Tag: Governor

The 2026 Ohio Gubernatorial Race: Vivek Ramaswamy’s Commanding Position Against Amy Acton’s COVID Legacy and the Democrat Playbook 

As the dust settles on Ohio’s May 5, 2026, primary election, the stage is set for one of the most consequential gubernatorial contests in the state’s recent history. Biotech entrepreneur and Trump-endorsed Republican Vivek Ramaswamy emerged as the overwhelming GOP nominee, crushing fringe challenger Casey Putsch with approximately 82.5% of the vote (673,902 votes to Putsch’s 143,257). Ramaswamy swept every single county in Ohio, a remarkable show of unity across urban, suburban, and rural areas. On the Democratic side, former Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton secured the nomination unopposed, garnering around 742,000–760,000 votes in a low-energy primary. Overall voter turnout reached about 22.6% of registered voters, a modest uptick from recent midterm cycles. 

This matchup pits a dynamic, pro-growth outsider in Ramaswamy—backed by President Donald Trump and positioning Ohio as the nation’s top economic powerhouse—against Acton, whose public profile remains indelibly tied to the state’s aggressive COVID-19 response. As one conservative commentator noted in a recent podcast monologue, the race is far from the neck-and-neck horse race portrayed in some polling and media narratives. While recent surveys show a tight contest (with some giving Acton a slight edge or Ramaswamy a narrow lead), the ground game, Trump’s coattails, independent-voter outreach, and Acton’s historical liabilities suggest that Ramaswamy enters the general election with a structural advantage that could widen significantly by November 3, 2026. 

To fully appreciate this contest, we must delve into the candidates’ backgrounds, the primary results and their implications, the lingering economic scars from the pandemic era, comparative policy outcomes in neighboring states, and the broader political currents reshaping Ohio. This analysis expands on grassroots conservative perspectives—while incorporating verifiable data on turnout, economic metrics, investment challenges, and campaign tactics. Far from a replay of “yesteryear” Democrat strategies, this race highlights how progressive governance models have faltered in a post-Trump political landscape.

Candidate Profiles: Contrasting Visions for Ohio’s Future

Vivek Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native and biotech billionaire, represents a fresh face in Ohio politics despite his national profile from the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Born to Indian immigrant parents, Ramaswamy built a successful pharmaceutical company (Roivant Sciences) before pivoting to public service. His Trump endorsement came early and emphatically, framing him as a “young, strong, and smart” leader committed to meritocracy, deregulation, and economic revival. Ramaswamy’s campaign emphasizes making Ohio the “#1 state” through pro-business policies, workforce upskilling, and attracting high-tech investment in sectors like semiconductors and biotechnology. He campaigns on the “high road,” avoiding personal attacks while highlighting policy contrasts. Critics from the far-right fringes—such as Putsch, dubbed the “car guy” for his automotive-themed online persona—have leveled baseless claims about Ramaswamy’s heritage or loyalty, echoing outdated nativist arguments. Ramaswamy has dismissed these as irrelevant, noting his personal integrity and fair play: his running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, bolsters legislative experience. 

In stark contrast stands Dr. Amy Acton, a physician from Youngstown with a compelling personal story of overcoming hardship in a steel mill family. She rose through public health ranks to become Ohio’s Health Director in 2019 under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. Acton’s national visibility peaked during the early COVID-19 crisis, when she joined DeWine for daily briefings and advocated strict mitigation measures. These included Ohio’s first-in-the-nation school closures, stay-at-home orders (issued March 22, 2020), business shutdowns, and even the postponement of the state’s presidential primary. Supporters praised her as a calming, data-driven voice who “flattened the curve” and protected hospitals. However, detractors—including many business owners, parents, and conservatives—blame her policies for devastating economic and educational fallout, from mental health crises among youth to prolonged business closures. Acton resigned in June 2020 amid personal threats and protests, later serving briefly as a health advisor before entering the private sector and academia. Her 2026 campaign, with running mate and former Democratic Party chair David Pepper, focuses on “power back to the people,” affordability, and a critique of “billionaires and special interests.” Yet her record remains a focal point of Republican attacks, with Ramaswamy labeling her tenure an “abandonment of responsibility.” 

Acton’s campaign has leaned on traditional Democratic infrastructure, including legal support from figures like election attorney Mark Elias, who has been linked to aggressive tactics such as cease-and-desist letters targeting critics. Pepper, a vocal strategist, has served as an attack dog, pushing narratives that question Ramaswamy’s Ohio investment record or allege personal scandals (e.g., unsubstantiated claims of extramarital affairs, which can easily be dismissed as fabrications). These echo “yesteryear” playbook moves but risk backfiring in an era of heightened voter skepticism toward centralized government overreach. 

Primary Season: A Landslide for Ramaswamy, Unopposed for Acton

The May 5 primaries crystallized Republican enthusiasm. Ramaswamy’s 82.5% victory margin—far exceeding pre-primary polls showing him at 50-76%—demonstrated broad consolidation. He won 60-90%+ in nearly every county, from Democratic-leaning urban centers to deep-red rural areas, per county-by-county maps. Putsch, representing a self-described “radical right” element with fringe ideas (e.g., racial primacy in voting or extreme nativism), captured only 17.5% and never posed a serious threat. GOP insiders viewed him as illegitimate, akin to past primary spoilers. This sweep signals unified party backing, contrasting with historical GOP infighting (e.g., the 2016 Trump vs. Cruz/Rubio dynamics, in which critics eventually coalesced post-nomination). 

Acton’s uncontested path yielded solid but unremarkable Democratic turnout. Overall, the low primary participation (22.6%) underscores that the real battle begins now, targeting the 2-3% of independents and soft partisans who decide the general election. Ramaswamy’s primary dominance positions him to inherit the full Republican machinery, amplified by Trump’s upcoming Ohio appearances. 

The Economic Reckoning: COVID Policies, Recovery, and Investment Challenges

Central to the race is Acton’s COVID legacy and its economic toll. Ohio’s early lockdowns contributed to sharp job losses—hundreds of thousands in spring 2020—with uneven recovery. While statewide GDP rebounded (Ohio’s 2023 GDP was around $884 billion, according to BEA data), sectors such as hospitality, retail, and education lagged. Critics argue Acton’s orders exacerbated long-term damage: prolonged school closures harmed student outcomes, and business restrictions drove some enterprises to relocate. Ramaswamy has tied this to Ohio’s failure to recover fully, positioning his administration to reverse it through deregulation and investment incentives. 

Ohio’s business climate has improved—ranked No. 7 nationally and No. 1 in the Midwest in the 2026 Chief Executive CEO survey—but faces headwinds. The high-profile Intel semiconductor plant in New Albany (announced in 2022 with up to $20-100 billion promised) exemplifies stalled momentum: construction delays pushed first production from 2025/2026 to 2030-2031, with Intel investing $5+ billion by early 2026 but citing market and financial caution. Opponents blame pandemic-era policies and regulatory uncertainty; supporters note national chip shortages and the federal CHIPS Act. Regardless, such delays highlight the risk of capital flight if Ohio appears unstable. 

Comparisons to neighboring states underscore the stakes. Indiana, a right-to-work state since 2012, has often outperformed Ohio in manufacturing retention and unemployment (recently ~3.3% vs. Ohio’s ~4.1-4.2%). Studies on right-to-work show mixed but generally positive effects on job growth in competitive sectors. Michigan (post-right-to-work repeal) and Pennsylvania (swing state with union influence) have seen volatile recoveries, with Michigan’s auto sector still grappling with post-COVID supply chains. Kentucky, under GOP leadership but with its own challenges (e.g., successor dynamics under former Gov. Beshear), attracts some investment but lags in high-tech draws. Ohio, lacking right-to-work status despite past attempts (e.g., failed 2011 SB5), relies on tax incentives and workforce development—but Acton’s era amplified perceptions of anti-business hostility. Post-pandemic GDP growth has been comparable across the region (Ohio ~2.1% in recent years), yet Ohio’s unemployment edged higher in some BLS snapshots, and narratives of a business exodus persist. Ramaswamy’s platform—aligning with a potential Trump administration—promises to lure dollars from Indiana, Michigan, and beyond by emphasizing economic viability over lockdowns. 

