Ohio heads to polls as Ramaswamy hopes to lock in as Republican candidate for governor – US politics live | US news

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Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy hopes to maintain his standing as a candidate in the race to become Ohio governor.

A big part of the Trump-backed biotech entrepreneur’s campaign has been a campaign that finds him running unopposed for Democrats, former state health director Dr. He spent his time focusing on the general election in November as he positioned himself for an expensive race against Amy Acton.

The contests on the ballot will also set the stage for Ohio’s third competitive U.S. Senate race in four years and a handful of U.S. House races expected to be closely fought in the fall.

All executive offices statewide are open this year due to term limits, but the governor’s race has attracted most of the attention so far, the AP reported.

Ramaswamy, the GOP’s 2024 primary presidential candidate, burst onto the state’s political scene early last year. Then-senator J.D. Vance was ascending to the vice presidency, and prominent gubernatorial candidate Jon Husted was appointed to replace him in Washington.

Although new to state politics, Ramaswamy’s national profile, tech industry connections and closeness to Trump have earned him the support of the Ohio Republican Party. However, he cleared a possible field that included the incumbent state attorney general, state treasurer and lieutenant governor.

“He’s a polarizing figure,” said Jessica Taylor, an analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which forecasts the U.S. election.

“It certainly showed me that when you see a candidate’s first ad showing his wife and children, there is an sympathy issue for him. It certainly seems like he’s trying to soften his image as a candidate.”

In other developments:

• Donald Trump has threatened that Iran will be “off the ground” if it attacks US ships trying to reopen the route through the Strait of Hormuz.. The US launched an operation to help hundreds of ships and their crews stranded in the Gulf, again dragging the region to the brink of an all-out war. While the US military claimed that it destroyed six small Iranian boats and captured both Iranian cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, Iran denied this claim. More here.

• The Trump administration moved to block a lawsuit filed almost six years ago by Minnesota officials alleging that oil companies and an oil trade group deceived state residents about climate change. The justice department, the administration’s law enforcement arm, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Minneapolis, arguing that the federal government, not states, has the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and that Minnesota officials are improperly trying to impose their policy preferences on the rest of the country.

• The US supreme court has gone out of its way to help Louisiana Republicans redraw their congressional maps ahead of this year’s midterm elections. The procedural move comes less than a week after the court’s landmark decision that struck down Louisiana’s congressional map and gutted Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

• The Trump administration continues to pressure the United Nations and the broader international aid sector to adopt trade-oriented policies that will benefit US companies – or face the threat of further budget cuts. Donald Trump’s second term saw USAID suffer mass layoffs and transfer its remaining operations to the state department; This has created a ripple effect that has many experts around the world warning that it will cost thousands of lives as vital programs are cut. More here.

• The Trump administration’s attack on the 87-year-old food aid program that supports tens of millions of low-income Americans escalated last week Agriculture Minister Brooke Rollins claimed that 14,000 people were among the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (Snap) recipients, including owners of luxury vehicles such as Ferrari, Bentley and Tesla. More here.