The race for Ohio governor heated up recently, as polls from Emerson Polling emerged showing Republican front-runner Vivek Ramaswamy falling behind Democratic opponent Amy Acton. Among the messiness a new Republican candidate surfaced: Casey Putsch, who wears his America First values on his sleeve within his online presence. In late December, Putsch announced his run on his YouTube channel. He is a self-proclaimed “car-guy,” working on, building and fixing vehicles. Putsch is the creator of the “Omega Car,” the first car to reach over 104 miles per gallon in its first tests.
As the newest candidate in the race, Putsch stirred up some controversy by making comments and accusations in his announcement on YouTube against not only his Democrat opponent, Amy Acton, but the Conservative nominee as well.
“The Republican candidate is a billionaire multiple times over, and had his college paid for by Soros,” Putsch said.
This claim comes from a Wikipedia article that Ramaswamy allegedly paid to have “scrubbed,” from the site. The article mentioned that he was a recipient of a scholarship from The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, a Soros funded scholarship for immigrants and their children pursuing college education in the U.S. Ramaswamy used the money to fund his Harvard Law education. While the fund is widely considered a prestigious award, many Republicans frown upon it, as the Soros family has a reputation for manipulating and exploiting the public. Having been wrapped up in schemes such as paying protesters, and being labeled a “political Puppetmaster” by UM. Putsch also claimed that Ramaswamy made his money by manipulating the public and putting together a fraudulent company.
“[Politics] always favors the wealthy, doesn’t it?” Putsch said. “The only people that want Vivek Ramaswamy to be governor are all the H1B potentials. The corporations that want to save hundreds of millions of dollars by hiring H1B’s. Why? Because they can pay them less. But the nasty thing about that is it destroys the job market for everyone else.”
Putsch has heavily criticized and opposed H1B visas since throwing his hat in the ring. H1B’s are work visas for immigrant workers that may accept lower wages, and potentially displace American workers. Perception of H1B participating companies has heavily shifted in recent years as companies have become increasingly exploitative of these workers, using it to find cheaper labor and commit fraud.
“Companies won’t have to pay as much to the Americans who went through the school system, did everything right, fought hard and are really smart. Meanwhile people like Vivek, and even Donald Trump will say we don’t have smart enough people here to fill the jobs. Well, I can tell you that we do,” Putsch said. “I’ve been doing Genius Garage for over a decade and I’ve mentored the best engineers from Ohio and all around the country and gotten them incredible jobs.”
Genius Garage is Putsch’s non-profit organization dedicated to bridging the gap between academics and real-world application for undergraduates. Putsch described it as the mentorship he never had through school. Putsch has stood on his America First values as the race heats up.
“We have the best resource on planet Earth, right here. The people. The people that came to be because of this beautiful and great land. They’ll spit in our face, and laugh behind our backs, as long as it helps them and their friends make millions of dollars,” Putsch said. We won’t do that anymore, we’re not doing that at all. […] I’m sure as heck not going to vote for Amy, the Democrat party is radicalizing, and especially in the last 4 years, has done horrific things to leverage and frankly harm African Americans, the [LGBT+] community. And the Republicans are selling us out, for AI, for land.”
Putsch is emphasizing his claims that with him Ohioans will have protection from that and that he will not allow the American people to be sold out for profit. Freshman Elijah Mason commented on major politics.
“I try to stay well informed but I don’t follow state politics as much,” Mason said.
While many students stay well informed on national and global politics, many do not follow gubernatorial races as closely, even though they are just as important as any other election. Locally elected leaders most directly impact local communities. Junior Thomas Thornton agreed.
“Honestly I think governor elections are really important, [they’re] just really hard to pay attention to because of less coverage, a lot of people know about Vivek but before a few weeks ago, I had no idea who Amy Acton even was. Which is concerning because a lot of us are able to vote soon,” Thornton said.
As the stakes for the Ohio gubernatorial race rise, the citizens of Ohio have big decisions to make, and with misinformation and misleading media all over the country it is more important than ever to keep truth in mind during election seasons.
