GOP gubernatorial candidate’s ‘close ties’ with Trump could sink his campaign: expert

Republican Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy won last week’s GOP primary and will face Democrat Amy Acton in November, but one political science expert warned Sunday that his close ties to President Donald Trump could sink his campaign amid the administration’s growing unpopularity with voters.

“Retired professor of political science from Baldwin Wallace University, Tom Sutton, believes Ramaswamy’s close ties to President Donald Trump could become a political challenge depending on how national issues develop over the coming months,” reads a report from WFMJ Weekend Today published on Sunday.

“Sutton indicated that if the war overseas continues and prices keep rising, voters could begin to shift their focus toward economic concerns heading into the fall.”

Trump won Ohio handily in the 2024 election, securing nearly 3.2 million votes to then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ 2.5 million. The state’s two U.S. senators are also both Republicans, and a Democratic presidential candidate hasn't won Ohio since Barack Obama in 2012, which he did so by a margin of just over 100,000 votes.

As Trump’s favorability among voters continues to plummet to dire lows, however, so too could Ramaswamy’s chances at securing victory come November, Sutton argued.

Trump’s favorability amid his wildly unpopular war against Iran may also make the Senate race in the state competitive, Sutton predicted, with GOP nominee Jon Husted set to face off against Democratic nominee Sherrod Brown.

“[Brown] has a $24 million campaign war chest so far, compared to $11 million for Husted. He has much better name recognition. And I think in this environment of rising prices, uncertainty, the war, etc., he has the advantage,” Sutton told WFMJ Weekend Today. “I think it’s more situationally based on how the economy is doing. November will tell us a lot.”