Billionaire former Republican presidential and current Ohio GOP gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy's athletic prowess is being derided online after his campaign posted a video of him hitting baseballs in a batting cage on Instagram and TikTok on Tuesday.
The ribbing got so bad that the Ramaswamy campaign pulled the video off Instagram, leaving up only a similar one from June in which he wields a tennis racket. Unfortunately for them, plenty of people had already made and shared copies across social media where the merciless mockery continued.
You can watch the video on TikTok here:
@vivekramaswamy 10 Things I’ll Do for Ohio: 1. Slash your property taxes. 2. Abolish your state income tax. 3. Cut your electric bills. 4. Prosecute Medicaid fraud. 5. Bring higher standards to our schools. 6. Slice your healthcare costs. 7. Bring high-paying jobs back to our state. 8. Put human traffickers in prison where they belong. 9. Teach kids to be proud of our state & our country. 10. Crush crime in our cities. Coming in 2027.
Just like his tennis video, it showed Ramaswamy swinging a bat while he shared "ten things I’m gonna do for Ohio." Each campaign promise was followed by him hitting a ball.
Multiple unnamed sources reported the video shoot was a struggle to complete, even with the batting cage's pitching machine on the slowest setting.
One person willing to appear on camera, Michael Peacock, shared the behind the scenes scoop on Instagram.
According to Peacock, Vivek and his camera crew came in and picked the slowest pitch setting available, but their candidate could only make contact with the ball 5 times out of 25. So the campaign video was forced to replay footage of the same 5 swings over and over.
The Atlantic contributing writer James Surowiecki thought Ramaswamy should have stuck to tennis.
Others agreed.
Polls and prediction markets show the gubernatorial race in Ohio between Republican Ramaswamy and Democratic candidate Dr. Amy Acton too close to call.
Neither has a clear lead as of the latest numbers, with no debates planned between now and November.
Of the debates, Acton's campaign manager Phil Stein told the Dayton Daily News:
"Dr. Acton’s focus is on talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family, uses AI to falsely paint her as someone with a substance abuse problem, and shames Dr. Acton for being sexually abused as a child while Vivek stands with predators and abusers."
"Ramaswamy and his billionaire buddies have spent more than $50 million on disgusting, inaccurate attack ads that have been condemned as the ‘most vile and repulsive lies’ Ohio has ever seen."
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