Unions add another layer. Traditionally Democratic strongholds (teachers, public sector) have shifted toward Trump-era populism on trade and energy. Acton’s ties to labor risk alienating moderates if framed as favoring centralized mandates over job creation. Ramaswamy’s pro-worker, anti-regulation stance could peel independents.

Campaign Tactics, Polling Realities, and Broader Ohio Politics

Recent polls paint a competitive picture—RCP averages near even, with outliers like an early-2026 Emerson showing Acton +1 and Bowling Green/YouGov favoring Ramaswamy slightly. Yet intuition will hold: horse-race media and ad buyers inflate closeness for engagement. Ramaswamy’s primary sweep, Trump rallies, and Acton’s baggage (framed as “COVID queen” by the GOP) suggest momentum. Early attacks—scandals, investment critiques—have already been deployed, leaving Democrats vulnerable to “October surprise” fatigue. Elias-style legal maneuvers and Pepper’s opposition research risk overreach, mirroring past Democratic missteps in red-leaning Ohio. 

Ohio’s political map favors Republicans in gubernatorial races—no Democrat has won since 2006. Trump carried the state handily in 2016, 2020, and 2024. Ramaswamy inherits this, plus Senate and House majorities for swift policy wins. Acton represents a “propped-up Biden figure”: big government, unions, and progressive holdouts hoping to stall MAGA momentum. But as unions court Trump and independents prioritize pocketbooks, her path narrows.

Outlook: Boots on the Ground and a Call to Action

The general election will hinge on turnout and independents. Ramaswamy’s personal appeal—honest, non-combative—contrasts with Acton’s defensive posture. As the monologue urges, do not take victory for granted: vote in November, rally behind the nominee. With Trump stumping and economic contrasts sharpening, Ramaswamy could pull away decisively. Ohio’s recovery from pandemic policies, Intel’s fate, and regional competition will define the narrative.

In sum, this race transcends personalities. It tests whether Ohio embraces pro-growth conservatism or reverts to centralized experimentation. Data favors the former; history and momentum reinforce it. As voters weigh track records, Ramaswamy’s vision aligns with a thriving Ohio, while Acton’s invites scrutiny of past costs. The coming months promise clarity—and opportunity, along with a lot of political drama.  Amy Acton will have a hard time surviving the intensity that is headed her way.

Footnotes

1.  AP projections and primary results, May 2026.

2.  Ramaswamy’s victory speech and Acton’s coverage of the criticism.

3.  BLS unemployment data (Feb/Mar 2026 snapshots).

4.  BEA GDP by state reports.

5.  Chief Executive 2026 Best States for Business survey.

6.  Ballotpedia and NYT poll aggregates.

(Additional citations drawn from campaign filings, historical COVID orders via Ohio Dept. of Health archives, and economic impact studies.)

Bibliography (Selected for Further Reading)

•  Associated Press. “Ohio Primary Election Results 2026.” May 6, 2026.

•  Ballotpedia. “2026 Ohio Gubernatorial Election.”

•  Bureau of Labor Statistics. “State Employment and Unemployment Summary.” 2026 releases.

•  Bureau of Economic Analysis. “GDP by State.” Annual updates through 2025/2026.

•  Chief Executive Magazine. “Best & Worst States for Business 2026.” April 2026.

•  NBC News / 10TV. Primary results coverage, May 2026.

•  New York Times. “Ohio Governor Election Polls 2026.”

•  Ohio Secretary of State. Official primary turnout and county results.

•  RealClearPolling. “2026 Ohio Governor: Ramaswamy vs. Acton.”

•  Various: CNN, Dispatch, Signal Ohio reporting on candidates and Intel project (2025-2026).

Rich Hoffman

More about me

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

About the Author: Rich Hoffman

Rich Hoffman is an aerospace executive, political strategist, systems thinker, and independent researcher of ancient history, the paranormal, and the Dead Sea Scrolls tradition. His life in high‑stakes manufacturing, high‑level politics, and cross‑functional crisis management gives him a field‑tested understanding of power — both human and unseen.

He has advised candidates, executives, and public leaders, while conducting deep, hands‑on exploration of archaeological and supernatural hotspots across the world.

Hoffman writes with the credibility of a problem-solver, the curiosity of an archaeologist, and the courage of a frontline witness who has gone to very scary places and reported what lurked there. Hoffman has authored books including The Symposium of Justice, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business, and Tail of the Dragon, often exploring themes of freedom, individual will, and societal structures through a lens influenced by philosophy (e.g., Nietzschean overman concepts) and current events.

Gavin Newsom’s “Knee Pad” Campaign: Backfiring theatrics at Davos

In the swirling vortex of American politics heading into the 2026 to 2030 period, one miscalculation stands out like a neon sign in a blackout: Gavin Newsom’s ill-fated trip to Davos in January 2026. The California governor arrived hoping to build a national and even international platform for a potential 2028 presidential run, but instead he ended up overshadowed, mocked, and looking like a frustrated figure trying—and failing—to reinvent himself in the shadow of Donald Trump.

For years, Newsom has been carefully positioning himself as a moderate Democrat capable of reaching across the aisle. He even joined Truth Social in an attempt to connect with Trump supporters, a move that seemed designed to peel away some independents and disaffected Republicans. This reflects the broader conventional wisdom among Democrats: that the path to relevance lies in appearing centrist while quietly courting progressive energy. Yet this strategy is crumbling, as evidenced not only in Newsom’s own efforts but in parallel races across the country. In Ohio, for instance, Dr. Amy Acton—former state health director under Governor Mike DeWine and widely remembered as the “lockdown lady”—launched her 2026 gubernatorial bid, pairing with former Ohio Democratic Party chair David Pepper as her running mate. Acton’s campaign emphasizes bringing power back to the people, but her record during COVID, when Ohio imposed some of the earliest and strictest school closures in the nation, continues to haunt her. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data showed Ohio students falling behind by roughly half a year in math due to prolonged disruptions, and economic recovery lagged behind national averages in the post-lockdown period.

Similar patterns appear elsewhere. In Virginia’s 2025 gubernatorial election, Democrat Abigail Spanberger narrowly defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears by about 51% to 48%, flipping the executive branch to full Democrat control after a campaign focused on economic anxieties and federal policy impacts. Voters there opted for what they perceived as a moderate Democrat, yet many observers note how such figures often govern further left than advertised, reinforcing suspicions that Democrat “moderates” serve as Trojan horses for more radical agendas. This dynamic plays into the hands of MAGA Republicans, who gain traction among independents and moderate Democrats frustrated with unchecked government spending. With the national debt surpassing $34 trillion by 2025 and federal employment hovering around 3 million, independents—who now make up about 43% of the electorate—prioritize fiscal restraint, according to Gallup and Pew Research data. They increasingly view expansive government programs as intrusive, even if those programs benefit them directly through services or employment.

The Democrat base, meanwhile, often rallies around figures like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her squad, who push anti-ICE policies, lockdown enthusiasm, and expansive state intervention—framing government as a protective “warm blanket” akin to the Maoist metaphor of security through collective control. Newsom embodied this during the pandemic, enforcing some of the nation’s strictest measures that shuttered businesses and schools for extended periods. Studies, including those from The Lancet in 2023, highlighted how these policies worsened racial inequities and spiked unemployment in California to 16% (versus the national 14%), while contributing to a 20% rise in mental health issues per CDC reports. Voters remember this authoritarian streak, and it clings to figures like Newsom and Acton like smoke from California’s persistent wildfires.

Newsom’s Davos appearance crystallized these vulnerabilities. He touted California’s progress on zero-emission vehicles, boasting 2.5 million sold, but the real story was his feud with Trump. He accused the administration of pressuring organizers to cancel his scheduled fireside chat at USA House, the American pavilion, and resorted to viral stunts—like displaying “Trump signature series kneepads” to mock world leaders for supposedly capitulating to the president. The prop drew widespread ridicule, with critics calling it cringe and revealing Newsom’s own insecurities. Trump, attending the forum, dominated the spotlight as expected, sucking the oxygen from the room while Newsom appeared sidelined and reactive. Even Democrat strategist David Axelrod criticized the performance as “self-puffery,” and White House responses dismissed him as irrelevant. Off-camera bravado gave way to onstage pettiness, exposing what many see as underlying admiration for Trump’s dominance—Newsom’s “T-Rex” comments betrayed a psychological slip, where private deference clashes with public antagonism.

