Washington: US Vice-President JD Vance has endorsed Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy for governor of Ohio, predicting that his fellow Republican would become the state’s next chief executive.
Vance offered the endorsement during a speech on Friday at the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant in Middletown, his hometown in south-western Ohio.
“We’ve also got, I believe, a great gubernatorial candidate, a great governor of Ohio, but also a great next governor of Ohio, my friend, Vivek Ramaswamy,” Vance said as he invited Ramaswamy to stand and acknowledge the audience.
“But Vivek’s going to make a great governor for the state of Ohio,” he added.
The vice-president also drew laughter by recounting an internet meme involving Ramaswamy and Vance’s six-year-old son, who is also named Vivek.
Vance said he took his son to a polling station when he returned to Ohio to vote in the primary elections several weeks earlier.
“So I brought my six year old little boy with me. We had a day of travel all over the country, actually,” he said.
“And I hold his hand into the polling booth and, you know, he votes for like, whether he prefers, you know, caramel apples or watermelon or something. They have some kid polling ballot to fill out.”
Vance said somebody subsequently posted online that he had brought “his son Vivek” to vote and used artificial intelligence to create an image showing him walking hand-in-hand with Ramaswamy towards a polling location.
“But I don’t think that anybody needed to encourage Vivek to go to the polling location that day. When your name is on the ballot, nobody needs to make you go vote,” Vance said.
The endorsement came during a speech focused largely on manufacturing, trade and immigration policy. Vance appeared alongside political candidates and steelworkers as Cleveland-Cliffs announced a $1 billion investment in its Middletown operations.
The vice-president used his family’s connection with the plant to frame the administration’s manufacturing agenda. His grandfather worked there as a welder for nearly four decades when the facility operated as Armco Steel.
Vance accused previous generations of political and business leaders of encouraging companies to move production abroad while allowing foreign labour to replace American workers.
“What we did is we told American corporations that if you wanted new workers, you got to start by training and hiring your own countrymen,” he said.
The remarks did not announce a new immigration regulation or specifically mention the H-1B skilled-worker visa programme.
Ramaswamy entered Ohio politics after seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He later supported Donald Trump and became a prominent advocate of the President’s “America First” platform.
The son of immigrants from Kerala, Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at Harvard University and Yale Law School before entering the biotechnology and financial sectors, and his gubernatorial campaign has further raised the profile of Indian Americans in Republican politics.
(IANS)
