Vivek Ramaswamy’s Plan to Revive Ohio: Jobs, Schools, Energy | Leading Edge Extra

He announced his candidacy for Ohio governor in late February, and at that time, we were lucky enough to get a sit-down interview, and now, four months later, he's back in Northwest Ohio. We are so honored to have Vivek Ramaswamy with us once again here on Leading Edge. Good to see you. Thanks for coming in. We appreciate it. It's good to see you, Jeff. Talk to me a little bit about the last four months. And I was speaking with somebody earlier, and we were saying, this is kind of a reintroducing of Vivek to Ohio, because they knew you as something different. Well, look, I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. My parents came there about four or five decades ago with nothing. I've lived the American dream in this state, and so this state has always been home to me. But you're right, I am new to elected office in Ohio, so we took a few months to really travel this state. You said we were in Northwest Ohio four months ago. We have been here many, many times between then and now as well, and my favorite part of this campaign. There was more fanfare in February. Let's say that. There was a lot of fanfare. There's been a lot of fanfare in a lot of the events we've been fortunate to come to since as well. But what I've enjoyed the most is really the one-on-one conversations we've had with individual Ohioans working hard in this state. What are they telling you? And look, I think the number one issue on people's minds is how do we actually get that sense of economic mobility back? And to me, that starts young. Starts with actually restoring educational excellence, educational achievement in our education system. And the three things I want to accomplish for our state is, number one, I want to turn around our workforce shortages to really create an abundance of not only business success, but trained, skilled workers in our state who are able to fill those open positions to address the looming energy crisis in this state. We do have a shortage of electricity coming up in the next few years that I'm going to help turn around. And then third, and perhaps most importantly for the long run. You're saying shortage of electricity being available period on the grid? Yeah, because- Why is that? Well, right now, as a lot of people aren't aware of this, Jeff, and I'm glad we're talking about it, there's more demand on our electric grid coming to our state than we've ever had because of the AI data centers moving into our state. Of which we will have a few popping up. And I think this can be a good thing for our state if we're prepared. But on the flip side, our base load power generation capacity is thinner than it's ever been with the political attack on coal and natural gas. And so that supply demand imbalance is a real risk. AEP is warning that we might be having rotating blackouts in the summer of 2027 in the state of Ohio. Not in the third world, not even in California, but in Ohio. And to me, that's unacceptable. You think that's real? I think that's absolutely a real risk. What I'm focused on as governor is making sure that we turn that ship around and make sure that we have energy abundance in Ohio. That we have workforce abundance with skilled Ohioans who are able to fill those open jobs. And most importantly for the long run, addressing the educational achievement crisis in our country by actually standing for the excellence and achievement of our students. That's what I'm passionate about. And the way I look at this, Jeff, is this isn't about left versus right. This is about up versus down. We're choosing up for the state of Ohio. It's a mandate for common sense. And that's what I was going to say. In traveling the state, it's great to have a lot of Republicans who have turned out and We have unprecedented Republican unity in our state. But I'm not in this just to lead those Republicans. I'm meeting with a lot of voters who haven't traditionally thought of themselves as Republicans. Or conservatives. Or even conservatives. Yes. But who believe in this agenda and vision for common sense for Ohio. And that's what gives me great hope for what we're going to be able to achieve. How far, how many weeks out are we from starting to drop some policy? Oh, we've already been dropping policy for those who've been listening throughout the campaign. Okay. Far more specific than probably any other candidate has gotten at this stage of a race. I wanted to ask. We're going to continue to do that over the course of this race. A lot of innovative policy solutions that don't necessarily fall within the traditional Republican versus Democrat spectrum. Increasing the effectiveness of our university administration. K through 12 education. The energy policies that we're talking about. You've talked merit-based pay before as far as teachers are concerned. We've gone into detail in general about an education system that stands for the achievement of our students above all else. I mean, I personally believe that the best K through 12 teachers actually deserve to be paid a lot more than the starting salary of $40,000 a year. But it's just got to be tied in some way to performance management. The same way that you'd run a business for your employees with performance management. You want to bring that to other domains, like the way we're leading and running our public schools as well. Let me give you an opportunity. That's going to be good for everybody. Let me give you an opportunity to kind of explain a little bit, because I know there have been some editorials out there, even our Toledo Blade, talking a little bit about your tax policies going forward, how you look at property taxes, how you look at income taxes. Sure. Set the record straight. Where are you on those right now? So here's my perspective, Jeff, is that we need to actually encourage more Americans to move into Ohio rather than out of Ohio. A lot of Ohioans, especially business leaders and others, are leaving for places like Florida, like Tennessee. We need to be competitive. So in the long run, because of income