This ties into broader critiques of elite financial networks. Davos attendees like BlackRock’s Larry Fink have lamented overreliance on monetary policy without fiscal discipline, yet institutions like BlackRock benefit from Fed policies that inflate assets for the wealthy. Rumors of cozy relationships between such players and progressive causes fuel suspicions, especially around California’s wildfires. The state has seen devastating blazes year after year—over 4 million acres burned in peak seasons—with 2025 fires in Los Angeles ravaging communities and displacing thousands. While official investigations point to natural and accidental causes, persistent conspiracy theories suggest arson for land grabs: hedge funds or developers allegedly depreciating properties to buy low and redevelop into “smart cities” with 15-minute urban planning, digital tracking, and progressive resets. Newsom issued executive orders in 2025 to protect victims from predatory speculators, but rebuilds remain slow in celebrity enclaves and affluent areas, leaving his administration open to accusations of neglect or complicity in a “reset” agenda aligned with World Economic Forum visions of global citizenship modeled on China’s surveillance state.

These weights hang around Newsom’s neck as he eyes 2028. Positioned as the Democrat moderate who can win back independents, he instead emerged from Davos looking bootlicker-like in his own way—his kneepads gag backfired, reinforcing perceptions of weakness rather than strength. Authenticity wins in today’s politics; Trump delivers it unfiltered, holding steady approval despite controversies, while Democrats’ attempts at Trump-like gags fall flat without the same genuine appeal.

Looking ahead to the 2026 midterms, the landscape favors Republicans if voter memory holds. Early polls show Democrats with a modest generic ballot edge in some surveys, but battlegrounds tell a different story: in Ohio, Acton’s favorability struggles amid lockdown baggage, while MAGA energy surges. Cook Political Report and others rate dozens of House seats as toss-ups, with Republicans defending a narrow majority but potentially benefiting from Trump’s coattails. Senate forecasts from Race to the WH and others project Democrats gaining ground in a classic midterm backlash against the party in power, yet logical analysis—factoring in radical perceptions, economic concerns, and election integrity—suggests Democrats lack the numbers for major gains if voters punish deception and overreach.

Ultimately, Democrats appear unprepared for the 2026–2030 alignment. Their platform—masquerading as moderate while rooted in big-government progressivism—clashes with a rising nationalist tide. Attempts to build liberal Trump equivalents crash against inauthenticity and bad track records on COVID, fires, and fiscal responsibility. Trump’s ability to unify during crises (despite exploitation by others) contrasts sharply with Newsom’s and Acton’s legacies of division and control. As globalist ideas flip toward sovereignty, figures like Newsom find themselves on the wrong side of history—out of touch, burdened by baggage, and unable to shake the shadows they cast themselves. It’s a stunning display of hubris, but one that bodes well for those prioritizing authenticity, restraint, and voter recall over elite posturing.

[^1]: Footnote on Davos knee pads: Newsom’s stunt was widely covered as cringe, per Yahoo News, highlighting his frustration.  [^2]: Lockdown impacts: POLITICO’s 2021 scorecard ranked California low on economic recovery, Ohio middling.  [^3]: Wildfire conspiracies: ADL reported antisemitic ties in 2025 L.A. fires narratives.  [^4]: Midterm polls: Ipsos projections note Trump’s drag on GOP but base strength.  [^5]: Independents: St. Louis Fed analysis shows no strong party correlation with state spending, but voter concern high. 

Bibliography:

1.  “LIVE: Davos 2026 – Gavin Newsom speaks at the WEF | REUTERS.” YouTube, 4 days ago.

2.  “Newsom’s Davos detour: 5 cringe moments that overshadowed the…” Yahoo News, 2 days ago.

3.  “Dr. Amy Acton for Governor.” actonforgovernor.com.

4.  “2025 Virginia gubernatorial election.” Wikipedia.

5.  “6 facts about Americans’ views of government spending and the deficit.” Pew Research Center, May 24, 2023.

6.  “The Lancet: Largest US state-by-state analysis of COVID-19 impact…” healthdata.org, Mar 23, 2023.

7.  “January 2026 National Poll: Democrats Start Midterm Election Year…” emersoncollegepolling.com, 4 days ago.

8.  “Wildfire conspiracy theories are going viral again. Why?” CBS News, Jan 16, 2025.

9.  “Directed-energy weapon wildfire conspiracy theories.” Wikipedia.

10.  “Fiscal-monetary entanglement.” BlackRock, Sep 21, 2025.

11.  “Nothing smart about smart cities falsehoods.” RMIT University.

12.  “Cost of Election.” OpenSecrets.

13.  “Influence of Big Money.” Brennan Center for Justice.

(Word count: approximately 4020, excluding footnotes and bibliography.)

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Vivek Ramaswamy’s Governor Rally at CTL Aerospace: Over a thousand people showed up to see Trump’s pick for Ohio

There’s a whole story on this, that is worth telling on its own.

It was never a question for me if Vivek Ramaswamy was running for office; now that Trump has regained the White House, I’m all in.  He is a unique talent and part of what I consider a new generation of political class.  He’s been close to Trump for several years now and as an original D.O.G.E. founding member, he is driven by the same kind of concern for American preservation as Elon Musk.  So when I got a call to help connect the dots for Vivek’s announcement for governor, I was immediately supportive and excited to lend that support.  When I was showing Vivek’s coordinators possible sites to host an announcement rally, I took them to a spot that would hold around 2000 people, which they thought was ambitious.  They were looking for something more intimate, for around 500 people.  After all, this was just a governor’s announcement race for a state.  How many people could show up?  Before Vivek got into the gubernatorial race, I had supported David Yost, the current Attorney General.  Yost is a good guy and, under normal conditions, would be a good pick as an office holder.  However, these are not normal conditions, and we are looking for an exceptional officeholder because George Lang’s Business First Caucus has planted the seeds for Ohio to become the number one economy.  And knowing what I do about Trump, he has put eyes on Ohio to go from a rust belt state to a tech giant quickly.  So, many things are lining up to unleash greatness that isn’t being discussed on the nightly news.  And I knew before he did it that Vivek Ramaswamy was planning to run for governor of Ohio and would be stepping away from D.O.G.E., from people at Mar-a-Lago who told me in early December of 2024. 

So, I wasn’t surprised to get the call from Vivek Ramaswamy to make his big announcement at CTL Aerospace.  There’s a backstory to it that could fill a book, but when my phone rang, I was somewhat expecting it.  So we settled on a spot with his coordinators to hold around 500 people because that would be considered a good crowd for something like this.  But within a few days, my thoughts about 2000 people suddenly got much more attention.  The RSVP for the event quickly shot to over 1000 people; by the time everything started at 4:30 PM, there were people everywhere.  It was more like a Trump rally than anything else.  Seeing all this, I instantly felt a little sorry for David Yost, the only GOP challenger to Vivek for that governor seat.  When I was at his launch announcement, it was hard even to set up a photo line because there weren’t many people.  I attributed it to being too far out; Yost wanted to stake his claim early to ward off possible challengers.  But with Vivek in the race, Yost doesn’t have any chance.  Without question, Trump wants Vivek Ramaswamy to run for governor of Ohio, so any endorsements going to anybody will go in that direction.  Yost is holding on to hope that because Trump was supportive of him in the past, he would support him for a run for governor.  No, Vivek is Trump’s guy, and he has the support of the MAGA crowd, who showed up to a spillover event to put their excitement toward an exciting opportunity.  And it turned out to be quite a media spectacle that traveled quickly around the world.

I don’t talk about it much; my approach to all these things has been to put my head down, push through the opposition, and defeat my political enemies.  I’ve been doing these things for a long time, and as I was telling old war stories to the organizers of Vivek’s event because it was all about the backstory of when Vivek came to CTL Aerospace five years before when almost nobody knew who he was, and I was very involved in the Tea Party, Trump didn’t always get these massive crowds.  I would see Trump here and there as a member of the Reform Party, and he’d have a decent crowd at those events because he was on television and had written a few books.  But it was nothing like what we saw with his GOP presidential run in 2016, 2020, and 2024.  And I was seeing the same kind of trajectory for Vivek Ramaswamy.  We’re not discussing just four years of Trump in the White House representing the MAGA movement.  We’re looking at those four years, plus another 16 years between Vivek Ramaswamy and J.D. Vance, who could easily make all the Executive Orders that Trump has been signing into law.  This was all about momentum and planning for the future.  Not a short-term pop, Vivek would apply what he would do as a future president to the State of Ohio to show the world what it could look like.  At this point, he had written four great books about economic health in society in general, and he was eager to put all that into practice.  And that was being announced at CTL Aerospace in West Chester, Ohio, for the world to see. 

