FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 28, 2026
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NBC NEWS: REPUBLICAN TO BILLIONAIRE VIVEK RAMAMSWAMY: “PARK THE DAMN JET”
“[Ramaswamy] travels the state in a private plane at a time when affordability concerns — including a war-related rise in gas and diesel prices — are felt deeply in Appalachia.”
COLUMBUS, OH– Last week, NBC News highlighted Dr. Amy Acton’s grassroots campaign and her concerted efforts to reach voters in Ohio’s rural communities to share her plans to address the affordability crisis in what polls show is a “close race” for governor.
The story notes that Vivek Ramaswamy, on the other hand, underperformed in the primary and is struggling to connect with working Ohioans as he “travels the state in a private plane at a time when affordability concerns” are “felt deeply in Appalachia.” One former county GOP Chair told NBC News that Ramaswamy needs to “park the damn jet,” and a Republican City Council President, who is “very conservative” and has “never voted for a Democrat for governor,” endorsed Dr. Acton, saying Ohioans “want a change.”
- Democrats see opportunity this fall in the wide swath of rural counties where Ramaswamy won by smaller margins against a largely unknown opponent.
- Ramaswamy underperformed his statewide vote share in 29 of the 32 counties classified as Appalachia. Seven of his 10 weakest counties are in the region that rings eastern and southern Ohio along the Ohio River.
- Amy Acton, Ramaswamy’s Democratic rival, has made repeated trips to the area, which gets less attention and has fewer voters than large metro areas such as Columbus and Cleveland. During a two-day swing last week, she visited Shawnee State University here across the river from Kentucky, and she stopped in Marietta, where she boasts an endorsement from the City Council president — a Republican.
- “People are exhausted of being pitted against one another,” Acton, a physician and the state’s former health director, said after she toured an art gallery, a library and a 3D printing lab on Shawnee State’s campus. “They’re exhausted of the hate and chaos and vitriol, and they want us to just get back. They don’t really care what party you are.”
- …there are challenges unique to Ramaswamy, a billionaire who struck it rich in biotech. He travels the state in a private plane at a time when affordability concerns — including a war-related rise in gas and diesel prices — are felt deeply in Appalachia.
- “Park the damn jet,” said Nick Owens, a former GOP chair in Brown County and former member of the state Board of Education. “People want to see you in their neighborhoods and in their living rooms. There’s no reason to be flying around in a jet in Ohio.”
- The contest has become an expensive clash, with Ramaswamy partially self-funding his campaign and being boosted by ads from an outside group bankrolled by other wealthy businessmen, including Elon Musk. Acton’s fundraising has outpaced that of other Democratic nominees in the state.
- Acton, who talks often of having grown up poor in Youngstown, has emphasized Ramaswamy’s wealth and use of the private jet — “sort of an iconic easy contrast between us,” she said.
- Both candidates worked the crowd Tuesday at the Farm Science Review in rural Madison County, during the agricultural expo’s opening hours. Acton stopped by several exhibits before she tucked into a pork chop sandwich. A few blocks away, Ramaswamy, a vegetarian, posted up for a news conference at the Corn & Wheat building, where he deflected a question from NBC News about Republican criticism of his use of the private plane.
- Susan Vessels, Marietta’s Republican City Council president, said in an interview that Ramaswamy’s wealth and past support for data centers worry her. She based her endorsement in part on what she sees as Acton’s moderate approach.
- “…but I just think that Ohioans maybe want a change at this point.”
- When Acton visited last week to announce support for a three-year moratorium on wastewater injection wells in Marietta’s Washington County, Vessels introduced her.
- Vessels, who owns the building where the county GOP leases office space, said she has not heard any complaints about her support for Acton.
- “I’m a lifelong Republican,” she said. “I’m very conservative. I have never voted for a Democrat for governor.”
- Downriver, in Brown County, where Ramaswamy performed 10 points worse than his statewide baseline, Owens, the former county GOP chairman… has doubts, though, that Ramaswamy can carry southern Ohio’s counties by the margins he needs to win statewide.
- “I think anytime gas is hovering around $5 a gallon or diesel is near $7 a gallon and rural people’s way of life is under attack by the unprecedented destruction of farmland in their communities due to the growth of hyperscale data centers, it’s going to frustrate people,” Owens said. “My biggest fear is that there’s going to be a humongous enthusiasm gap on Nov. 3.”
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