Washington: Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is in a neck-and-neck battle with Democrat Amy Acton in the gubernatorial race in Ohio, with a latest opinion poll giving the Indian-American entrepreneur a slender three-point lead over his rival.
Endorsed by US President Donald Trump last year, 41-year-old Ramaswamy entered the election for Ohio Governor as a clear favourite but is now facing a tough challenge from Acton, the former state health chief.
If Ramaswamy wins the November 3 election, he will become the third person of Indian descent to hold a gubernatorial post after Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Nikki Haley in South Carolina.
However, the biotech billionaire has had a tough campaign, and his attempt to reach out to college students in Ohio ended in disaster in July when he was forced off stage by a right-wing crowd over his “winners versus whiners” speech.
“Are you in the camp of people in this country who want to win? Or are you in the camp of people who want to whine?” he asked a young crowd, which responded with boos and heckling and forced him to “peace out”.
A CNN-SSRS poll, conducted between September 29 and October 5, gave Acton an eight-point lead over Ramaswamy in the state, which was last won by Democrat Ted Strickland in 2006.
The ActiVote survey conducted between September 27 and October 19 gave Ramaswamy a three-point lead over Acton.
Prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket showed 70 per cent chances of Acton winning the gubernatorial race against 31 per cent for Ramaswamy on Monday.
Born in Cincinnati on August 9, 1985, Ramaswamy traces his roots to Palakkad in Kerala, from where his parents shifted to the US.
Raised in Ohio, Ramaswamy was an accomplished pianist, a nationally ranked tennis player and already a millionaire by the time he graduated from Yale Law School in 2013.
In 2023, Ramaswamy launched his presidential campaign but backed out after a poor showing in the Iowa primaries and endorsed Trump.
After the 2024 election win, Trump appointed Elon Musk and Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He opted out soon after to announce a bid for the Ohio Governor’s post with blessings from Trump.
However, the poll race appears tough for Ramaswamy, with both Trump and Vance visiting the state several times to keep it in the Republican fold.
Vance is scheduled to campaign in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday, his second election rally within a fortnight.
Trump won Ohio in the three presidential elections he contested in 2016, 2020 and 2024. The state has never elected a woman as a Governor and rejected Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris as presidential contenders.
