Entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will no longer co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside Elon Musk, and is reportedly opting to run for Ohio governor instead.
“It was my honor to help support the creation of DOGE,” Ramaswamy said in a Jan. 20 X post. “I’m confident that Elon and the team will succeed in streamlining government.”
Ramaswamy didn’t elaborate on his future plans, but CBS News and The New York Times were among the U.S. media outlets reporting that the business leader and author would soon announce he is running for governor of Ohio.
Ramaswamy said that he’d “have more to say very soon” while reaffirming his support for President Donald Trump.
“Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE. He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE based on the structure that we announced today,” DOGE spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Associated Press.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s second — and legally his last — term will end in January 2027.
On Jan. 18, Ramaswamy re-shared an X post from a parody account using his likeness that stated he was running for governor of Ohio, with the pro-crypto Republican commenting that it wasn’t “a bad idea.”
Politico reported that Musk made it known that he wanted Ramaswamy out of DOGE in recent days. A Republican strategist close to Trump’s advisers told Politico that Ramaswamy “just burned through the bridges and he finally burned Elon. Everyone wants him out of Mar-a-Lago, out of D.C.”
The move was driven in part by Ramaswamy’s criticism of American culture. In December, he made a post on X stating that tech companies hire foreign workers partly because of a mindset that has “venerated mediocrity over excellence.”
The now-solely Musk-led advisory organization, named after his favored cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE), was officially created through one of a slew of executive orders that Trump signed on his first day in office.
DOGE is already on the firing line as it was hit with lawsuits from consumer advocate group Public Citizen and other nonprofit groups minutes after Trump took office.
The lawsuits allege that DOGE violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act by allowing private individuals to make government decisions without proper transparency and oversight.
DOGE, which was announced by Trump soon after his electoral victory in November, is designed to slash federal spending through budget cuts and mass firings.