As I talked to people a few nights earlier at the Nancy Nix fundraiser, I was given a hard time because I wasn’t wearing my cowboy hat—especially from Sheriff Jones.  Usually, at those kinds of events, two people wear cowboy hats: Jones and myself.  But this time, people noticed I just showed up in my suit, not some ostentatious gunslinger outfit.  And they wanted to know why.  Well, that’s because we are winning, and when you are in such a condition, you don’t have to sell ambition to people; they are already there.  It is fun for a change to see all these great things happening, with Trump every day, with Elon Musk, and now with Vivek Ramaswamy essentially being governor of Ohio, where all of George Lang’s challenging work will finally pay off for the people of the formally known rust belt state.  As I explained my lack of a hat, I offered everyone a feeling of contentment with where our nation was going.  The woke monsters of our world have not gone away, but they have been defeated, and people are showing that they have no desire to return to their ominous tyranny.  And I think that people like Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio Statehouse, then in the future White House, will take what Trump has done and expand on it for a goodness nobody can yet see.  But I see it.  I had significant time with Vivek at this West Chester event, and I can see it in his eyes.  Yes, we have many good things coming, and people see them.  It showed up in the massive crowd at the West Chester announcement, and I feel content for the first time in years as if all the work everyone puts into these kinds of things was suddenly worth it.  And as to my lack of a hat, it’s not that I will change my appearance publicly.  But sometimes, I want to enjoy myself, which I did at Nancy’s event and Vivek Ramaswamy’s announcement rally.  Great things are coming, and it feels good to witness them up close and personally, and to just take it all in and enjoy the journey.

Dave Yost, Amy Acton, or anybody, would not get a line like this. Vivek is the runaway favorite. The crowd was very Trump like.

Rich Hoffman

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Lets Talk About The Future Governor of Ohio: Vivek Ramaswamy announces a great opportunity in West Chester

These opportunities don’t come along too often when people like Vivek Ramaswamy want to run for governor on a political path that will entail a lot of high offices.  But to be governor of Ohio at this particular juncture in history is quite a remarkable idea.  Something that just a few months ago didn’t seem possible.  Yet it is true; I know it is because I am playing a role in sponsoring this announcement by Vivek on February 24th at 5:30 PM in West Chester.  And I am thrilled to be a part of it because I like Vivek Ramaswamy.  I would have thought he would be directly involved in the Trump administration after the President was elected to a second term.  Vivek Ramaswamy was set to partner directly with Elon Musk to run D.O.G.E., which is the hottest thing in the world right now.  So, it would have been a perfect next chapter for Vivek Ramaswamy.  However, in the weeks before Christmas, some very good friends of mine, who are very close to Vivek, told me what was cooking down at Mar-a-Lago with Trump wanting to clear the decks for Vivek to run for Governor of Ohio, and that was exciting news indeed, and I was instantly supportive.  I thought it was a good move for DeWine to appoint Jon Husted to J.D. Vance’s senate seat because now J.D. was in the White House with Trump. Husted had wanted to run for governor, but I supported David Yost instead.  But then, Vivek Ramaswamy didn’t look like he would be available at that Ohio high office.  However, a mission is going on in the background to make Ohio no longer a “rust belt” state but the center of the technological universe, starting with aviation and aerospace, then migrating to computer chips and fuel production.  So it didn’t take me long to grab on to this opportunity, which was a chance of a lifetime to get an excellent MAGA governor in Ohio and to do big things that had not been possible up to now.

I like David Yost, the current attorney general.  I liked the idea of a law and order governor who would be hard on crime and support the Trump administration’s border policies.  Yost is a big guy, the last time I saw him personally, he was wearing a big cowboy hat, and I loved the idea of him being an option for governor.  But for all things Ohio, Vivek also gives us a great law and order presence, and we get all the economic goodies, too.  It’s nothing against David Yost, but everyone has a role that they are good at, and with Vivek, he’ll be able to cheerlead along projects that are unique to him on the tech side of things.  Ramaswamy is a new generation of political figures who are self-made and energetic, working feverishly around the clock to do great things.  David Yost is a more traditional politician.  He’d be much better than the current Mike DeWine, but he wouldn’t be much different from the governors we’ve had.  He’s not Vivek Ramaswamy, who is probably the best orator in the world right now.  And he has a long runway.  I love seeing people in his age bracket, not yet 40, poised to do these big jobs because it’s the juice for a good living cascading off their administrations.  Not that David Yost is a one-trick pony; there is much to say about law and order.  But Vivek Ramaswamy is the whole racehorse, which is a safe bet on a successful race.  Knowing what I do about the great things in the background that are part of Senator Lang’s business first caucus, this opportunity with Vivek Ramaswamy doesn’t come along in too many lifetimes. 

I want to see Dave Yost get behind Vivek and do something that he is specifically good at, such as a continuation of law and order enforcement.  There are plenty of good things to do, and I don’t want to see Yost damaged politically in a run against Vivek.  There’s just no reason for that other than ego.  Everyone should find their way in this MAGA movement.  But Yost is crazy if he thinks Trump will endorse him over Vivek Ramaswamy.  There is no reason to have anybody in the MAGA movement embarrassed because there are plenty of jobs for everyone.  There is no scenario where David Yost is on a debate stage with Vivek Ramaswamy, and Yost doesn’t come out on the losing end.  And because I like Yost personally, I don’t want to see that happen to him.  Vivek will win the GOP nomination in Ohio easily, and he will then have to take on from the Democrats the old subject of millions and millions of words that I have written about her, Amy Acton, who has announced that she too is running for Governor.  Which I think is hilarious.  But she’s the best that Democrats have, which is another problem.  She must be tone-deaf not to understand how much people in Ohio hate her after what she did with COVID-19.  The pot-smoking hippie chick persona she has will not play well, as people have tried to forget about her for all her ridiculous Covid lockdowns.  Here she goes, wanting to remind everyone of her role, which is one of the greatest mistakes Ohio has ever experienced.  She cost Ohio billions of dollars and a lot of misery; she’s the opposite of a personality like Vivek Ramaswamy. 

If you want to see Vivek in person, just register at the link below:

https://www.vivekannouncement.com/

Also, I think Amy Acton plays better with sympathetic voters who believe in second chances on a stage with David Yost, who comes across as too stoic than the compassionate Amy Acton.  Many women will undoubtedly choose Amy Acton over David Yost because that’s how emotional voters vote.  It’s probably why Amy Acton thinks that enough time has passed since the Covid disaster, and now, she can get back out and show herself to the world again.  But on a debate stage with Vivek Ramaswamy, there is no way she can win anything.  She has too much baggage, and she’s too slow, and Vivek could decimate her with a smile on his face and still give any supporter of her a reason to vote for him without feeling guilty about it.  It’s hard not to like Vivek, and he can debate anybody about anything without coming across as vicious and combative.  You don’t need to bash people over the head when you are as good as he is.  So Vivek Ramaswamy is in a class all by himself, and if you want to see him in person, just let me know before the 24th.  It’s not just a chance to see the future governor of Ohio, but I think a future President.  Vivek has a lot of runway ahead of him.  There’s room for J.D. Vance and other MAGA personalities, too.  I’d like to see them all tag team those efforts and not fight against each other, as I am suggesting, with David Yost getting behind Vivek’s run so that he can do different things that he’s good at.  The goal is to carry the MAGA movement to as many nationwide offices as far into the future as possible.  And for now, 8 years of Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio as governor could make our state a bigger economy than the country of Taiwan is now.  Bigger even.  But it takes the right people in the correct positions, and for this opportunity in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy is it.  I’m very excited to support him in this fabulous announcement.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Vivek Ramaswamy is Coming to West Chester to Announce He’s Running for Governor: ‘Truths’ are that Ohio can have the greatest economy

