Billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee in Ohio’s gubernatorial race, left the campaign trail in the Buckeye State on Friday to catch some world-class tennis hundreds of miles away.
Ramaswamy — per a video and picture shared by Democratic nominee Amy Acton on social media — sat three rows back from the court during the third round of the U.S. Open in New York.
“Vivek Ramaswamy thinks he is too good to spend Labor Day Weekend in Ohio, instead jetting off in his private plane to watch the US Open in VIP seating with his billionaire friends,” Acton wrote.
Ramaswamy — once a nationally ranked junior tennis player — attended the 2025 edition of the Grand Slam tournament and, with 60 days to go before Election Day, returned to Queens to watch America’s Tommy Paul defeat Alexander Bublik in a five-set thriller.
In a video shared to his Instagram page on Friday, Ramaswamy is seen inside a vehicle wearing the same outfit as the one from his Open appearance while questioning if Acton will “fight” for Ohioans given her refusal to debate him.
(Note: Acton’s campaign manager told The Columbus Dispatch she said no because of his “lies” and the “disgusting” attack ads toward her that are funded by his billionaire friends.)
It appears Ramaswamy has skipped town (or in this case, state) on dozens of occasions over the course of the campaign this year.
His private jets reportedly hit several countries in Europe, the Caribbean and a number of states outside of Ohio from January to mid-July, per the progressive political blog The Rooster.
Last week, Ramaswamy insisted to those at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas that he was making a “rare exception” of leaving the state amid the campaign, the Ohio Democratic Party highlighted in a recent press release.