NBC News: Even Republicans Want “Weak Candidate” Vivek Ramaswamy to “Park the Damn Jet” 

NBC News: Even Republicans Want “Weak Candidate” Vivek Ramaswamy to “Park the Damn Jet” 

“Lifelong Republican” Marietta Council President Susan Vessels: “I just think that Ohioans maybe want a change at this point.”

New reporting from NBC covers the Ohio governor’s race where “totally out of touch,” Vivek Ramaswamy is facing criticism from Republicans for use of his “private plane at a time when affordability concerns — including a war-related rise in gas and diesel prices — are felt deeply in Appalachia.”

Ramaswamy, who “underperformed” in the primary and already faces a “tough political climate,” isn’t connecting with Ohioans who even Republicans say “want to see [him] in their neighborhoods and in their living rooms,” rather than spending $700,000 on his private jet.

Meanwhile, the report notes, Dr. Amy Acton has made this a “close race” as she campaigns hard in Ohio’s rural communities and shares how her personal story of overcoming homelessness and abuse has prepared her to bring down costs for Ohioans.

Read more about the contrast in Ohio’s race for governor:

• …Democrats see opportunity this fall in the wide swath of rural counties where Ramaswamy won by smaller margins against a largely unknown opponent. Ramaswamy underperformed his statewide vote share in 29 of the 32 counties classified as Appalachia. Seven of his 10 weakest counties are in the region that rings eastern and southern Ohio along the Ohio River.

• Amy Acton, Ramaswamy’s Democratic rival, has made repeated trips to the area, which gets less attention and has fewer voters than large metro areas such as Columbus and Cleveland. During a two-day swing last week, she visited Shawnee State University here across the river from Kentucky, and she stopped in Marietta, where she boasts an endorsement from the City Council president — a Republican.

• “People are exhausted of being pitted against one another,” Acton, a physician and the state’s former health director, said after she toured an art gallery, a library and a 3D printing lab on Shawnee State’s campus. “They’re exhausted of the hate and chaos and vitriol, and they want us to just get back. They don’t really care what party you are.”
• The challenges Ramaswamy faces stem in part from a tough political climate for Republicans nationwide, according to conversations with more than a dozen Ohio activists and operatives from both parties.
• But there are challenges unique to Ramaswamy, a billionaire who struck it rich in biotech. He travels the state in a private plane at a time when affordability concerns — including a war-related rise in gas and diesel prices — are felt deeply in Appalachia.

• “Park the damn jet,” said Nick Owens, a former GOP chair in Brown County and former member of the state Board of Education. “People want to see you in their neighborhoods and in their living rooms. There’s no reason to be flying around in a jet in Ohio.”
• Recent polls have shown a close race between Acton and Ramaswamy to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
• Susan Vessels, Marietta’s Republican City Council president, said in an interview that Ramaswamy’s wealth and past support for data centers worry her. She based her endorsement in part on what she sees as Acton’s moderate approach.
• “He’s very eloquent,” Vessels said of Ramaswamy, “but I just think that Ohioans maybe want a change at this point.”

###