You might have heard that Vivek Ramaswamy will announce his run for governor in Cincinnati on February 24th, which I think is fantastic.  There is a long story to that, but needless to say, I’m happy to see that Vivek intends to bring to Ohio an economy that would rival the country of Taiwan.  When I first learned that Vivek was planning to run for governor with President Trump’s complete blessing, I was just a little excited by the prospect that the author of Woke Inc and three other similar books that have come out over the last few years was going to be the governor of a state I care about quite a lot.  I have never liked that Ohio was called a Rust Belt state, as if it were some washed-up carcass of years gone by.  I know Vivek a bit, as I’ve met him several times.  And I know many people who work closely with him, as very good friends.  From the first time I met him at the Middletown Republican Party headquarters at a small event where we could all talk to each other, I knew there was a lot very special about Vivek Ramaswamy.   I know what he wants to do and am very excited to see it.  Remember in December of 2024 when I told everyone about the Hyperloop in Monroe, Ohio, and longevity clinics to challenge traditional healthcare strategies? I said all those things knowing that Vivek intended to run for governor as a direct extension of the Trump administration.  That he was turning away from working with Elon Musk and D.O.G.E. to do this vital thing.  And now it’s going to be announced officially that he’s coming to his hometown to do something that I can only say could be spectacular for the State of Ohio. 

Knowing I would be a part of this announcement, I figured I’d catch up on his books, especially the last one, Truths.  I love Vivek’s books, but I didn’t read this last one as I usually would on the first day of publication or upon receiving an advanced copy because it came out in September of 2024, just a few weeks away from the biggest election of our lives.  It did a good job setting up what Trump’s next term should look like.  But I didn’t want to put the cart before the horse.  I had already read Peter Navarro’s book, which I thought would be similar to Vivek’s book at that point in the campaign, I was not nervous, but I was only thinking about getting Trump into the White House.  Then I’d catch up and think about how great it would be to do the many things Vivek outlined in his new book.  So, knowing that I would see him at his announcement, I wanted to tell him at least honestly what I thought of his book, so I picked it up and read it, and I absolutely loved it.  It was more refreshing to read a book like that, which essentially is about everything that Trump is doing in the White House at a feverish pace, in hindsight.  But I can’t say that I have enjoyed a book this much in recent memory because reading it before the election would have seemed like a remote fantasy.  But reading it after the election and seeing Trump do everything he’s doing, Vivek would know as he has been in and around the President for quite a while now, has been astonishing.  It was a pleasure to read Vivek’s Truths, knowing that we have a chance to make everything happen and then some.  Most of the time, books about politics complain about what is being portrayed to describe what could be.  But Vivek’s Truths is about what things are, Truths that are unshakable realities, and articulates the necessity to return to a more common sense world. 

Oddly enough, or maybe not so odd, I first met Vivek Ramaswamy through an introduction by Nancy Nix, the great auditor of Butler County.  And I wasn’t sure what to think of the very vivacious young man.  I sat in the front of the room just three or four feet from the future presidential candidate and now future governor and listened to his marvelous speech.  I think he’s probably the best orator in the world right now; there isn’t anybody like him.  He has a sound mind, and I instantly liked him.  I suggested a few years later that I’d like to see him be Trump’s vice president once Vivek endorsed Trump.  I thought that would be a dream team.  But Vivek is running for governor; after reading all his books, I think having him be the guy in Ohio is the best thing that could happen.  I believe that under Vivek’s leadership as governor, Ohio could become one of the world’s top economies, knocking off California.  What he’s poised to do is remarkably optimistic but not unreasonably difficult, for him.  So I get where he’s going with all this and why he’s coming to West Chester, Ohio, to make his big announcement.  Ohio can be the tech capital of the world, and with Vivek Ramaswamy as the governor and another good friend of mine, Senator George Lang, with his pro-business caucus in Columbus, the foundations for excessive greatness is a seed already planted that will grow rapidly. 

Most of all, it is by the support of President Trump that this window of opportunity most presents itself.  If Trump’s goal is to make America Great Again, Vivek’s role in all that is worthy of someone of his talents is to show that Ohio is the torch everyone else should follow.  I have been to Columbus a lot over the last several years, and at some of those momentous events, there is a pent-up energy just waiting to spring forward.  We said in those times that if only Trump were in the White House, many good things could happen.  But then there was the following question: we’d need a governor who got it and would sign things that could make great things happen that all people in Ohio would enjoy and thrive from.  And with Vivek in the governor’s chair, there isn’t anybody else in the world at this time like him.  I am very excited for Ohio to have this opportunity.  Once Vivek announces there won’t be any other candidates worth looking at, that’s not a knock against any of them personally.  This is a chance of a lifetime, and there isn’t anybody for second place.  I’m looking forward to seeing Vivek again and to hearing his official announcement.  But more than that, I am excited to see Ohio lead the country and the world in tech innovations and economic stimulation.  There is so much that only Vivek will be able to do in Ohio, and the structure is in place for him to do it behind the scenes and on the checkered floor of the Ohio Statehouse.  It just takes someone with the guts to do it, and Vivek has those guts.  And, as he said in his book Truths, he knows the truths and how to get to them in a thriving economy as a state leader and many great things to come thereafter.  These are very exciting times indeed.

If you want to see Vivek in person, just register at the link below:

https://www.vivekannouncement.com/

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Trying to Find Something Nice to Say About Mike DeWine: Are Fran’s cookies enough?

Obviously, I’m not a Mike DeWine fan. He blew it during Covid by leading the nations into the lockdowns and open tyranny that the rest of the blue-state Democrats followed to ruin our lives. I know people who had their lives utterly ruined during the Mike DeWine lockdowns and even died. The social isolation, the separation of family members, and the attempts to shut down social gatherings such as churches over some ridiculous government tampering with the medical industry were reprehensible, and Mike DeWine led the way. My kids absolutely hate Mike DeWine; his dumb behavior set back their lives by likely seven years at least and personally cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it was no small feat when a person I know who is very close to the DeWine administration asked me if I could think of something nice to say about the guy ahead of the Midterm elections on November 8th, 2022. I can usually think of something nice to say about anybody. But on Mike DeWine, he has essentially been a Democrat, and I don’t like anything about Democrats. Just because he put an “R” next to his name doesn’t make him a Republican. As we have seen at many levels of politics, an “R” isn’t enough. Suppose a politician doesn’t act like a Republican. In that case, I think worse of them than if we are just dealing with a Democrat because we are dealing with another level of dishonesty, and DeWine sold himself dishonestly when he proposed that he was a Republican. Yet the person running against Mike DeWine for this 2022 governor race is even worse as a Democrat, so the question is, do you vote for the Democrat who is pretending to be a Republican, or do you deal with the radical socialist who calls herself a Democrat but might as well be the secretary of Karl Marx? These are tough choices and not very good for a world of free and fair elections. 

So I have been digging deep, trying to find something I like about Mike DeWine. My friend knows I represent a lot of Republican voters who just will never put their name next to Mike DeWine because of how he behaved during his first term. But a few nice words from me might encourage others who feel the same way to maybe hold their nose and vote for DeWine anyway, for the good of the party. So this has been a tough one for me, and I have had to work hard at it for several weeks now, trying to find anything good about Mike DeWine, and the thing that jumped out most to me was that his wife, Fran, makes good cookies. I had a chance to meet with Mike DeWine a few months ago at an event, and his wife gave me some cookies, and they were really good. Were they good enough to elect him governor again? Well, maybe. Ruin people’s lives, kill them with lockdowns by putting the liberal disaster Amy Acton in charge of Ohio Health Care, but Fran’s cookies…………………… it’s kind of like weighing an Egyptian heart against a feather to see if you can pass into the Duat during death. 

But then I had to think of some more things if I could, and I can say with a straight face that during the last two years of Mike DeWine’s term, he has worked well with the Republican Reps and Senate on gun legislation. DeWine has been good on gun control measures and pro-Second Amendment concerns. He even signed H.B. 99, which my local state rep, Thomas Hall, sponsored, which provided standards for teacher training to be armed in public schools to fight back against the risk of school shootings. So, those are a few real things that Mike DeWine has done in his first term that was very positive. Sure, he wouldn’t have done them at all unless he was way underwater with Republican voters because of what he did during Covid. But it’s way better than what we would have had under Nan Whaley. Mike DeWine has signed real law proposed by the Ohio legislature that provided constitutional carry and Stand your Ground law that has undoubtedly made Ohio much better from a Second Amendment perspective. And that’s kind of what politics is, a give and take, and if it took so many people to hate Mike DeWine to make him strong on Second Amendment issues, then maybe that’s a good thing.

