FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
September 30, 2026
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The New York Times: Vivek Campaigns From Private Jet While Dr. Amy Acton Travels Ohio in Her Jeep
“While Mr. Ramaswamy has spent at least $689,000 leasing private jets since declaring his candidacy… Dr. Acton has emphasized that she travels the state in a 2018 Jeep Wrangler that was made in Toledo.”
COLUMBUS, OH– Yesterday, The New York Times reported on the stark contrast between Dr. Amy Acton and self-funding billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy as they campaign to become Ohio’s next governor. While out-of-touch Ramaswamy spends hundreds of thousands on private jet travel that he tries to hide from the public, Dr. Acton “regularly trades blazers for T-shirts and visors” and travels across Ohio in her used, union-made Jeep.
READ: His Jet vs. Her Jeep: How Wealth Is Playing in the Midterms
- Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire pharmaceutical entrepreneur vying to become Ohio’s next Republican governor, has been an enticing target for Democrats.
- They have derided him daily as “out of touch” with regular Ohioans. They point to his international vacations, his $2 million mansion and most of all, the private jet he has used to turn two-hour drives into 23-minute flights.
- But Mr. Ramaswamy… has chosen to lean into his wealth.
- “Our opponents, they believe that success is something that we should villainize and penalize…”
- The midterms are coming in a year when inflation has left many Americans struggling to keep up with the rising prices of groceries and gas, but a rising stock market and artificial intelligence industry have made the rich far richer.
- The Ohio race, which has surprised many with its close margins, has this question at its heart: At a time when everything feels hard to pay for, do voters want a governor who says his success proves he can bring prosperity to others, or one who says she can solve struggles because she’s been through them herself?
- Throughout the race, the contrast between the two candidates has been embodied by their modes of transportation. While Mr. Ramaswamy has spent at least $689,000 leasing private jets since declaring his candidacy, according to campaign finance reports, Dr. Acton has emphasized that she travels the state in a 2018 Jeep Wrangler that was made in Toledo.
- The Jeep, with its dashboard rubber ducks and a license plate that says “SOOOHIO,” is a frequent star of Dr. Acton’s social media posts and advertisements. In her telling, it allows her to be on the ground with voters, while Mr. Ramaswamy is treating Ohio “like a flyover state.”
- [Dr. Acton’s Jeep is] driven by staff members so that it could continue to serve as a symbol of what she represents.
- Dr. Acton… regularly trades blazers for T-shirts and visors… At rallies and roundtables, she delivers her affordability proposals with a subtle side of billionaire blaming. She has promised to take aim at predatory lenders, corporate corruption and dark money lobbyists if elected.
- “There is a feeling like, why are the rich running our government?” said Ted Berry, the City Council president in Grove City, Ohio, a lifelong Republican who is supporting Dr. Acton. “We need candidates that are like us, that feel the same pains we do.”
- Mr. Berry, who voted for Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican who is term limited, but not President Trump, said Dr. Acton’s messaging is making inroads with moderates like him, even while his party works to paint her as unqualified and even unstable.
- [After an event] Mr. Ramaswamy was driven away in a black S.U.V. It was unclear if he was headed for his jet. Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign declined to let a New York Times reporter see the jet or to answer questions about his transportation.
- …Mr. Ramaswamy has kept his aircraft to himself. He does not photograph in front of it, nor does he bring it to events.
- One day last week, both candidates were traveling on foot in London, Ohio — trudging through the mud at the Farm Science Review, an exhibition of the latest in farming technology.
- Dr. Acton, in rain boots, made a show of consuming a pork chop sandwich.
- “Hi, I’m Amy, and I’m running for governor,” Dr. Acton said as she walked up to voters in the pork tent.
- “I’ve seen you on TV,” said Joe Falgner, a hay, corn and soybean farmer who shook her hand.
- Mr. Falgner didn’t like to tell his neighbors in Blanchester, Ohio, that he was a Democrat. But lately, when his friends complained about the cost of groceries and gasoline, Mr. Falgner had been saying, “Well, everybody in Columbus is a Republican, and they have been for 15 or 20 years. Who are you to blame?”
- In a barn a few hundred yards away, Mr. Ramaswamy told reporters about his plan to suspend the state’s gas tax for 90 days — a plan he unveiled six hours after Dr. Acton had called for an emergency gas tax holiday.
- But when Mr. Ramaswamy began taking questions, a reporter from NBC returned to the topic of the jet, saying, “I’ve talked to a number of Republicans who say — including Republican leaders in this state — who say, ‘Just park the jet, man.’ Why are you still flying around on a jet in Ohio?’”
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