taxes, because of the tax and regulatory burden in this state. OK, well, look at it as we're red state, but we often act like we're a state of red tape. And I want to get that bureaucracy government overreach out of the way. And some of that does come with relieving the tax burden on Ohioans. Let's start with the property tax issue. This is a major issue for Ohioans across our state. Democrat and Republican alike. We have Ohioans in our state, many of whom are paying more in their property taxes than they are in the combined interest and principal repayment on their mortgage, sometimes a lot more. And I think that's antithetical to our values. I think it's un-American because it starts to feel a lot like the home that you own is really just a lease from the government. So many elder Ohioans who I've met are afraid they're going to have to move out of their house because somebody reappraised the value of their house to be higher than they planned for when they don't even have the income to pay for it. Younger Ohioans who I meet are worried about being able to buy a bigger home or even a first home and yet don't have the ability to do it because of the fear of what the property tax burden is going to be. So we're going to fix that problem with some common sense solutions. First of all, bring ballot transparency. Tell people what they're voting for. One of the things I've found, Jeff, is that many people in our state don't realize that they're voting for actually the kind of property tax increases that in turn actually affect what they pay. So I favor ballot transparency. Tell somebody if your house is $200,000 a year, here's how much more you're going to pay in property taxes. If it's $400,000, here's how much more you're going to pay. Be open with people. And the other thing I do favor is a lot of older Ohioans suffer from when a bureaucrat tells them your house is actually worth more, therefore you pay more in property taxes even though they didn't sell their house. There's no market transaction. But how does this argument lend to help schools? Because obviously levies have come up. You asked a question about tax policy. I just want to finish addressing that. So my perspective is I want to relieve the tax burden in the state, both property tax burden as well as income tax burden. There's eight other zero income tax states in the country. I think Ohio should join that club. Ohio should be a state where you keep what you earn, where we embrace success, where we embrace economic growth. So from where do the taxes come? And so right now, I mean, the fact of the matter is Ohio is not competitive with other states like Florida and Texas. We're going to turn that ship around. There's so many people even here in northwest Ohio who go live six months in a day in Florida. We're missing out on their economic activity here because they go there for the tax rate. So I actually want to bring more of that economic activity, growth to Ohio. That'll mean more revenue from sales taxes because people are spending that money right here in Ohio. Is that instantaneous or does that take years to develop? It's going to take years. And we're going to gradually, steadily get there over time in a common sense way. I also want to bring other sources of revenue to our state that we haven't historically brought. I'll give you some examples. I've spent a lot of time up on Lake Erie. I've spent a lot of time traveling the state. We should be a summer tourism destination for the country. I won't argue for winter tourism outside of Cedar Point. But well, you know, Cedar Point, I think I'd like to see Cedar Point's influx even grow as well. I was just there for Father's Day with my kids, actually, who loved it there. They asked me, why don't we live there? But the fact of the matter is we should be a summer tourism destination. That's a great source of revenue for people visiting our state. I want Ohio to also be an incorporation capital for the country, like Delaware is. They get a lot of revenue. Delaware's actually faltering. They're having some issues with the incorporation statutes. Delaware, Ohio, you're speaking. No, I'm talking about Delaware, the state. Delaware, the state. Delaware, the state is a state that derives a lot of income that come from incorporation revenue from companies that incorporate there. Those incorporation fees drive a lot of revenue for the state of Delaware. I want Ohio to be that incorporation capital, especially because Delaware's faltering on some of those issues. We've got about a minute left. These are creative, out-of-the-box ideas, but as I said, it's not left versus right. It's up versus down, and we choose up for it. We've got about a minute left in this segment. I just want to hit on schools, specifically. How do you fund them going forward? Well, the key matter is... I'm speaking public schools, of course. So here's my view on public education, my view on all education. The purpose of our education system is to stand for the achievement of our students. And frankly, too many people are asking the question, more money, less money. There's the real question we ought to ask is, how is the money we're already allocating being spent? And the sad truth, Jeff, is it's not being spent very well. But is that because of the structure? Well, here's one reason why. A majority of the funds dedicated to public education don't even go to classroom instruction. I think the best teachers deserve to be paid more, tied to some performance outcomes. But yet those teachers aren't the ones benefiting from that education, from that education funding. It goes to overhead. It goes to other costs. So I think we have to take a real hard look at how our education system is functioning. How do we lead the country in math, reading, writing, physical education, civic education? But let me ask... That's the question I want to ask. Not some accounting exercise. I'm a numbers guy. We can get to that. Of course. But the basic question on education policy has been reduced to this accountant exercise. When nobody's asking the more basic question of what is actually the