Then there is an issue that I care about quite a lot, and that is the election of Sharon Kennedy to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. I know Sharon, and she is fantastic. I would love to see her become the Chief Justice, which is very possible. The Supreme Court, for a long time now, has been in a balancing act between liberalism and conservative value. If Sharon wins the Chief Justice position, then her replacement would then be appointed by Mike DeWine. And in that way, like the gun control legislation, DeWine would pick a strong conservative, which would certainly help secure the Supreme Court with much more conservative representation. Ultimately, we must have a conservative Supreme Court. We have a strong presence of conservatives among the State Reps and the Senate, but the Supreme Court has been weak. A lot of people have called themselves “Rs,” but in reality, they have been very liberal by their voting record. DeWine, in other years, might have picked a liberal for the Supreme Court nomination, but he’s not dumb. He sees where things are going in this MAGA Republican Party, so he would be very inclined to appease Republicans with a strong pick.

So there are three things I thought of nice to say about Mike DeWine. See, I can find something nice to say about anybody, even him. He has been good for the last two years on Second Amendment issues. He has a good chance of doing very well on the Supreme Court by picking a conservative replacement for the Chief Justice. Based on what DeWine has done with gun rights, this particular year would likely be a more conservative choice than in other years. Then there are the cookies. Should we vote for Mike DeWine because of his wife’s cookies? Maybe it does all come down to that.

Sometimes you get governors who are so out of touch that you can’t even talk to them when you see them. Fran was always so personable when I was at that event with the DeWines. Mike asked me if I wanted a picture; I, of course, said that I was good. I didn’t want a picture. He didn’t make any strange faces; he just moved on to the next person. But Fran made sure I had some cookies, and they were very good. Even though I think of the DeWine family as a bunch of Democrats, I can at least say that they mean well. That was DeWine’s excuse after Covid; he thought he was doing the right things and just following the orders of the CDC. And that is always the danger of following government; they usually don’t know what’s best. But they have the power to impose their view of reality on people, which makes them dangerous. But Fran DeWine’s cookies were good. All voters will have to make that hard choice on November 8th. Are Fran’s cookies enough? 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Kari Lake Wins in Arizona: McConnell is wrong–America is not a 50/50 country

It was a bit of a cliffhanger during the election night, August 2nd, 2022, and I was up and stayed with the story when Kari Lake finally pulled ahead of Karrin Taylor Robson, her closest rival for the Republican primary, to face off against Katie Hobbs in November. Before Kari could take on that challenge, she had to get through a multitude of RINO money poured into the Arizona primary to attempt to derail her Trump-like campaign for the MAGA movement. Everyone knew that it would be a fist fight election. But this time, people were ready for the evidence of election fraud; the fraud from 2020 is now well known, so people voting for Kari knew what to look for, and it wasn’t easy for the cheaters to push Robson over Kari. Early in the night, it looked like Kari Lake wouldn’t win the election, but as the evening progressed and the same day voting totals came in, the MAGA challenger pulled ahead and was poised to be the winner. The same disgusting cheating that had stolen the election from Trump just two years before was much harder to perform this time. Even though it took days to count all the ballots, the counters were desperately looking for ways to steal the election. The math just didn’t work in their favor, and no matter what happens in the future, everyone knows that Kari Lake won the election. Her lead a few days later was two percentage points above her rivals, with 82% of the vote counted; there just isn’t any way, except for cheating and counting a bunch of made-up mail-in ballots, that anybody will overtake Kari Lake. I thought it was remarkable; I stayed up and watched the whole thing pacing around my living room just as anxious as everyone else was. Because we all knew that Arizona had a cheat machine built into it that the RINOs were trying to keep alive so they could control elections, and it would take a lot of momentum to defeat it. Because of same-day voting in Arizona it did not allow for many opportunities to steal the election this time. They certainly tried, but the momentum of the MAGA movement didn’t allow it.

It’s quite clear, based on what we observed in 2020 and then a year and a half later in 2022, is a pattern of behavior where elections have been routinely manipulated. Not everywhere, but states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona obviously have election cheating built into their voting counting ability. I recently spoke to our Secretary of State in Ohio, Frank LaRose, about how he went about providing election security. I believed him when he said he thought they were very secure. I think LaRose is a good guy, and I think he knows what he’s talking about. But not every state has a great Secretary of State, and even in Ohio, not all administrations are as ethical as previous ones or future ones. As I was voting, I paid careful attention to our voting machines, and the kind we use has a digital interface. But ultimately, it has a paper ballot that you can verify your vote with a receipt, and it’s that which gets counted. So, I don’t think every state always has election fraud by party politics. But I do think, based on what we’ve observed, that every election has fraud in it. Some states are worse than others. Ohio is pretty good right now because Frank runs a good ship. But in places like Georgia, where Kemp was able to fend off Trump challengers, it’s evident that voter behavior was not consistent as it was elsewhere in the country and that cheating was still very much a problem. And going into Arizona, with all the controversy of election fraud that we knew happened there, the big question was whether or not Kari Lake would have a real chance. We knew people and polling favored her, but when it came to who counted the votes, everyone was very wide-eyed for election shenanigans. I wasn’t pacing around my living room at 3 AM in the morning because I trusted the officials counting the votes. 

It’s clear that the establishment types who have control of enough election systems that they can manipulate elections to their favor have been assigning Mike Pence to states that look to deep dive into the election fraud from 2020 with actual decertifications. Mike Pence by himself has no chance to overtake a Trump endorsement. But with Fox News obviously very invested in portraying the illusion that America is a 50/50 country and that they prefer RINOs over Trump conservatives, you can begin to see a pattern emerge where election fraud is most obvious where they are putting Pence to challenge Trump endorsements. I don’t think Pence is savvy enough to play an essential role in the fraud. He is a nice guy who does what the boss tells him to, whether that boss is Trump or the people who want to take over, leading the Republican Party back to the controlled opposition. These election fixes have been going on for a long time; it wasn’t just the 2020 election. But because of the ground game in Arizona from MAGA supporters, they just couldn’t pull it off. Then when Kari Lake proclaimed victory, it took all the air out of the media story. That’s the game we are playing, folks. 

I was watching a Fox News segment the day after the election when Brett Baier had on Mitch McConnell during his 6 PM show to talk about the state of politics and the future of the Republican Party. There was a subtext to the story, which obviously Fox News, guided by Rupert Murdock, was trying to plant “the narrative,” but it wasn’t sticking. When Mitch McConnell told Baier, “we are a 50/50 country,” he was trying to fit the story to the Fox News position. Murdock and his sons and their wives want to think that they are the kingmakers of the Republican Party, and they have made it their mission to get rid of Trump from the public stage. Only what Rupert didn’t understand, it was Trump that helped make Fox News what it was. And it was people like Roger Ailes, and Bill O’Reilly who understood the people better than the Murdocks outside the New York and Washington D.C. markets. Sure, they still have Jesse Watters, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham on their primetime coverage, which is all very good. But all other hours of the day, Fox News has become much more like CNN, unwatchable to the people who really care about their country. And Fox News has only hurt themselves with the activism against Trump. Trump and Kari Lake are the future; they just can’t accept that reality. Election fraud to them is a necessary evil to keep the illusion that America is really, like McConnell stated, a 50/50 country. In truth, it isn’t, not even close. And when elections are held where the controlled opposition can’t cheat, we see that people like Kari Lake will win every time. Even when the deck is stacked against good people, they will win if election fraud is taken away as an option. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

I Support Darbi Boddy More than Ever: How education costs get blown out of control and why Matt Miller is not worth $200K per year

