Tom Zawistowski, president of the Ohio-based We the People Convention, said the Republican establishment in Ohio is “threatened” by businessman and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s bid for governor.
On Monday, Ramaswamy officially launched his bid for Ohio governor during a campaign rally at CTL Aerospace Inc. in his hometown of Cincinnati.
Hours after launching his campaign, Ramaswamy received the endorsements of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk.
Zawistowski, a long-time grassroots activist for conservatives in Ohio, said that while the grassroots movement is “ecstatic” about Ramaswmay’s campaign for governor, the Republican “mafia” in the state is threatened.
“From the grassroots side, obviously, we’re ecstatic. There were lots of young people at [Ramaswamy’s] announcement, all different demographics. But the mob, the mafia, the Republican Party of Ohio also responded rather aggressively,” Zawistowski explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“The gloves are off and this is going to be a real interesting battle…All of the establishment Republicans here in Ohio are phonies. They’ve always been phonies, and they are very threatened because you’re seeing what’s going on in the panic in D.C. [with DOGE]. You can imagine the panic in a state like Ohio if someone like Vivek comes out and says, ‘Hey, we want merit based pay for teachers,’ when the teachers union funds all the Republicans in Ohio. They’re in full panic mode in Columbus and they are going to do everything they possibly can to stop Vivek from becoming governor. We the people, the grassroots of Ohio, are going to have a real fight on our hands to make sure he wins,” Zawistowski added.
Zawistowski said the fight against Ramaswamy “isn’t going to be rational” given that the businessman is campaigning on ideas that have “hamstrung Ohio for decades under Republican leadership.”
“If you listen to his speech, who could be against what he’s talking about? It’s every single problem that has hamstrung Ohio for decades under Republican leadership. So for the Republican leadership to strike back at him as if those things aren’t necessary, it’s just terrible because the people know that they’re necessary,” Zawistowski said.
Ramaswmay’s fight to be the next governor, Zawistowski said, is likely to be comparable to Trump’s fight to retake the White House where he endured every attack thrown at him from the left.
“This isn’t going to be rational. This is going to be what we’ve seen forever here in the United States and what Donald Trump faced and what we all faced last November, and that is big money buying lies to mislead voters to try to really stop the will of the people. That’s what President Trump was up against,” Zawistowski explained.
“It’s all about lies and propaganda, and boy, you take a state like Ohio, they’ll spend a hundred million dollars saying things about Vivek that are just absolutely not true,” Zawistowski added.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Ohio Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
