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Unknown A
Since the massacres of October 7th, Israel has been hard hit by more than 20,000 rockets and drones. People often ask me what can I do to help. Well, I wholeheartedly recommend the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
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Unknown B
With hundreds of homes ruined or destroyed, the fellowship is on the ground bringing emergency food to the elderly in urgent name.
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Unknown A
It's time that God fearing people stand with our Jewish friends, have some hot food and respond to God's calling on all our lives. Joining us now is the next governor of Ohio. Congratulations to my friend and great patriot, Thevek Ramasami. Vive welcomes the program.
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Unknown B
It's good to see Charlie. How you been?
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Unknown A
I have been great. Tell us why you are running for governor and your vision for an excellent Ohio.
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Unknown B
Well, President Trump is going to do a great job in the next two years. But what that means Charlie, is that a lot of programs, from education to healthcare are now going to go back down to the states and to the people where they belong. That's true federalism. That's what our founders envisionion. But that means we're going to need strong governors prepared to take those programs and do the right thing with them. I look at my home state of Ohio, I was born and raised here, I've lived most of my life here. I'm raisedising my two sons here. We're a conservative state. In our electorate we need to actually be governed like a conservative state. And if we are, this could be not just one of the better states in the Midwest. I think it can be the best state in the country to raise a family, to start a new business and also something I'm passionate about.
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Unknown B
You know this Charlie, is given our kids a world class education starting at a young age so that we're beating China and the rest of the world in leadership. And I want Ohio to be the model for showing how that's actually done. So in some sense the federal job's already getting done. Yeah, I'm happy to see that's happening in spades. But now we need strong leaders at the states and I was proud to get President Trump's and Elon's and others endorsements at the national level out of the gate. What I want to do is show the rest of the country what's possible with a good state leader.
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Unknown A
So what we're in this for, let's dive into that. Ohio is uniquely geographically positioned. It's in the heartland.
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Unknown B
Yep.
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Unknown A
Has access to Lake Erie, the app, the Appalachia, Appalachians, mountains, amazing oil and natural gas opportunities in certain Pots. An industrious people. An industrious people. The hardest working people in the country, I believe our Midwesterners. I say that as a Chicagoan myself. Talk about the assets that Ohio has because far too often in our politics we talk about the negatives. Ohio has been the industrialized, opioid addicted. We know that. But it has phenomenal upsides. What are they?
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Unknown B
Sure. So Ohio actually led the way in the first industrial revolution. And at the turn of the last century, Ohio was the wealthiest state in the Union and was the third most populous state in the country because of those great natural resources and gifts. Fertile farmland, great natural resources, including oil and natural gas and other minerals. Underneath our ground we've got 60% of North America's population. Not just America's population, North America's population within a single day's drive of where I'm sitting right now in Columbus, Ohio. Those were the advantages we had back then. Six of the top 15 wealthiest cities in the 1950s. Now that's not long ago. I'm not even talking about the industrial revolution. I'm talking about in the 1950s. Six of the top 15 were right here in Ohio. Toledo was the glass capital. Akron was the rubber capital. Youngstown in Cleveland were the steel capitals of the world.
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Unknown B
Dayton was the computing power capital. Cincinnati was the leader in consumer products. Porkopolis powering the food supply of the country. Known around the world as the Queen City. That was my hometown. This was the place of the pioneers, the explorers. Neil Armstrong and John Glenn gained the self confidence here as kids to go outer space. The state of the Wright brothers. So we were the state of excellence in America. I think we can be again because we have all of those same advantages. Same fertile farmland, same Erie Canal to New York City, Ohio river to the Mississippi. Same location at the heart of the country. It's also pretty representative of the rest of the country. It's not a monolithic place. You got from the inner cities to suburban communities to rural communities to the foothils of Appalachia. You go within a 200 mile radius of where I'm sitting right now.
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Unknown B
You travel that area, you've traveled the entire cross section of the entire country. In some deep sense, it is a representation of America and who we are and what I think Charlie, here's. I'm gonna lead us. And this is why I think I require in my calling to be the next governor. If Silicon Valley led the way in the American economy for the last 10 years, I want to make sure it is actually the Ohio River. Valley for the next 10 years. And that's not hyperbole. It's not going toa be rubber production next time around probably, but it'll be the sectors of the future. Semiconductor production, nuclear energy, biotech, bitcoin, defense, industrial base, using AI not to take jobs, but to make jobs, which is something I think we can do through workforce training and education. So it's a modern day Northwest ordinance. That's the way I look at it.