purpose of our education system, I believe it's the achievement of our students. And yet that is not how our schools have been run. And as a governor, I'm committed to changing that. Because especially as we enter an era of AI and automation, when kids in China are four full years ahead of the average student here on a peer-to-peer comparison, to me that's unacceptable. And I want... I don't care whether you're Democrat, Republican, urban or rural. We're going to stand for our students getting a world-class education right here in Ohio. And my hope is, Jeff, they remain right here in Ohio as they live that American dream. That's what we need to focus on. Avoid brain drain in the Buckeye State. We're going to take our first break. We'll be right back. When we come back, I want to talk a little bit about the field that exists right now running for governor and those who aren't in the race. Stay with us. Welcome back once again here on Leading Edge with Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Kind enough to sit down with us once again. Four months. Too long. But you said you've been in northwest Ohio a few times. I wanted to talk a little bit about who's in the race, who's not in the race. And one of those names that's popped up of a possibility is former U.S. House Representative Tim Ryan, Democrat from the eastern side of the state. He had this to say to WKYC just a few days ago. Again, I don't know him, but I've listened to him now for the past couple of years and really some very extreme positions, I think. You know, I mean, about how are we going to fund public schools with no property tax and you're going to get rid of the sales tax and you're going to get rid of the income tax. It's like it's a level of, you know, rainbows and unicorns that I don't think the Ohioans, you know, are aligned with. You know, I think him being so involved with with Doge and that kind of reckless approach to reinventing government, I believe we need to reinvent government. But like we don't want chaos in Ohio. And I think he would bring a lot of chaos to the state. Once again, Tim Ryan, not in the race yet. I do want to mention and Lieutenant, former lieutenant governor, now Senator John Husted has said to us, Ohio has had its own Doge for the last few years. Your response to what he said. Do you bring chaos to government? Well, it's not my advice to Tim Ryan would be pay attention to what I'm actually running on. Doesn't sound like he's been listening very carefully, though. I'd be glad to have a conversation with him. The fact of the matter is those talking points he's thrown out. Well, I think there's some of them are false points. I've never said anything about eliminating the sales tax. I've talked about capping property taxation, not eliminating it, but I encourage him to pay attention. And he's not in the race. So maybe he's not. But the fact of the matter is, I do stand for an energy boom in this state. Let's get the natural gas out from under our ground and increase the supply to bring down those electricity and energy costs. I do believe the best public school teachers deserve to be paid a lot more than they are right now. But it's got to be tied to some measure of performance. These are examples of policies that I espouse that I'm sorry if he finds them extreme. But most Ohioans I talk to find them, Jeff, to be squarely common sense, not even Democrat versus Republican. This is about anybody who is a parent, anybody who's a working family in this state, I believe understands that we want educational and economic empowerment in the state of Ohio. That's what I'm running on. And the fact of the matter is, I'm not running against Tim Ryan. The fact of the matter is, I'm not really running against anybody. I'm running for a vision for our state. I want to see Ohio be not just one of the better states in the Midwest, because frankly, we are already one of the better states in the Midwest. I want to see Ohio be the top state in the country to raise that young family, to start that business and grow it, to give our kids that world class education and for us to actually be the state that patriots across this country flock to, not just Texas or Florida. And that includes so many of our kids and grandkids who have left our state to pursue opportunity elsewhere. It's one of the top issues we face is our younger educated workers are the ones who are tending to leave. And I'm a father of two sons. This is personal to me. I've lived the American dream, but I've lived it by in part growing up and being born and raised here in Ohio. And this country has allowed me to achieve more than my parents would have ever dreamed of when they came here four and a half decades ago. But I want my kids to grow up and live that American dream by staying right here in Ohio. And those are common sense reforms. And so, you know, I think people may fearmonger to say any kind of change is a bad change. To me, the changes we want to make are common sense, grounded reforms that will grow the economy and ensure that our kids get a better education. And that's what I'm in favor of. One of the criticisms that's been thrown out has been you didn't come up through the system. You weren't that triple-A player in the state of Ohio, if we can go back to our, we were talking baseball before we came out here, but no, no, no. But you know, you, you look at yourself and from where you came, you don't have a huge political background. If Jim, Lieutenant Governor Jim Trestle were to get into this race, which still hasn't been announced, he may get the current governor's backing, but he also an outsider, but has name recognition to go along with it. Look, I feel very good about where we are right now. Not just for my candidacy, but for where we are as Ohio. We've, you've been around this block for quite a bit. All right. We have never seen Republican unity like this in our party, in the history of our state. Absolutely. We have Republican legislators in a majority of both of them in both chambers having endorsed me. The state party endorsed me in an unprecedented early endorsement by a