Ramaswamy’s personality, Trump’s revenge define Ohio, Indiana primaries

A pair of Midwestern primaries on May 5 will offer insight into the fall campaigns, including whether conservative voters are fed up with President Donald Trump's demands for obedience from Republicans.

Voters in Ohio and Indiana are heading to the polls to choose nominees for Congress and statewide offices, which have proven to be critical in terms of aiding or blocking the Trump administration's policy goals.

Chief among them: a race featuring former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, whose bid to lead Ohio − much like his unsuccessful 2024 White House campaign − has been driven largely by divided opinions of his distinctive personality.

"He is a polarizing figure," said Jessica Taylor, an analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which forecasts U.S. elections.

The 40-year-old biotech mogul is known for his entrepreneurial bravado and verbose declarations about the direction of American culture. He has unloaded $25 million of his own money into this election and shoved other credible Republican rivals out of the race last year after being endorsed by big names in the GOP, including Trump.

That would normally make Ramaswamy a safe bet in Republican-leaning Ohio, where Trump won by 12 percentage points in 2024. The state hasn't elected a Democratic governor in roughly two decades.

But the likely general election contest against Democrat Amy Acton, the state's former COVID-19 czar who is running unopposed, has turned competitive, recent polls show. That is based largely on Ramaswamy's controversial comments, such as raising the voting age to 25.

"What certainly indicated to me that there's just a likability problem for him was anytime you see a candidate's first ad featuring their wife and children," Taylor said. "It certainly looks like it's trying to soften his image as a candidate."

Ramaswamy faced racist backlash for supporting foreign-born workers

Ramaswamy, the son of Indian immigrants, regularly calls out what he sees as Democrats' obsession with identity politics.

In 2021, he published a bestseller "Woke, Inc." that was critical of racial justice movements.

"We forgot all of the ways that we are really the same as Americans, bound by that common set of ideals," Ramaswamy said during a USA TODAY-hosted town hall in New Hampshire during the 2024 campaign.

"I believe it's deep in my bones that those ideals still exist," he added. "But we're going to have to do the hard work of rediscovering them."

In the 2024 primaries, Ramaswamy attracted much support from many of the same voters who were drawn to Trump, whom he enthusiastically endorsed after dropping out. He was appointed to co-lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk, but left quickly to run for governor.

When Ramaswamy, who was born in Cincinnati, made a robust defense of businesses using foreign-born workers − which he said was a consequence of embracing "mediocrity" − in a series of posts on X in late 2024, he began facing a deluge of racist remarks about his Indian heritage and Hindu faith.

"My social media feeds are littered with hundreds of slurs, most from accounts that I don’t recognize ... and calls to deport me 'back to India,'" he said in a New York Times 2025 guest opinion column. He also challenged conservative activists at a December 2025 convention hosted by Turning Point USA to reject a growing sentiment that "heritage Americans" — mostly white families who trace their ancestry in the country through multiple generations — have more claim to the country than others.

The Ramaswamy campaign did not respond to a request for comment, and most of his supporters dismiss the clash as a distraction.

These remarks have infuriated anti-immigration conservatives, such as Republican Casey Putsch, who describes himself as an "automotive entrepreneur" and the "Christian, America First candidate" running against Ramaswamy.

He has made openly xenophobic attacks on Ramaswamy while trailing him by double digits for the GOP nomination.

Putsch has called Ramaswamy a "foreign national-born anchor baby billionaire" and has put out provocative ads, such as an April 14 spot on social media challenging Ramaswamy to a game of "Cowboy vs. Indians" before firing a rifle.

Ramaswamy is expected to win the primary election, but experts say they are paying close attention to the margin ahead of the general election.

Cook Political Report downgraded the Ohio governor race from "likely" to "leans" Republican in its ratings in March, largely due to Ramaswamy's controversial comments, such as calling to shut down certain Ohio colleges and universities, and backtracking on eliminating property taxes.

Acton, a physician, is considered a strong Democratic candidate who benefits from bipartisan credentials after working closely with retiring Republican incumbent Mike DeWine as Ohio's public health director.

But just as many believe her past role leading the state's COVID response could be ripe for attacks from Ramaswamy, whose campaign appears eager to re-litigate the pandemic.

GOP eyes vulnerable Dem after Ohio redistricting

Ohio's election will also be the start of Republicans testing if redrawing congressional lines will pay off, beginning with one of the tightest districts in the nation.

Five GOP contenders are jockeying to run against Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress, who won her last reelection by less than one percentage point in 2024.

State legislators redrew Ohio's 9th Congressional District last year after a previous attempt failed. Now the district, which stretches across the Toledo area along the state's northern border with Michigan, is a more favorable seat for Republicans and one of a handful of Democratic-held seats that could spoil an expected "blue wave" this year.

The chief concern for Republicans, however, remains Trump's rising unpopularity in the state. A Bowling Green State University survey released last month found 52% of Ohio voters disapprove of his job performance.

There's also worry that the GOP could lose if voters nominate Madison Sheahan, a former top official for Immigration and Customs Enforcement who led part of the administration's strict enforcement campaign in major cities where violent and deadly clashes occurred.

Larry Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia rates the seat as "leans Republican," while Cook Political Report views it as a toss-up.

Ohio will also be one of the critical states that could decide who controls the U.S. Senate in the race between GOP incumbent Jon Husted and former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown; both are expected to coast to their parties' nominations.

Trump seeks redistricting revenge in Indiana

The Hoosier State is also in the spotlight because a handful of Republican legislators resisted Trump's arm-twisting to change their congressional boundaries in the House. Now those lawmakers face his wrath in primary challenges backed by the president's political machine.

Trump has endorsed primary challengers against seven state senators who turned down his plan to redraw Indiana's nine congressional seats. He specifically called out state Senate leader Rodric Bray, one of 21 GOP legislators who voted against a bill that would have created two new heavily red-leaning districts.

"He'll probably lose his next primary, whenever that is," Trump said during a White House signing ceremony. "I hope he does, because he’s done a tremendous disservice." 

The president's gerrymandering war is a top priority for the administration and was supercharged by the U.S. Supreme Court after its ruling last week that knocked down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Many southern states have stepped forward to say they plan to redraw their maps.

Trump's political allies, such as Hoosier Leadership for America and American Leadership PAC, have doled out about $6 million against the targeted incumbents, according to AdImpact. Other national groups, like Win It Back PAC, a Club for Growth-affiliated organization, have joined the fray as well with direct mailers and field operations.

Gov. Mike Braun's political apparatus has sided with the president, too.

Bray has done his best to combat the deluge of dark money with a group called the Indiana First Coalition and help from the Senate Majority Campaign Committee, which has poured about $2.4 million into Bray's campaign.

There have already been reports that Trump's challengers have failed to put together a coherent message about why they should prevail, and that redistricting isn't a top priority for grassroots conservatives in rural areas.

"It's been a strange and unique election year," Bray told the Indianapolis Star, part of the USA TODAY Network, in April.