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Unknown B
And I'm glad to see people around the state we, I mean people haven't heard of this in a govern'campaign I was honored, Charlie, to see. I was shocked actually. We had thousands of people turning out on my statewide tour in a gubernatorial primary where the elections over a year and a half out. There's an enthusiasm for bringing back not the Rust Belt, but what I'll call the platinum belt. And I bear that responsibility and I think're going to get that job done.
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Unknown A
I believe you're going to win. We're behind you 100% endorsement, the whole thing. And I think if anyone dares run against you, it's political suicide considering President Trump has endorsed you out of the gate. So let's talk about how you get this done. The Ohio has turned significantly red, but as you mentioned, not as conservative in practice as it should be. Why? And how will you go about fixing it?
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Unknown B
I think there's been a traditional fear in Ohio that governing like a conservative state will somehow lose US elections. You go back to 2000, very close state, swing state, O how used to be a swing state in the presidential elections, it's not quite right now. So I think the fear amongst Republicans in Ohio is that governing like a conservative state might lose us those close elections. I view it the other way around, Charlie. That's not gonna lose US elections, it's gonna win US elections. Cause it'll lift up more people from poverty, it'll put more money in people's pockets and revive that sense of civic pride in our young people in the fact that Ohio was a state that had some trouble along the way. And I don't wanna go into the particular politics of blaming individuals, but let's think about boys competing, girl sports. Let's think about preventing genital mutilation and chemical castration in kids.
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Unknown B
The fact that some of the leadership of the state had trouble, conservative leadership of the state might've had trouble with those issues, I think shows us playing a little bit behind the ball compared to states like Texas and Florida that are governed like conservative states. But I'm not worried about the past. I wantn actually chase the future. We're gonna win elections decisively, think about opportunities in the next few years. Now, a lot of people are aware of this, but say section 287G, what is that? That allows a local law enforcement to help ICE with mass deportations, with actually going after illegal immigration in our country. President Trump is going to drive his agenda forward. But to really see it through, we're going to need strong governors who are aligned with that agenda to act accordingly. And I think that in our population the way it is now, look at the margins President Trump's won by.
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Unknown B
And actually he's won this state by bigger margins than even people running down ballot of him. I think that singles a mandate to say that people are behind the conservative pro American agenda. Now, my job as the governor of the state is to explain it to people. Frankly, I think there's a lot of independence libertarians, orphaned Reagan Democrats, other orphane Democrats, politically homeless people here who may not have thought of themselves as that Republican coalition quite yet. But if you explain it to them, if you actually show up, if you don't go through the traditional media filters, but just show up in person and we're drawn thousands of people, great. I'll use that to our advantage to go to all 88 counties and explain it without filters in between. I want a big tent coalition where a lot of those former Democrats and current independents come along with us.
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Unknown B
And if they don't wanna call themselves Republicans right now, I'm fine with that. But inna create a governing coalition that doesn't compromise on those core principles that's actually gonna make us even more successful in winning, I hope in a landslide next year in the general. And that's what I'm shooting for, is not just running for the Republican primary, but to win a general election that brings the majority of the rest of the state along as well.
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Unknown A
You mentioned this briefly. We have two minutes remaining. One of the great challenges for governors and of course on the federal level is going to how to incorporate artificial intelligence. Ohio is a unique place because if, as you say, it was the advent of the industrial revolution, you could argue we are on the precipice of an artificial intelligence revolution. Now, firstly, I think you guys are uniquely positioned because you have the natural resources, the land and the geography to have data centers that would employ hundreds. But that's only one part of it. That is the backbone, that's the infrastructure. That is the meat and potatoes of AI which is important. And I think Ohio will flourish because of it. But what about the application? How could AI revitalize Hubard Ohio? How could AI revitalize Mahona County? The forgotten counties of Ohio?
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Unknown B
I love it. And you're all over this, Charlie. So on the AI data center species, right? It's an opportunity. One thing that we just have to do is bring down the permitting timeline for new power plants and new natural gas pipelines to make sure that we're not only ready, we're ready to be the leadership position of the country. And that's achievable. But the other piece of this you really put your finger on this is a lot of people have focused on training the AI algorithms. Of course, we've put hundreds of billions, really trillions of dollars into that enterprise. Beyond just training the AI, I think the underappreciated opportunity is training workers on how to use that AI to apply it to their respective fields, to their hospitals, to nurses, to financial services, to construction design, to really every domain where we're increasing the productivity of the worker.
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Unknown B
And that shifts the conversation and it shifts the focus from is AI going toa take jobs to just say, actually AI is going to make jobs that didn't exist? That's not gonna happen automatically. I think it's gonna have leaders who have to shape that future. If you're just a price take on the future, you might have a result from AI in your economy that doesn't look good for American workers or manufacturers. But if you have a leader who's focused on training and making sure we're empowering our workers to use that AI, this is goingna be a boom for our workers. It's go going toa increase wages. And I think we need a leader who at least understand what that future looks like and I hope shows the rest of the country set's an Ohio standard of how we actually do this.
