Last updated: November 2, 2026
Vivek Ramaswamy is the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio, and on Tuesday, Nov. 3, Ohio voters decide whether he gets the job. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET. He faces Democrat Amy Acton, Ohio’s former health director. The final InsiderAdvantage poll, taken Oct. 29–30, had Acton at 49% and Ramaswamy at 46%. Before politics, Ramaswamy built a biotech fortune. The son of Indian immigrants from Cincinnati, he went from a hedge fund job to founding Roivant Sciences, a company that buys drugs bigger drugmakers have set aside. Forbes estimates he is worth about $2.3 billion. Since 2023 he has run for president, co-led the Department of Government Efficiency with Elon Musk for about two months and, since early 2025, campaigned for governor. If he wins, he would be Ohio’s first Indian American governor and the first Hindu governor of any U.S. state.
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Quick facts
Full name: Vivek Ganapathy Ramaswamy
Born: Aug. 9, 1985, in Cincinnati, Ohio (age 41)
Running for: Governor of Ohio (Republican nominee). His running mate is state Senate President Rob McColley.
Opponent: Amy Acton (Democrat), former director of the Ohio Department of Health
Education: Bachelor’s degree in biology, Harvard (2007); law degree, Yale (2013)
Companies: Founder of Roivant Sciences (2014); co-founder of Chapter, a Medicare navigation company (2020), and Strive Asset Management (2022)
Net worth: About $2.3 billion, according to Forbes (September 2026)
Books: Woke, Inc. (2021), Nation of Victims (2022), Capitalist Punishment (2023) and Truths (2024)
Family: Married to Apoorva Tewari Ramaswamy, a laryngologist he met at Yale. They have three children.
Known for: Roivant, the 2024 “anti-woke” presidential run and a brief stint co-leading DOGE
Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?
Ramaswamy grew up in Cincinnati. His parents came to the U.S. from Palakkad in the southern Indian state of Kerala. His father worked as an engineer at General Electric and his mother is a geriatric psychiatrist. He graduated as valedictorian of St. Xavier High School in 2003.
At Harvard he studied biology and graduated summa cum laude in 2007. He also performed as a libertarian rapper under the name “Da Vek.” In 2007 he co-founded Campus Venture Network, a site for college entrepreneurs, with Travis May. It was sold to the Kauffman Foundation in 2009.
After college he joined the hedge fund QVT Financial, where he rose to partner and helped manage its biotech investments. He stayed until 2014, studying law at Yale at the same time. At Yale he became friends with JD Vance. He has said he had a net worth of about $15 million before he finished law school.
In 2014 he founded Roivant Sciences. The “Roi” stands for return on investment. The idea was to buy the rights to drugs that big pharmaceutical companies had shelved and develop them in separate subsidiaries, which Roivant called “vants.” Its first big bet failed in public. Its later deals made him a billionaire.
He stepped down as Roivant’s CEO in January 2021 and left its board chair role in February 2023 to run for president. His campaign was built on attacking “woke” corporate politics, the subject of his first book. He finished fourth in the Iowa caucuses in January 2024, dropped out and endorsed Donald Trump.
After Trump won, he picked Ramaswamy and Musk in November 2024 to lead the Department of Government Efficiency. Ramaswamy left on Inauguration Day to prepare a run for governor. He launched that campaign in February 2025 and got Trump’s endorsement the same day.
Career timeline
1985: Born in Cincinnati.
2003: Graduates as valedictorian of St. Xavier High School.
2007: Graduates summa cum laude from Harvard with a biology degree. Co-founds Campus Venture Network. Joins hedge fund QVT Financial.
2009: Campus Venture Network is sold to the Kauffman Foundation.
2013: Earns his law degree from Yale.
2014: Leaves QVT and founds Roivant Sciences.
2015: Roivant’s Axovant subsidiary goes public. He appears on the cover of Forbes. Marries Apoorva Tewari.
2017: Axovant’s Alzheimer’s drug fails its big trial. SoftBank invests $1.1 billion in Roivant.
2019: Sells stakes in five Roivant subsidiaries to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma.
2020: Co-founds Chapter, a Medicare navigation company.
