Local TPUSA chapter hosts Vivek Ramaswamy as he launches gubernatorial bid

The Taylor Auditorium, nestled in the right wing of the Farmer School of Business, hosted 500 Miami University students and Oxford residents on Wednesday to hear from Vivek Ramaswamy, an American entrepreneur and politician.

The event, put on by Turning Point USA (TPUSA) and staffed by Miami’s TPUSA chapter and College Republicans, set the stage for Ramaswamy’s bid to be Ohio’s next governor, with the election just around the corner next November.

The line began to form outside the auditorium doors at 5 p.m., extending outside the Farmer gates by 5:50 p.m. The police presence, heavy on both the inside of the auditorium and the perimeter outside, included both officers and security personnel.

Josh Rogers, an officer with the Miami University Police Department (MUPD), said there were at least 40 officers on site from several different agencies, including the Oxford Police Department, MUPD and the Butler County Sheriff's Department. Cooper LeMaster, president of Miami’s TPUSA chapter, said the police presence was upward of 80 officers. Rogers said following the assassination of political activist and TPUSA founder Charlie Kirk, security for TPUSA events has nearly doubled.

By the time the doors closed at 6:30 p.m., nearly 700 event-goers were turned away after the auditorium reached its capacity of 500. However, before he took the stage, Ramaswamy went through the line of students and residents that had been turned away and shook their hands, thanking them for braving the 20-degree weather for the event.

Photo by Olivia Patel | The Miami Student
The line to enter the event began to form at 5 p.m., and it reached beyond the Farmer School of Business gates around 5:50 p.m., 10 minutes before the doors opened.

In the warm auditorium, patriotic country music filled the air – songs like "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue” by Toby Keith and “Kick the Dust Up” by Luke Bryan played as attendees took their seats. Before sitting down, event-goers noticed posters with "American Victory with Vivek Ramaswamy” printed on them and voter registration forms resting on the seats.

Gabriel Guidarini, the Ohio Field Representative for TPUSA, began the event shortly after 7 p.m. with welcoming remarks.

“That’s what our goal is … to get people engaged in the political process, to get people engaged in what’s going on in their local communities and to get good people elected, like the one you’re about to hear from tonight,” he said.

Ramaswamy took the stage shortly after, as Miami’s TPUSA chapter president Cooper LeMaster greeted him with a handshake. He opened his remarks by promoting the American Dream and what it has meant to him as a child of immigrant parents.

“If you are a particular race or lineage, if you come to this country, or [if] you're born in this country for many generations, but you don't believe in the ideals of this country, you're not really an American, not in the truest and deepest sense of that word,” Ramaswamy said.

He discussed his mission to continue open political dialogue on college campuses, as Kirk did before his death. To Ramaswamy, this is what he defined as being truly American.

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“It means we believe in free speech and open debate, that you get to express your own mind freely without the government censoring you, as long as your neighbor gets to in return,” Ramaswamy said, “and that you can speak on a college campus without fear of somebody putting a bullet in your neck.”

He said he championed his platform on “rejecting the message of victimhood” that many Americans hide behind, and as a founder of Roivant Sciences – a biotechnology company – he plans on inspiring more young Americans to get “skin in the game” earlier in life, with investments in education and the stock market. He then opened the floor to questions from the audience just after 7:20 p.m.

The first question came from Ramaswamy’s first-grade teacher Mrs. Hendel from Evendale Elementary School, located north of Cincinnati.

She asked how his plan for public education ensures that K-12 schools remain strong and fully supported. To that, Ramaswamy said he would reintroduce and strengthen the Third Grade Reader Guarantee and implement a civics test that all high school seniors have to pass to graduate – the same one immigrants take to be granted citizenship in the United States.

The second person up to the microphone, a Miami student, asked how he plans to prioritize college graduates in fields such as STEM over immigrants with H-1B visas in the same field. To this, like the previous question, Ramaswamy said the answer lies in education reform.

“I believe we have the greatest workers on planet Earth that are capable of achieving the greatest feats of human history, as we always have,” Ramaswamy said. “... But we can't rest on the laurels of the past when we have a failing education system in the present. I know that hurts some people's feelings, but participation trophy culture is not going to win us championships. What's going to win us championships is continuing to aspire to be the very best.”

Through the course of the event, a line of nearly 20 students dwindled as each one had their questions answered by Ramaswamy. They asked about feeling isolated as a conservative because of growing polarization, government dependence for welfare recipients and the issue of abortion in Ohio. As the event advanced past 8 p.m., nearly a quarter of the attendees headed for the doors, and Ramaswamy took final questions.

After the event ended, students swarmed the free stickers table, taking ones that read “Crunchy girls for the Constitution” and “No pronouns, just policies.” Early-arriving guests also received free T-shirts promoting Ramaswamy’s bid for governor, as well as hats that read “Anti-Woke Social Club.”

Will Preston, a first-year mechanical engineering major, said the event had good conduct and organization, but also noted that more people could have attended if it had been held at a larger venue.

“I think a lot of the culture war stuff that he was talking about was very important,” Preston said. “That's one of the most, I guess, controversial and important topics that any politician we elect can step in and help fix.”

Barrett LeMaster, vice president of Miami’s TPUSA chapter, said he most enjoyed meeting Ramaswamy one-on-one ahead of the event.

“I was just talking to him about how he went to St. Xavier High School, and I went to Centerville [High School], so we played them in golf all the time,” LeMaster said. “I just told him that they kicked our butts every year.”

The event was announced on Nov. 12. Ramaswamy visited the University of Cincinnati for a similar event on Monday. LeMaster said he got his ticket within hours of the event being announced.

“He's one of my favorite political activists that I've been following ever since he announced he was running for president,” LeMaster said, “... It’s his willingness to voice his mind [and] to speak out … standing for what's true to you.”

The primary election for Ohio’s gubernatorial race is on May 5, with the general election occurring on Nov. 3. Ramaswamy and political newcomer Heather Hill are running on the Republican ticket, and former Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton is running on the Democratic ticket.

“I want to come back here to Miami, the summer of 2027, and tell you, ‘We’ve crushed urban crime, violent crimes are down by 80% in the major cities of our state and that public education – math, reading and science performance – is back on its way up rather than down,” Ramaswamy said. “More money is in your pocket. Young people are staying in the state because they're finding higher wage jobs from companies already moving into our state. That's what I want to deliver.”

patelou@miamioh.edu