Corporate donors to Vivek Ramaswamy
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
Reports say corporate PACs including Bank of America, Pfizer and Kroger fund Vivek for Ohio, Ramaswamy's campaign.
The donor list lands as voters weigh corporate power in Ohio's governor race.
Background
Vivek Ramaswamy is the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, and his campaign fund, Vivek for Ohio, is running an attack ad on his Democratic rival Amy Acton, a former head of the Ohio Department of Health. The ad features Acton's estranged mother accusing her of lying about childhood homelessness. Reporting this week traced the money behind the campaign and the outside groups supporting it, in a cycle where, per MS NOW, most voters view excessive corporate power as a major problem.
How it unfolded
- Oct 20, 2026Reports detail outside money in Ohio's governor's race; V-PAC, the super PAC aligned with Ramaswamy, raised more than $18 million in its latest quarterly report, with Pennsylvania billionaire Jeff Yass writing a $10 million check.
- Oct 20, 2026Signal Cleveland reports Ohio insurers and utilities gave more than $6 million to the Republican and Democratic governors associations, and that Scotts Miracle Gro gave $250,000 to a super PAC backing Ramaswamy.
- Oct 20, 2026MS NOW reports out-of-state billionaires including data center investors Ross Stevens and Ratmir Timashev transferred $37 million to a super PAC backing Ramaswamy.
- Oct 21, 2026Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker donated $500,000 to Amy Acton's campaign after Ramaswamy's attack ads.
- Oct 22, 2026Common Dreams, citing a Popular Information review of campaign finance documents, reports Vivek for Ohio is funded by corporate PACs for Bank of America, Deloitte, Kroger, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Duke Energy, Charter Communications, Centene, Giant Eagle, PNC, US Bank and BakerHostetler, plus PACs for Huntington Bank, Nationwide and NetJets and their CEOs.
- Oct 22, 2026Bloomberg reports Jeff Yass gave almost $110 million to boost Republicans in the midterms, making him the third-largest individual donor of the cycle and the top financial backer of Ramaswamy, who has received $30 million from Yass.
- Oct 22, 2026Reuters reports Polymarket and CEO Shayne Coplan gave roughly $1.3 million combined to the Republican National Committee, a super PAC supporting House Republicans, and V-PAC.
Who’s saying what
- Critics
- MS NOW writes that Ramaswamy's close ties to big business have worked against him in a cycle where most voters see excessive corporate power as a major problem.
- Party
- Illinois First Lady MK Pritzker said "bad men gain power when we don't fight back" and called Ramaswamy a symbol of "arrogance, cruelty, dishonesty" in politics.
- Industry
- A Polymarket spokesperson said the company engages "with all sides of the debate" and welcomes conversations with anyone who wants to learn more about its platform.
- Official
- Kalshi's John Bivona said by Election Day its full disclosures would show donations roughly evenly split across both parties, arguing regulation of prediction markets "isn't a partisan issue."
Still unverified
The Republican Governors Association spokesman said roughly $20 million has been spent on advertising to date but did not clarify what portion relates to Ohio's race; the Democratic Governors Association did not respond to Ohio Capital Journal's request for information about its spending.