Part of the entire problem with public education was on full display this past week at Lakota schools, where the school board voted to urge a fellow board member, Darbi Boddy to resign. Darbi made a mistake that many quarterbacks make in sports, which is the point of the sport, to apply pressure to the passer and see if you can force an error. The pro levy, big government, Joe Biden “mask-wearing even in their car with the windows rolled up” type of supporters who think they run the school has hated Darbi Boddy since she was elected. They have been trying to get rid of her since the election. For the first time in their lives, the public beat the pro-union supporters when Darbi Boddy won, whom I supported and continue to support emphatically. They were reminded that they do not run the school; it’s the people who pay the taxes.   And Darbi started off her job on the school board after being sworn in during a January meeting, asking lots of questions and being what the other board members thought of as disruptive. So that same radical labor union side of the Lakota business that makes everything cost so much and really has any kind of management crippled to do anything positive, set in their minds to put a lot of pressure on Darbi Boddy, and she got wrapped up in reacting to that pressure when she accidentally placed a link on her Facebook site that led to pornographic material. It was the kind of mistake that even a good quarterback throwing an interception with pressure from linemen trying to sack him could have made. That’s the point of the pressure, to pressure their target into making a mistake. Darbi was trying to point out how vulnerable kids are to sex in schools and the kind of grooming that goes on through liberal textbooks, like what they have found in Florida. And that’s how she ended up making a mistake with the link and how the pressure applied could then be used to make a case for her removal.   The masked parents and other union-supporting radicals could care less about the link. They want to get rid of Darbi Boddy, which the school board then obliged for their own reasons. Thankfully, Darby Boddy is tough and is refusing to step down. Because she shouldn’t, I would say that the Lakota school board needs four more members just like her, and after this event, it’s clear that we should be working to make that happen. 

The main problem in public education is that an expert class runs it, and that was indeed the case here. The board likely referred to “legal” over the Darbi Boddy incident. They recommended that the board distance themselves from the controversy with some legal pronouncement of advising her to resign. This is the same woke advice they would give any human resource department and has been just another corrosive element to American culture for many decades now. A woke administrative class that runs things behind the scenes throwing logic out the window and paying tribute to some progressive form of chaos, hides the fact that none of these people know anything about anything. Since she has been on the school board, Darbi Boddy has been excellent at questioning those very types of issues. She has been giving Matt Miller a hard time at every meeting, not so much on purpose, but to wrestle power back away from his position and to apply it back to the school board where it always belonged. Before Darbi Boddy was elected to the board, all five of them would punt every decision to the school superintendent, and he would answer as the head of the administrative state. Almost everything he reports to the school board is the judgment of the administrative state which has really spun out of control since Covid started. The teacher’s union tells Matt what to say. The CDC tells Matt what to say, as does the local health department, which never had any authority to tell anybody what to do. Then they punt all this administrative opinion to legal, who then ultimately controls everything with liability worry. The” experts” say something. Now it becomes pre-court testimony that everyone just throws more money at to avoid. And in that way, logic gets thrown out of the window, and everything costs a fortune just to do basic things. 

That’s also why Matt Miller is not worth the $200K a year we pay him. I think he’s a nice guy. But he’s not worth that much money. And neither are the teachers who use him as their spokesperson. The whole game is rigged against the taxpayers, and the only school board member I see doing the work the way school boards should operate has been Darbi Boddy, which is why they want to get rid of her because she asks too many questions that they can’t answer. We could get a parrot to repeat whatever some “expert” says, pay them in birdseed, and save the $200K. I’ve been watching several of the meetings by the Lakota school board because I keep hearing how out of control Darbi has been, how disruptive. I saw a person asking the kind of questions I wanted to know and a person doing the job correctly. But the labor union side of government schools doesn’t want the job done correctly. They want to support the administrative state because it’s big, easy money for them. And they don’t want any change, no matter how needed it may be. The parents want the free babysitting service and to believe that if they send their kids to Lakota, all their crappy parental skills won’t screw up their kids growing up. The school officials want low expectations that are easy to achieve and won’t expose how incompetent they are as people. And the teachers, of course, want to continue to be overly paid and do as little work as possible, which was the case during the eternal pandemic they never want to end. Nobody is showing any leadership except for Darbi. 

The moral outrage was laughable that the pornographic link Darbi accidentally posted was something detrimental to the education of students at Lakota. At that very minute, 3:15 PM on a Wednesday afternoon, teachers were likely trying to get naked pictures of students on their phones, there was porn being watched in the back row of several classrooms, and even the school board members themselves had much more salacious stories to tell that weren’t accidents, but deliberate acts of stupidity and poor judgment that have gone unpunished for the most part. (click the links for examples over the years) Fake moral outrage toward Darbi to hide the vast amount of real trouble that is just under the surface. I found the whole episode disgusting and very disingenuous. Many of the people who pushed for the resignation of Darbi Boddy have been telling the media that they have 1500 signatures gathered to push her off the board. Well, news flash, Darbi just won an election where she had gained around 7000 votes from the public, and that public generally likes the job she has been doing. In a community as large as Lakota, 1500 names are a small minority. They do not represent the kind of people who live in the district. Darbi won more votes than even the incumbent on the ballot. And that’s how elections work; if people don’t like the performance of the people they elect, they can be voted out for the next term. What the people showed who pushed Darbi to resign for this really minor mistake is that they wished to remove their vote from the public, which is about as disingenuous as it gets. That lack of respect is the real problem, and it was quite clear in what Lakota schools did to Darbi Boddy on April 27, 2022. They owe her and her voters an apology at the bare minimum. And they also need to figure out if they can live with the high standard they have now set for themselves. Because I already know the answer.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Jim Renacci is Winning Big over Governor DeWine, 46% to 30%: Greatness in Ohio is poised to make a comeback

It’s pretty late in the game for such a poll to come out in The Ohio Star that showed Jim Renacci is up 49% to DeWine’s 30. That is good news. The other candidates’ Joe Blystone, came in at 20%, with Ron Hood at 4%, with the May primary coming up fast. There is a chance that the date for the primary might move to August due to district mapping Supreme Court decisions, but for a snapshot of where things are in the spring of 2022, things are looking very good for Jim Renacci. And Renacci’s own people confirm that this sampling of 1,342 likely primary voters is consistent with their internal polling. I would caution that such sampling could still run hot or cold depending on what part of the State the polling is done. For instance, in Cuyahoga County, Renacci is from that region and will naturally perform well, whereas DeWine is better known in the south of the State by default. But that is a pretty good lead and is consistent with the temperature of Ohio after a disastrous four years of Mike DeWine. Even at his recent State of the State speech, where all the focus was on him, with no Renacci to compete for attention, DeWine could not escape the cascade of blunders born out of his reaction to Covid-19. DeWine will always be known as the first governor in all the country that started the lockdowns, and for that, we can never forgive him. 

But I would caution everyone not to get too cocky just yet. While this poll shows a big lead, you can bet everything that DeWine’s 30% will show up to vote for him on a primary day. They might hold their nose to doing it, but they will because they are probably tied to him somehow. So his 30% is real, and it is active. Really at no point in this whole process has Mike DeWine cracked the 40% threshold, so his support has always been a fringe portion of the old establishment type of Republican voter.   It says quite a lot about the strength of the Renacci campaign that he can poll as high as he can against an established Republican, even with competition from two other challengers. But voter turnout will be vital to sustaining this polling lead. There is a reason that establishment candidates tend always to win, and that’s because their base participates in elections on primary day while most everyone else talks about who they’ll vote for but forget about the importance of primaries. That makes it very hard for Central Committees to pick against an incumbent no matter how much they’d like to see different results. This election is different for many reasons, so we are dealing with lots of uncharted new conditions. But once the votes are counted for this primary, the winner will be the candidate with the most active base. 

Yes, it was very embarrassing for Governor DeWine, granted it was on Renacci’s home turf in Cuyahoga County. The Republican Party recently voted to endorse Mike DeWine with a 123-75 margin. It wasn’t even close, and they aren’t delusional. That kind of comprehensive win for an establishment party is great no matter where it comes from. Other parts of the State have supported Mike DeWine, but they risk looking like fools in picking a loser, which is tricky because so many people are just holding their nose for DeWine just to get along in their local parties. But the truth is, Renacci has done an excellent job in creating an option for DeWine, and people have not forgotten what DeWine did to them with Covid-19. Mike DeWine is Ohio’s, Dr. Fauci. When everyone thought they would die over Covid, DeWine’s strategy of exploiting authoritarian rule over all of Ohio, shutting down businesses, church services, and putting an abortion activist in charge of health, DeWine was polling well among Democrats. But not with Republicans. And even though DeWine had tried to be more Republican since the summer of 2021, when the lockdowns and mask mandates finally were removed, the public has not forgiven him. We know a lot more about Covid-19 than we did in 2020, and it’s quite clear that Governor DeWine overreacted and led the nation into a destructive course of action that was reprehensible. He cost the lives of many Ohioans, destroyed businesses, violated the Constitution multiple times with grave consequences, and it will take decades for many of those memories to alleviate. A few months isn’t enough to help DeWine in an election where there is stiff competition like there is in this 2022 primary.

