Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio, has endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy to become governor of Ohio.
Ramaswamy, a former 2024 presidential primary candidate who briefly co-chaired President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, formally launched his 2026 gubernatorial campaign on Feb. 24.
Trump threw his support behind Ramaswamy’s bid nearly immediately, and now the biotech entrepreneur has received another key endorsement from Moreno, one of the Buckeye State’s two senators.
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Vivek Ramaswamy gives remarks to the audience at CTL Aerospace on Feb. 24, 2025, in Cincinnati, where he launched his Ohio gubernatorial campaign. (Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
“Vivek is an America-First outsider and the best person to make Ohio the very best state to live, work, and raise a family,” Moreno said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.
“I’m proud to join President Trump in endorsing a bold leader to be the next Governor of Ohio,” he added.
Moreno announced that he was endorsing Ramaswamy at an event Saturday night. “The first & sole moral duty of U.S. elected officials is to U.S. citizens,” Ramaswamy wrote on X, sharing a clip of Moreno’s remarks. “Senator Bernie Moreno understands that & doesn’t apologize for it. He’s a star in the U.S. Senate & I’m proud to earn his endorsement tonight. Our party is united in Ohio & we’re not going to squander it.”
The other U.S. senator from Ohio, Sen. John Husted, also a Republican, filled Vice President JD Vance’s vacated seat. It was Ramaswamy’s anticipated backing by Trump and strong financing that some political observers believe convinced Husted, formerly Ohio’s lieutenant governor, to accept the Senate appointment instead of launching a primary gubernatorial bid of his own. Husted was previously considered a likely frontrunner for governor.
Sen. Bernie Moreno gestures while talking to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick before President Donald Trump’s address to Congress in the U.S. Capitol on March 4, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, viewed as more of an establishment Republican, named Jim Tressell, a popular former Ohio State Buckeyes football coach, to replace Husted as lieutenant governor. Tressell’s future political ambitions remain unclear.
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The timing of Trump’s announcement intrigued Ohio political observers, who have watched over the past several years as his decisions to weigh in on key statewide races have gone from days before the election, to months, to now more than a year.
Robert Clegg, a longtime Republican campaign advisor in the state, told the Associated Press last month it may be meant as a message for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, or perhaps even Tressell. “This is awfully early in the game, and I expected an endorsement maybe later this year – as in, like the fall, or even wait until January,” Clegg said. “I wonder if the president doesn’t want to have a knock-down, drag-out primary here in Ohio.”
Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks during a campaign rally on Feb. 25, 2025, at the Glass City Center in Toledo. (Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Trump tantalized Republican candidates in Ohio’s bruising 2022 U.S. Senate primary until just 19 days before the election, when he backed Vance and pushed him over the finish line to secure the GOP nomination. Vance went on to win the general election for the Senate seat that fall. A year later, Trump issued his endorsement of Moreno for Senate three months before the primary. Moreno went on to win both the primary and the general election.
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Trump’s endorsement is expected to help Ramaswamy’s early campaign efforts in a state that’s resoundingly voted for Trump three times. In the run-up to his announcement, Ramaswamy had also lined up key political advisors who had helped Vance with his 2022 Senate bid, as well as the endorsements of two sitting statewide officials and well-known conservatives nationally, including Utah Sen. Mike Lee, Florida Sen. Rick Scott and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