January 2021: Steps down as Roivant CEO and becomes executive chairman.
August 2021: Publishes Woke, Inc.
2022: Co-founds Strive Asset Management, an “anti-ESG” investment firm.
February 2023: Leaves Roivant’s board chair role and Strive, and launches a presidential campaign.
January 2024: Finishes fourth in Iowa, ends his campaign and endorses Trump.
November 2024: Named co-lead of DOGE with Elon Musk.
January 20, 2025: Leaves DOGE on Inauguration Day.
February 24, 2025: Launches his campaign for governor and is endorsed by Trump the same day.
May 5, 2026: Wins the Republican primary over Casey Putsch with about 82% of the vote.
Nov. 3, 2026: Ohio general election.
Notable deals & projects
Roivant Sciences: Founded in 2014 with almost $100 million in start-up capital from QVT and other investors. Its model was to license drug candidates other companies had set aside and build a subsidiary around each one. He called it the “Berkshire Hathaway of drug development.” Matt Gline has been CEO since 2021. Roivant listed on Nasdaq in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. In 2023 it sold its subsidiary Telavant to Roche for $7.1 billion up front. Forbes put its market value at about $29 billion in September 2026.
Axovant: In December 2014 Axovant bought the rights to an Alzheimer’s drug, intepirdine, from GlaxoSmithKline for $5 million. The drug had already failed four trials. Axovant’s 2015 IPO raised $315 million, and the company was valued at almost $3 billion while it had eight employees. In September 2017 the drug failed its large trial, and the stock lost 75% in a day. Axovant dissolved in 2023.
SoftBank and Sumitomo: SoftBank invested $1.1 billion in Roivant in 2017. In 2019 Roivant sold its stakes in five subsidiaries to Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma. Ramaswamy made $175 million in capital gains from that deal.
Chapter: A Medicare navigation company he co-founded in 2020. Forbes values it at $3 billion and estimates his stake at about $130 million.
Strive Asset Management: Co-founded in 2022 with his high school friend Anson Frericks, with backing from Peter Thiel, JD Vance and Bill Ackman. Strive marketed itself as “anti-ESG.” He left in February 2023.
BuzzFeed: In 2024 he took a 7.7% stake in the media company, later raised to 8.4%, and urged its board to hire conservative commentators.
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What he’s known for
Self-made wealth: “I was not born a billionaire. I was not born a millionaire. I was not born an anything-aire,” he said after winning the May primary, according to Forbes. Acton calls him her “self-funding billionaire” opponent. If he wins, Forbes says he would be the second-richest governor in the U.S. and the third-richest elected official, after Trump and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker.
Fighting “woke” business: His books and Strive argued that companies and big asset managers should stay out of social and political causes and focus on shareholders.
Being young: He launched his presidential campaign at 37 and is 41 now.
His faith and diet: He is Hindu and vegetarian, and has said, “I believe it is wrong to kill sentient animals for culinary pleasure.”
Close ties to Trump and Vance: Trump endorsed him for governor, and Vance is a friend from Yale.
In the news
Nov. 3, 2026: Ohio votes. Polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET. Libertarian Don Kissick is also on the ballot.
Nov. 1, 2026: The final InsiderAdvantage poll of 1,200 likely voters, taken Oct. 29–30, had Acton at 49% and Ramaswamy at 46%, with a margin of error of 2.83 points. Polling averages from 270toWin and RealClearPolitics had Acton ahead by about 4 points.
Late October 2026: His campaign ran an ad in which Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, tells voters not to trust her daughter. Acton was removed from her mother’s home at 12, after her stepfather was charged with raping her, the Associated Press reported. Gov. Mike DeWine, who had endorsed Ramaswamy, called the ad “deeply, deeply troubling” and urged him to pull it, NBC News reported. Trump and Vance backed the ad. On Oct. 30 the AP reported that the ad was off the air after about $1 million of a planned $4 million buy. The campaign said it had “run to completion.”
Oct. 14, 2026: State filings showed Ramaswamy had raised $43.2 million and spent $79.5 million, compared with $37.7 million raised and $34.0 million spent by Acton.