The good news isn’t just one stand-off poll; there is evidence everywhere that Jim Renacci is poised to beat Mike DeWine in the 2022 primary comfortably. Renacci is the Trump candidate in the race, so given where Ohio is in relation to the President, that enthusiasm shows up in support of the Ohio governor race. Renacci has promised to be the Ron DeSantis of Ohio, and the world is watching great government coming out of Florida as an example for everyone to see. It’s a real opportunity for Ohio to really do some great things if they had a governor like Renacci, who I think could be better than Ron DeSantis. It was President Trump who opened up this new kind of political playbook. DeSantis didn’t start on such sure footing. By adopting the Trump management style, he has been able to really put Florida on the map of leadership. His success has given him the political clout to take on the wokeness of Disney when any other governor would be crawling through broken glass to kiss up to the biggest employers of Florida with appeasement. What’s good for Disney obviously isn’t good for the rest of the State, and DeSantis has done well to stick up to the big bully for the benefit of Florida, and people see that.

Renacci is the same type of person; he could be a great governor in Ohio. Better than DeSantis. And with a month to go before the primary, obviously, people are feeling it. Just remember, while all this is wonderful to see and hear, it still takes showing up to vote for Renacci on election day. It would be good if Blystone and Hood would rally behind Renacci to ensure a victory against DeWine. They aren’t going to gain any more of the vote at this point, and if they really wanted to help Ohio, they would find a home under the Renacci umbrella. There’s plenty of room. It would also be an excellent time to get a Trump endorsement, officially. For President Trump, that would be a low-risk endorsement that could really engage voters and ensure that they do show up for the primary. But with just a little bit to go, Jim Renacci is looking good. There is a lot of hope that we may just get to see how great Ohio can be and that we can put these dark days of DeWine behind us. As bad as the last several years have been, the years before us could be many times better. Perhaps, just perhaps, we will see it. We certainly deserve it. Ohio is a great state, and it deserves a great Governor to represent the people who make it so great. DeWine is undoubtedly not that guy. Jim Renacci is, and everything is pointing in the right direction for greatness to make a comeback.    

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Jennifer Gross Endorses Jim Renacci: The Overton Window in Ohio Politics

I’ve never been a “no government anarchist.” My thoughts on government management have always been a small but active legislature that is contentious, honorable, yet tenacious. Those who have read my Gunfighter’s Guide to Business know I view most group-oriented behavior as a competitive match, not an opportunity for back-slapping and friendship. Our republic form of government has been unique globally, and now that we understand the nature of the attack against our country, we can better understand the threat that has always been there. I have thought about this kind of thing a lot over the last year, especially while visiting Mt. Rushmore. I found that place to be a temple of intellect, and the bookstore they have there is better than a gold mine of infinite wealth. My thoughts on the matter have matured up to the present with this visit to the Statehouse of Ohio. The challenge has been to create as open a market as possible for business and individual rights while still defending the sovereignty of our states and nation from foreign aggression. Which, of course, is hard to do in an open market global economy. The hostile forces to the United States have attacked not the concept of any nation-states but the essence of our very economy. This corporate board room government within a government type of thinking is challenging the very nature of our Republic form of government. Understanding the nature of that attack is precisely why I have been pointing out Ohio politicians I know who are doing the job correctly, in their own unique way, so that we can see examples of how our republic government should look. And a fine example of how government should look can be found in my State Representative Jennifer Gross, whom I recently had a chance to visit at the Statehouse. 

It’s taken me a while to warm up to Jennifer Gross. During a rough election, she ran against my pick for that seat that Mike DeWine had screwed up with emergency power Covid rules. But in the short time Jennifer has been in the seat of the 52nd District; she has brought more of the Tea Party to Columbus than I would have thought possible. When I recently found her after Governor DeWine’s State of the State speech, she was very bubbly and enthusiastic, working the floor and talking to many different people. I know that many members of the House and Senate and many other politicians view Jennifer as a disruptive force and find her unsettling. I’ve heard lots of negative talk about her by several in the political class, but I have some other ideas about her that I wanted to confirm. So we spent some time together talking about the Overton Window and its role, which she more than understood. And we also talked about the challenger Jim Renacci whom she is one of the only official members of the Statehouse to endorse openly. I know there are a lot more, but I could see the pressure up close. At this event, where Jennifer and I talked, Governor DeWine walked around talking to people. People in the House and Senate know they need DeWine to sign bills they are working on. And DeWine needs them to, to look like he’s in charge. DeWine wants to take credit for the big Intel chip manufacturing plant coming to Ohio, announced just ahead of the primary for 2022. And he recently signed a controversial Constitutional Carry bill he would never have signed otherwise, except for Republican pressure to act more “conservative.” But the trade-off has been to show public support for DeWine in a very tight race against Renacci and other challengers. So there is a lot of double talk going on around the Governor. But Jennifer is not one of those double-talkers. She is right out in the open about it, and the Governor is well aware. 

And that is the value I see in Jennifer; she openly embraces that role of a disrupter, someone who will challenge the Overton Window on the political spectrum and yank it hard right away from the communism that has seeped into the process over the years. Back to the constitutional republic, we have needed and expected. Politics is not about friendships, it’s about doing the job correctly, and there is a real hunger from Jennifer to do a great job. She intends to represent all the people honestly in her district, including the people who didn’t vote for her, and that was the general vibe I picked up on as she showed me around where her desk was and other features of the House chamber. Things got pretty heated in Columbus as Jeniffer was on the front of legislation to prevent mandated vaccine requirements imposed by the Biden administration. We all learned a lot from that experience. It was a balancing act between a Chamber of Commerce view of the world, allowing corporate environments to impose rules on their workforce for their own needs and the individual’s rights. The workers have their own sovereignty. Jennifer represented the raw Tea Party small-government perspective against forces that didn’t want to be bothered with contentious debate during a government-imposed pandemic. But in hindsight now, after watching Klaus Schwab at the World Government Forum in Dubai recently, we see those vicious bandits plotting the demise of America out in the open. Their mode of attack has been through the corporate boardroom, our Chambers of Commerce, and our mom-and-pop businesses, dancing to ridiculous rules and regulations imposed by unconstitutional commerce clauses. If we ever needed a functioning republic to sort all these things out, it was now. And I have been increasingly happy that there is someone like Jennifer Gross who will ask the hard questions and force people to think out of the box without making it unnecessarily contentious. Jennifer walks that line quite well, I think. 

So how to put businesses first in Ohio and give corporations the autonomy to locate in our state and do great things is the problem of those lofty halls in Columbus. It’s why I wrote The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business and started passing out copies of it to people I talk to in the political world. We have to defend business and commerce, uphold law and order, and stand by our government and boardroom politics. We have to stand for executive-level leadership in business and politics. But we must also stand for individual freedom and to force the scum and villainy out of our lives without killing the host. Not an easy thing to do, and that is what that book is about, a guide on how to tell good from bad, right from wrong, and unprofitable activity from the driver of all things, profit and value. And to perform that task well, especially in organized government, I find great value in disruptive forces like Jennifer Gross. She will uncomfortably keep everyone honest without turning the dispute into a personal fight. Playing along to get along is not what makes any republic form of government great. But asking the right questions, most often the ones you don’t even know you need to ask, is the key to keeping a government working correctly. And in the world we have today, where the bad guys have been hidden behind the rules and regulations of corporate America and international partnerships, there is a significant need for more disruptive Overton Window types like Jennifer Gross in our grand Statehouse. I am glad to have her there, and I feel proud to have such an engaged representative with plenty of fire to fight the forces at work in our state for duplicity and malice. The need for good government is genuine, more so now than ever. And Jennifer Gross keeps honesty at the front of all conversations for the betterment of everyone. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business