JD Vance's political team signs on to run Vivek Ramaswamy's bid for Ohio governor

CLEVELAND — Vivek Ramaswamy has landed Vice President JD Vance’s top political advisers to guide his soon-to-launch bid for governor in Ohio, a source involved in the planning told NBC News.

CLEVELAND — Vivek Ramaswamy has landed Vice President JD Vance’s top political advisers to guide his soon-to-launch bid for governor in Ohio, a source involved in the planning told NBC News.

The hirings followed conversations between Vance and Ramaswamy over the last two weeks, said this person, who was granted anonymity to share details of private discussions.

The hirings also signal that Vance’s team, which overlaps in places with President Donald Trump’s, is fully behind Ramaswamy and that Vance himself is comfortable loaning out his advisers' talents to him. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who has known Vance since their studies at Yale Law School, last week parted ways with the new Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, just as the federal spending watchdog project was getting off the ground.

“Expect Vivek to announce his candidacy in mid-February,” the source said.

For Vance, it’s an early flex of the political muscle that helped elevate him first to the Senate in his and Ramaswamy’s native Ohio and, most recently, to the vice presidency.