek Ramaswamy told a crowd of supporters on Saturday.

“Now, we’re entering the real competition,” he said from the stage of a local Republican Party event near Cincinnati.

Ramaswamy marked the transition last Thursday with a $10 million ad campaign that he said will run through the November election. The spending is his first big outlay on mass market TV ads, which remain the primary way politicians reach voters, and comes about eight weeks before the primary election in May. 

Ramaswamy, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for governor, said the ads will distill the views he’s formed after spending last year listening to voters while criss-crossing the state.

“We have a clear policy vision. And now, it’s on me as the candidate and hopefully the next governor, to communicate back to every one of those people,” Ramaswamy said.

In an interview Saturday, Ramaswamy offered a window into how he’s thinking about the race, which so far appears closer than initially thought in a Republican-leaning state like Ohio. 

It doesn’t appear he will face a serious challenge in the May primary election against Toledo-area auto engineer Casey Putsch. But polling between Ramaswamy and Democrat Dr. Amy Acton, Gov. Mike DeWine’s former health director, shows a neck-and-neck race in November’s general election. DeWine is leaving office due to term limits.

The Ohio Environmental Council released a poll of Ohio voters last Thursday that showed Acton leading Ramaswamy 53%-43%, a margin that would be difficult to square with the state’s recent Republican tilt in statewide races. 

The survey nonetheless delivered a jolt of excitement to Democrats and sharply swung betting markets – with bettors flipping to favor Acton on Kalshi and Polymarket, the two main platforms for betting on politics and other everyday developments. Other polls show a tight race, which in the recent past has presaged a Republican win.

Ramaswamy ads without much Ramaswamy

Notably, Ramaswamy’s new ads don’t actually feature Ramaswamy that much.

One instead puts his wife front and center. Apoorva Ramaswamy, a throat surgeon at Ohio State University’s James Canter Treatment and Research Center, serves as the narrator for the commercial, which includes some shots of Ramaswamy and his young family.

The other features the Republican sheriff of Ottawa County, who touts Ramaswamy’s support for law enforcement.

David Niven, a political scientist at the University of Cincinnati, said Ramaswamy’s relative absence from his introductory commercials suggests Ramaswamy’s team might feel the candidate isn’t the campaign’s best spokesperson.

“If Republicans have a candidate for governor who doesn’t even star in his own campaign ads, this is an invitation for Democrats to come back to relevance,” said Niven, who worked as a speechwriter to former Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. “We’ll see if they answer it.” 

The Ohio Democratic Party issued a statement about the ads, calling them evidence that Ramaswamy’s campaign is “panicked” and “hiding their candidate.”

Ramaswamy said his ads are meant to show his commitment to family values and law and order. They’re coming now, he said, because of the proximity to the primary election.

Early voting for the May 5 primary begins on April 7. 

“It’s just the beginning. This is the tip of the iceberg. So stay tuned, man. There’s a lot more to come,” Ramaswamy said.

He also dismissed a question about the apparently tightening race, saying he doesn’t follow the horse race and will win decisively in November.

Here are a few other takeaways from comments Ramaswamy made on Saturday:

Ramaswamy distances himself from property tax abolition campaign…

While fielding questions from a group of reporters, Ramaswamy was asked whether he supports the longshot campaign to abolish property taxes by placing a constitutional amendment on the November ballot.

Ramaswamy, who recently met with the amendment campaign’s leaders, said he supports cutting property taxes. But, he said he’s developing an “independent view” of how to do so.

“We’re going to deliver the biggest property tax cut we have ever seen in the history of our state. We have a pragmatic way to do it, in a way that does not in any way hurt police, fire or the quality of our schools,” Ramaswamy said.

… but doesn’t back off floating ending summer vacation

Signal Statewide also asked Ramaswamy about a video he posted on social media in November in which he floated year-round public school as a way to help families save money on childcare.

Ramaswamy’s campaign quickly deleted the video without explanation, leading some prominent pro-Ramaswamy influencers to falsely assert it was fake.

“I think that we’ve got to be open-minded to different approaches to make sure that we’re bringing up the quality of education, especially in poorer communities,” Ramaswamy said before going on to emphasize his support for school choice policies.

“I believe in choice at every level, intra choice, even within a public school district, choice between public schools and alternatives to public schools,” he said. 

Ramaswamy attacks Acton while praising DeWine

One of the main Republican cases against Acton involve attacking her over actions that ultimately were taken by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

Twisting things up further, DeWine has endorsed Ramaswamy, and on Saturday, Ramaswamy praised DeWine’s leadership of Ohio. 

The criticism stems from Acton’s tenure during the coronavirus pandemic, when she served as DeWine’s state health director and advised him as he ordered schools, businesses and other parts of public life to close.

DeWine has said he alone is responsible for his administration’s decisions.

From the stage at the Republican event on Saturday, Ramaswamy made it sound like Acton personally closed down the schools, erasing DeWine’s role.

“That is a stark choice that we have again ahead of us: a governor who believes in growing our economy versus a governor who believes in shutting down our economy,” Ramaswamy said on stage Saturday, going on to make a similar statement about schools.

“I think we’re building on a great foundation here,” Ramaswamy said afterward. “I’m grateful that we have so much to celebrate as a state, a lot of progress we’ve made under Governor DeWine. My goal is to take Ohio to the next level.”