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Unknown A
Well, education space is one I know quite well. I care deeply about it. What does education excellence look like in Ohio? And what do you plan to do to make that a reality?
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Unknown B
There's two problems, Charlie. The first one we talk about, and I think I'EXECUTED well nationally on Ohio. I think I wa want toa say execute on as well. Is school choice not just in name, but true? Universal school choice, not just private schools, not just charter schools, but also homeschooling as a viable option for any parent who demands it give kudos where it's due. Arizona, Iowa, certain other states have gone the full distance here. I want to see Ohio go to that full Length as well. That being said, there's also a separate frontier here where I want Ohio to lead the way amongst all states and especially conservative states to set a standard. We have to also make sure our public schools are equipped to compete with the best of the alternatives. And we're gonna start by doing something in the state that hasn't been done in any other 50 states.
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Unknown B
There's smaller things. We're gonna put every police officer, at least one police officer, at least in every school, one of other basic fixes on safety in other areas. But the big one is implementing merit based pay for every teacher, administrator, principal, superintendent. Your pay will be tied to your performance. And the fact that that's a foreign idea in our public schools shows how broken our public schools really are. We're not attracting the best people to go into education anymore. They might go become a computer program in Silicon Valley or a banker on Wall Street. Now that's what they may aspire to. They should be asire to the educators, but we're not rewarding them. Other countries like Finland or South Korea, when you set up the right incentives for educators, you have some of the best and brightest graduating from the nation's own high schools going into education.
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Unknown B
A lot of our young people would be passionate about being teachers, but for the fact they're not going to be able to live the same American dream pursuing that path. That's wrong. And that means the best public school teachers will get paid more. But it means a lot of the dead weight and a lot of the wasteful expenditures in those public schools need to be eliminated to make that possible. So I'm not picking a fight with anybody, the teachers unions or anybody else. But I'm not gonna back down from one if that's what's necessary to do what's right. Some other basic fixes, get the cell phones out of the schools, get civic education back into the schools. You and I talked about this a couple of years ago. I'm gonna make it reality in Ohio where every high school senior who graduates from high school will be required to pass the same civics test that we require of every naturalized citizen in this country.
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Unknown B
It's just common sense. If someone's come to this country from a foreign country, they better darn well know how many branches of government there are. A little bit about the civics and history of the United States foundation and our founding fathers and our Constitution. But so should our own high school students graduating from right here, where 80% of them are more. Do not today know a little bit tough love. Bring back physical education, including the presidential Fitness Test. Remember that? We're gonna bring that back in our public schools as well, including the pull ups. And that doesn't mean everyone's gonna pass, but it sets a standard because as we know and Maha movement's been great in highlighting this, the best way to save on health costs in the long run is to have that healthier population in the first place. So when you think about academic health, math, reading, writing, critical thinking, physical health, civic health, mental health, even financial literacy, incorporating that indicate through 12 education, we're going to be the state that I believe leads the way.
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Unknown B
Catching up on school choice, we're gonna do that here. But leading the way is in addition on setting a standard, expecting more of ourselves in Our K through 12 public education as well. And I think that is how we're gonna address this achievement crisis and make sure that China isn't laughing at us. To the contrary, we're gonna be country that leads the way in the world when it comes to quality education starting at a young age.
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Unknown A
I think Ohio has some of the greatest untapped potential in the country. When you have a hard working, industrious people, natural resources and you're geographically centered, it can, it could become a new American Renaissance. 45 seconds. Any closing thoughts here? Vague. How do people support you, help you? What is the call to action?
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Unknown B
Look, Vivek, for Ohio.com comm I'll take every bit of support, even if it's $1. It doesn't matter. It's a national movement that we want to build here of excellence, led by the states. President Trump is doing his part. He's reviving our conviction in America. We need a leader here in Ohio, here in the heartland, here in the Midwest, who revives our conviction in our state and in our states. I'm proud to have President Trump's endorsement. But to carry his agenda forward, we're going to need strong governors in the heart of the country to do it. So if you're able to volunteer and come here, we would love that. And if you're not, those who are able to support us@vivekroohio.com. we welcome it and we're going to set a new standard for the country. It S good job to you, man.
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Unknown A
I just love this. I love this new generation. Got Byron Donald in Florida, Vive in Ohio. We're gonna have an incredible team of Rocksarss here. Excited about it. Vivek, thanks so much.
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Unknown B
Thank you, man.