Republican Ohio gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy has pledged to pursue an agenda focused on lowering costs, increasing paychecks and improving schools for all Ohioans, regardless of how they vote in the November election.
“My promise to everyone who votes for me: lower costs, bigger paychecks, better schools. My promise to everyone who doesn’t vote for me: lower costs, bigger paychecks, better schools,” Ramaswamy said in a post on X.
The message comes as Ramaswamy seeks to broaden his appeal ahead of the 2026 Ohio governor’s race while defending his approach to the state’s public higher education system.
Ramaswamy has recently sought to clarify a controversial proposal that was initially interpreted as a plan to consolidate Ohio’s public universities and potentially shut down institutions he considered “subpar.”
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During a recent town hall, Ramaswamy said his proposal was focused on consolidating duplicative academic programs rather than closing universities, according to The EDU Ledger. He said Ohio has too many programs that duplicate one another across its public universities and argued that streamlining them could help make higher education more efficient.
“We have too many duplicative programs in our universities,” Ramaswamy said during the town hall, according to the report.
The shift in emphasis follows criticism of his earlier proposal, which had been presented as a way to create a “more competitive, increasingly affordable, and rightsized higher education system for taxpayers and students.”
The proposal has also drawn concern from economists who argued that closing local public universities could reduce college access for students who rely on nearby institutions and have broader effects on local economies. Kevin Egan, a professor of environmental economics at the University of Toledo, said closing a local public university could reduce the number of commuters attending college and ultimately reduce the availability of workers in the economy, according to The EDU Ledger.
Ramaswamy’s revised position also comes as the state already has mechanisms to eliminate academic programs with low demand. According to The EDU Ledger, Ohio eliminated nearly 90 such programs in April.
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The Republican nominee’s latest comments place education within a broader economic message centered on affordability and wages. His promise to voters, including those who oppose him politically, reflects an effort to frame his campaign around policies that he says would benefit Ohio residents regardless of party affiliation.
The Ohio gubernatorial race is expected to be closely watched, with Ramaswamy facing Democratic candidate Amy Acton. The campaign is likely to feature debates over education, economic growth, affordability and the role of government in providing public services.
For Ramaswamy, the challenge will be to convince voters that his proposed changes to higher education can reduce duplication and costs without weakening access to colleges and universities that serve local communities.
His latest framing of the plan suggests that, if elected, his administration would seek to reorganize programs within Ohio’s higher education system rather than pursue a broad-based closure of public universities.