Vivek Ramaswamy used to open his 2024 campaign events by saying, “Vivek rhymes with cake,” but one wonders if a more perfect rhyme might be “snake.”

Since the biotech entrepreneur’s presidential bid ended with an endorsement of Donald Trump, Ramaswamy has attempted to parlay his political capital into a campaign for governor of Ohio, his home state. 

“I want Ohio to become the STATE OF EXCELLENCE,” he writes on his website, which is surprisingly bereft of detailed information. “That’s where I’m going to lead our state, and you can take that to the bank as a modern-day Northwest Ordinance. We’re a conservative state, and it’s time for us to finally be governed like one.” 

Ohio, which has elected only one Democratic governor in over 30 years, is a solid state to mount an appeal to Republicans, which almost outnumber registered Democrats two to one. 

However, Ramaswamy also understands the need to reach across the aisle, and in recent years he has made many mentions of belief in God in an apparent effort to do so. After all, nearly two-thirds of Ohioans identify as Christian. 

Since last year, the gubernatorial hopeful has frequently cited a list of ten bullet points that he considers “TRUTH.” The list — which includes observations like “There are two genders” and “An open border is no border” — was also cemented into a book. 

The number one bullet point simply states, “God is real.” This declaration, which is formulated to sound modestly radical, is aimed at Christian voters who fear that the atheistic liberal order has gone too far. 

Ramaswamy has worked hard to really nail this point down.

“If you’re 18 & want to be a rebel, try this: tell your classmates you love your country, believe in God, and want to get married & raise your kids in a stable nuclear family,” he wrote in an April 2024 post. “See what happens.”

“We all bend the knee. If not to God, to false idols instead,” he said in another post. “‘Climate.’ ‘Equity.’ ‘Trans.’ We crave purpose & meaning. Time to restore what is true: God, nation, family.”

There’s something flavorless and bland about these broad, wanna-be-back-to-basics branding of belief in God. 

The fact that Ramaswamy is fond of talking about God, but rarely mentions Jesus Christ suggests that he might be playing a disingenuous political game to rally support from Christians. 

In some ways, it’s not surprising that Ramaswamy doesn’t speak often of Christ: he is Hindu. Though traditional Hinduism claims the existence of 33 million gods, Ramaswamy’s stated belief in one God suggests he aligns with the Advaita Vedanta school of the religion, which promotes a singular Godhead, or Brahman, that exists in all creatures. 

But when Ramaswamy does mention Christ, whom he views as “a” son of God and not “the” son of God, he only invokes the name to hammer away at a political talking point. 

“The climate cult has as much to do with the climate as the Spanish Inquisition had to do with Christ,” he has said in multiple X posts during the past few years. 

It’s not particularly shocking that Ramaswamy would lightly downplay his disbelief in Christ. Nor is it necessarily unusual for him to only throw out the name in a casual simile to sound clever. But wouldn’t it be concerning if he deliberately eliminated the mention of Christ when quoting the Bible? 

“I woke up this morning thinking about the man in Tuscarawas County who approached me before my speech last night to share a message from God, from Ephesians 3:20,” Ramaswamy wrote in a March 23 post. “I won’t forget it: ‘Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.’”

That’s all well and good, but that’s not the whole sentence. The entrepreneur, who has weathered allegations of fraud, dropped a period where a comma should be. Verse 20 isn’t a complete sentence unless it’s connected to the following verse: 

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

It’s possible that the man from Tuscarawas County made the error I suppose, but the omission is curious — especially coming from a politician who often appears desperate to convince Christians that his belief in one God who is not Christ is comparable to their belief in one God who is Christ. It’s a transparent call for faith inclusivity; a multicultural muddling of the firm meaning of belief. 

This effort might pay off. While Ramaswamy’s potential Democratic opponent’s polling remained at 45 points from February to April of this year, he gained six points. In a hypothetical matchup against former Ohio Representative Tim Ryan, Ramaswamy was up seven points. 

There’s a compelling argument for conservative leadership in the Buckeye State, but not at the hands of a candidate who’s willing to manipulate Christians with vague, religious-sounding language. 

In 1995’s The American President, one of Michael Douglas’ political aides says that his constituents crave leadership. 

“In the absence of genuine leadership, they’ll listen to anyone who steps up to the microphone,” he says. “They’re so thirsty for it they’ll crawl through the desert toward a mirage and when they discover there’s no water, they’ll drink the sand.”

“People don't drink the sand because they're thirsty,” Douglas replies. “They drink the sand because they don't know the difference.”

Come 2026, Ohio voters better use discernment to be able to tell the difference.