vote of 60 to three. I'm running on a post in the Republican primary at this point, Jeff, but I'm not in this to just unite the Republicans. I don't care if you're an orphaned Reagan Democrat, libertarian, independent, or for that matter, politically homeless. If you care about giving your kids that same shot at the American dream that this state gave to me and to my family, if you care about our kids getting that world-class education, I don't care what you call yourself. We're going to work together to lead our state to the next level. Let me ask you, this is a moment for a one Ohio mentality, and that's the kind of governor I want to be. It's the kind of governor we deserve. And to your point, it is fair to say. I'm not, I've not been an elected official in Ohio. It's fair. But I think now is a moment where our state would actually benefit from a new generation of leadership to lead that next generation of Ohioans, to bring that fresh perspective. And I'm going to surround myself, as we already have with the people who have endorsed me, for people who do have great experience in our state government to together lead our state to the next level. You mentioned party unity, but I also want to talk to you about political temperature and your concerns going forward. We just had a gentleman, a suspect in Minnesota, who put a hit list together, shot a couple of representatives out there and state officials, and Marcy Kaptur was on that list. Your concerns going forward as far as the temperature, the rhetoric that's out there, and continuing on this train. I have a lot of concerns. I think political violence is unacceptable in America. It has no place in our country. The beauty of our country is that we're free to disagree respectfully, openly, through free speech and open debate. But at our best, Jeff, we still get together at the dinner table at the end of it. I'll tell you a story of where we did that literally in the course of even those last few months since you and I met. I was speaking at the Wayne County Republican GOP Lincoln Day dinner. There was a protester outside who was upset with me. Turns out she was a Vietnam War veteran who mistakenly thought that somehow I was going to cut her veterans' benefits. I told her, no way. We would never do that. I invited her inside, and she was somebody who was protesting our event angrily. We came in inside. The two of us had dinner. She sat at the head table with me. And at the end of the night, we had her stand up, and the entire audience applauded for her as a Vietnam-era war veteran, despite the fact she started the night as a protester outside. I called her up on stage, and she told that entire audience that you all have changed my perspective on Republicans tonight. That's what I think we need more of, is in-person dialogue, not just following into these media-created and social media-created echo chambers. It's the kind of leader Ohio deserves. And I view that as part of my responsibility. I'm not in this to just lead the people who agree with me. I'm in this to lead everybody in this state, to unite Ohio, urban and rural alike, not just Columbus versus the rest of the state. I want a one-Ohio mentality. The success of Ohio, in my book, includes the success of every part of Ohio. And I do think that it's important that we have leaders that embrace that spirit of unity in a positive way, that acknowledge we don't agree on everything, but create a respectful environment. And I think that's a big part of my responsibility as the next leader of this state. Does it give you pause, as a politician, as somebody with your background? Do you look at it as, there are those out there who are evil? There is hate in the world. What I look at it as... And I'm out front and center. So what I look at it as, it's my responsibility. I'm in this to lead. I'm guided by gratitude. You think about this state and our country allowed me to live an American dream that isn't possible anywhere on planet Earth. I've lived that American dream. I feel a sense of responsibility to this state and to our country to pass that on. And we can't do that in an environment of heated political violence. God forbid that comes to the United States. I'm confident that our country is going to be stronger on the other side of some turbulent years that we've been through. But I'm not a passive observer in this, Jeff. I'm not a media commentator. I'm in this to be a leader of our state. And so I view this as not a person who just takes pause at this. No. I view it as my responsibility and my duty, my civic duty to help lead our state to make sure that that type of toxic political violence or culture never comes to our own home state. Before I let you go, I have to ask, obviously you were hand in hand with Elon Musk. You were part of the Doge commitment. Have you talked to him? Did you see the split between he and Donald Trump, President Trump, as theater? Do you think it was legit? What I will say is, look, I have a great relationship with President Trump. I have a great relationship with Elon. Both have endorsed me in this race, as have countless national leaders. I can talk about myself. One thing about me is that I'm an executive by background. I'm an entrepreneur who's built businesses. I know that I'm best suited to lead from the front, which is why I believe that I'd be best suited to lead Ohio as governor. As President Trump does a great job, I hope and expect for the future of our country, I'm going to aim to do the same thing in our own home state. I think that Ohio's best days and our country's best days are still yet ahead of us. I'm done with yesterday's politics of bickering. I'm focused on how we actually unite our state to create a stronger Ohio, to be the state where the American dream is possible for every one of our kids. That's what I'm fighting for every day here. I'm just so excited to get started, frankly, in a year and a half, to start leading the state back to our place of greatness in our country. It's good to see you again. We appreciate the time, as always. Thanks for having me. Vivek Ramaswamy. We'll be back.