September 2026: Forbes estimated his net worth at $2.3 billion, up from $1.8 billion a year earlier.
Quotes
“I was not born a billionaire. I was not born a millionaire. I was not born an anything-aire.” — after winning the May 2026 primary, as quoted by Forbes
Roivant would be the “Berkshire Hathaway of drug development.” — on Roivant, 2015
Roivant would “be the highest return on investment endeavor ever taken up in the pharmaceutical industry.” — Forbes, 2015
“I believe it is wrong to kill sentient animals for culinary pleasure.” — on being vegetarian
The ad had “run to completion.” — his campaign, on the ad featuring Acton’s mother, as reported by the AP, Oct. 30, 2026
Controversies / criticism
The Acton ad: Republicans including Sen. Jon Husted, Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Gov. DeWine criticized the ad featuring Acton’s mother. The Cleveland Plain Dealer cited it when it endorsed Acton.
Axovant: Critics point to the Axovant IPO, which raised $315 million for a drug that had already failed four trials. Investors, including California’s teachers’ pension fund, lost money when it failed. Ramaswamy was largely shielded because he held his stake through Roivant.
Negative campaign: The race has been called “ugly.” Acton declined to debate him, citing what her campaign called inaccurate and personal attacks in his ads, so no debate between the two was held.
Strive lawsuit: In August 2026 a federal judge declined to dismiss a whistleblower lawsuit by former Strive executive Joyce Rosely, who says she was fired after objecting to alleged securities-law violations. The ruling did not decide whether any violations happened.
Roivant Social Ventures: Roivant’s social-impact arm, set up while he was CEO, backed diversity initiatives in biotech. He has played down his role in it.
Net worth & money
Forbes estimated Ramaswamy’s net worth at $2.3 billion in September 2026, up from $1.8 billion a year earlier and about $1 billion in March 2025. Most of it comes from Roivant. Its shares were near an all-time high in September, giving it a market value of about $29 billion, Forbes reported. The rise followed positive trial data, the FDA’s approval of the drug Lisraya in August and a multibillion-dollar patent settlement with Moderna in March.
He has been selling. Forbes estimates he sold about $1.2 billion of Roivant stock in the 12 months he has been campaigning, and may hold as much as $1.3 billion in cash and liquid securities. At the end of March 2026, he and his wife held 38.9 million Roivant shares, or 5.4%, according to filings cited by Forbes. His stake has since fallen below 5%, so he no longer has to report sales. Forbes says that if he had kept all his Roivant shares from 2021, the stake would be worth $2.8 billion. He also owns about $130 million of Chapter, which raised money this year at a $3 billion valuation. In 2025 he bought American Eagle CEO Jay Schottenstein’s mansion in Bexley, outside Columbus, for $15 million.
FAQ
Who is Vivek Ramaswamy?
He is a biotech entrepreneur and the Republican nominee for governor of Ohio. He founded Roivant Sciences, ran for president in 2024 and briefly co-led DOGE.
When is the Ohio governor’s race?
Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Polls close at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Who is Vivek Ramaswamy running against?
Democrat Amy Acton, Ohio’s former health director. Libertarian Don Kissick is also on the ballot.
How much is Vivek Ramaswamy worth?
About $2.3 billion, according to Forbes’ September 2026 estimate.
How old is Vivek Ramaswamy?
He was born on Aug. 9, 1985, so he is 41.
What does Roivant do?
Roivant Sciences develops drugs, often by licensing compounds other companies have set aside and building subsidiaries around them.
Is Vivek Ramaswamy married?
Yes. His wife, Apoorva Tewari Ramaswamy, is a laryngologist. They have three children.
Further reading
If Elected, Vivek Ramaswamy Would Be America’s Second Wealthiest Governor — Forbes
Final InsiderAdvantage Ohio Survey: Brown 49, Husted 47; Acton 49, Ramaswamy 46 — InsiderAdvantage
Ramaswamy pulls attack ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother — AP
Who Is Elon Musk? — The Profile
The Profile: The CEO of Anti-Woke, Inc & the newsletter for America’s most influential people — The Profile
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