Republican governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is raising money like no governor candidate before him.
He’s also traveling unlike any other, too. He’s opting to travel across the state, sometimes flying round trip in the same day, in a private jet the Columbus-area billionaire personally owns.
Federal flight records show that Ramaswamy has flown on his jet from one Ohio city to another at least 18 times since he launched his campaign for governor in late February.
These flights made for quick trips out of what would have been long car rides for typical Ohioans. The campaign says the plane allows Ramaswamy to “efficiently reach voters across all 88 counties.” The campaign also said Ramaswamy’s donors aren’t picking up the tab.
The flights include trips to Lincoln Day Dinner fundraisers sponsored by Republican county parties. For instance, flight records show he flew April 18 from Columbus to Portsmouth for a Scioto County Republican Party event. On May 17, he boarded his plane to go from Columbus to Akron for an appearance before the Summit County Republican Party. He stayed overnight for both trips before flying home, flight logs show.
Ramaswamy also flew from Columbus to Cleveland five times. Two of these trips, on May 9 and June 9, were roundtrips on a single day.
Among his other flights, Ramaswamy visited multiple Ohio cities by air in a single day. Sometimes he left the state after making these kinds of stops.
Ramaswamy’s flight records also offer a glimpse of his other political activities. On Feb. 28, Ramaswamy flew to Washington, D.C., and then to West Palm Beach, near President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. That same day, Trump endorsed Ramaswamy in a social media message. On May 26, Ramaswamy flew to Las Vegas, around the time he spoke at a Bitcoin convention.
Some of Ramaswamy’s trips hint at his personal travel. For instance, he flew to New Orleans on Feb. 9, the day the Super Bowl was held there.
Democrats poke Ramaswamy for flights
Democrats reacted to Ramaswamy’s plane use after he disclosed it in a state campaign finance report this week. Democrats said his use of a private jet was an example of how Ramaswamy is of touch with the lives of typical Ohioans.
”It’s a Bird! It’s an … $80,000 A Month Plane?” teased the headline of an Ohio Democratic Party news release Friday morning.
An ODP spokesperson chided Ramaswamy specifically for flying on his jet from Akron to Columbus in May. Similarly, Phil Stein, campaign manager for Ramaswamy’s Democratic opponent, Dr. Amy Acton, jumped on the issue.
“Vivek Ramaswamy flies around in a fancy private jet that his campaign spends 80K a month on, so its no surprise that he would continue policies that help billionaires like himself instead of Ohioans who are struggling,” Stein said.
Both Acton and Ramaswamy are running to replace Republican Gov. MIke DeWine, who will leave office at the end of next year due to term limits. The election is in November 2026.
Whoever becomes governor will have two state-owned planes at their disposal. The governor’s office owns two aircraft – a seven-passenger Beechraft King Air 250 that was manufactured in 2013, according to the Columbus Dispatch, and a nine-passenger Beechcraft King Air 350i. The planes cost the state $4.25 million and $6.7 million, respectively.
Plane use documented in campaign finance records
Ramaswamy’s campaign finance report shows his campaign spent nearly $160,000 leasing the jet from V Leasing, a company whose corporate address matches that of a home he owns in the Cincinnati area.
V Leasing is the corporate owner of the plane Ramaswamy is traveling on, a 2011 Cessna 750 Citation X, federal aviation records show. Similar jets are listed for sale online for between $2.8 million and $6 million.
His state campaign finance records show Ramaswamy loaned his campaign $230,000 at the end of June to cover the cost of the plane’s use. Ramaswamy’s campaign said this documents how he is reimbursing the campaign so donors aren’t footing the bill.
Why the complicated arrangement?
Since Ramaswamy’s plane is technically owned by a corporation, V Leasing, using it without documenting it could run afoul of campaign finance law.
That’s because Ohio law bans political candidates from accepting direct corporate contributions, Don Brey, a longtime Republican campaign finance attorney, told Signal.
So Ramaswamy must essentially rent the plane at fair market value from his own company if he wants to use it. This is likely why the campaign made the arrangement, according to Brey.
Brey said it’s fairly common for presidential candidates to use private jets but more unusual to see state candidates doing so.
“Every single billionaire who has run for governor of Ohio has owned a plane,” Brey joked.
Ramaswamy used the same plane during his presidential campaign
Ramaswamy bought the plane in September 2023, federal aviation records show, during the final months of his presidential campaign. He ended his bid for the White House after finishing third in the Iowa caucuses. Ramaswamy told NBC News at the time that he wasn’t opposed to flying on commercial airlines, but he said flying in his own plane saved time.
“Flying private is the fastest way,” Ramaswamy told NBC News. “We’re looking at efficiency to do this.”
Ramaswamy’s mode of travel wasn’t entirely without inconvenience, though. NBC News also reported that Ramaswamy missed three campaign events due to plane troubles, in one instance annoying supporters who had shown up hoping to see him.
Ramaswamy canceled one event in Michigan after his cabin experienced “an unexpected cabin depressurization issue.” A woman in the audience told others in the crowd that the occasion marked the second time she’d unsuccessfully tried to see Ramaswamy in person.
“He’s in Ohio! He could have driven,” she told the room.
An earlier version of this story misattributed a quote from an Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson. It has been corrected.