By In a move as cunning as it is desperate, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has launched a political endgame to stop Trump favorite Vivek Ramaswamy from taking over the state GOP—and possibly moving into the governor’s mansion.
It began with a phone call, according to a new report by Politico. Elon Musk, frustrated with Ramaswamy’s antics inside the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), reportedly phoned DeWine with a suggestion masked as a favor: give Ramaswamy the Senate seat vacated by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. Musk claimed the move would elevate Ramaswamy to a national liaison role. But the truth slipped out quickly—he just found him “annoying.”
DeWine didn’t bite. Instead of handing Ramaswamy a golden ticket to political permanence, the term-limited governor made a play of his own: he promoted Lt. Gov. Jon Husted to the Senate, thereby opening up a new vacancy. Enter Jim Tressel, the former Ohio State coaching legend, quickly tapped to be DeWine’s surprise lieutenant governor.
Tressel, at 72, remains one of the few figures in Ohio with enough name ID and goodwill to rival Trump-backed firebrands. His tenure as president of Youngstown State only deepened his statewide network, especially in blue-collar strongholds. And while he’s no politician, his clean image, Midwestern humility, and “coach-as-servant-leader” persona offer an appealing contrast to the MAGA bombast dominating Ohio’s right.
But DeWine’s move may have come too late. Ramaswamy—brash, omnipresent, and turbocharged by Trumpworld—has bulldozed into the 2026 governor’s race. The Ohio GOP quickly fell in line behind Trump’s pick, wrote Signal Cleveland.
Despite private opposition from Gov. Mike DeWine, Ramaswamy and his allies convinced the required two-thirds of the Ohio Republican Party’s central committee to issue an endorsement in the race. After that, it was a fait accompli to win a simple majority.
The central committee – which is made up of elected party insiders – voted 51-13 to endorse in the race. It then voted 60-3 to endorse Ramaswamy, party officials said. Attorney General Dave Yost, who’s been positioning to run for governor for years, got the three votes. Yost’s wife, Darlene, spoke on behalf of his candidacy, according to a committee member.
But nobody spoke on behalf of, Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, who has been coy about his political intentions as a potential candidate since Gov. Mike DeWine appointed him to his job earlier this year.
The votes are the latest example of the state party being in lockstep with President Donald Trump, who’s endorsed both Ramaswamy and U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed by DeWine and has to defend the seat – left vacant by JD Vance — next year. The state GOP also endorsed Husted on Friday in a vote with little controversy, since Husted is running unopposed.
Tressel, meanwhile, is still warming up, noted Politico. When asked about his political ambitions, he replied in classic football metaphor: “I probably got the fire to do anything I’d like to do, but do I want to strike the match?”
The match, however, may already be lit—by someone else.
Ohio’s GOP has morphed beyond recognition. What was once the domain of pragmatic conservatives like George Voinovich and Rob Portman is now a MAGA stronghold. Since Trump’s 2016 blowout in Ohio’s working-class counties, establishment figures have struggled to compete. Trump-backed Senate wins—J.D. Vance and Bernie Moreno—have cemented the transformation.
Tressel, for all his gravitas, is an awkward fit for the new script. At a recent GOP dinner in Hamilton County—now renamed the Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner—he delivered an optimistic speech about gratitude and unity. It landed like a sermon at a wrestling match.
For DeWine, this is legacy management. He has no more campaigns to run—but he’s not content to hand Ohio’s future over to the chaos wing. Tressel, in his eyes, is a final firewall: steady, unifying, and utterly unthreatening to suburban voters.
“He is Ohio,” DeWine reportedly said. But in today’s GOP, that may not be enough.
The question now isn’t whether Ramaswamy is running away with the race—it’s whether anyone, even a Buckeye icon, can catch him.
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