Vivek Ramaswamy slammed for $700K private jet scheme: 'Using donor funds to pay himself'

Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of campaign funds leasing a private jet from a company he owns, records show.

Of nearly $690,000 that his campaign spent on private jets, nearly $560,000 of that went to V Leasing LLC — a company whose listed address is a house Ramaswamy owns — according to the Ohio Capital Journal. Ramaswamy has loaned his campaign more than $25 million, the report said.

In May, Ramaswamy told a Youngstown news station he preferred to drive, the Journal noted.

"I love long drives," he said. "You think about the time we spend in Trumbull County, and you think about the time we even spend just going for a nice jog. You think about Cuyahoga National Park, not far from where we are. I'm a nature guy."

Campaign finance records reviewed by the Ohio Capital Journal show his campaign also paid nearly $130,000 to TVPX Aircraft Solutions in Salt Lake City.

Ramaswamy's campaign did not respond to questions the Ohio Capital Journal sent multiple times, the outlet reported.

Jordan Libowitz, vice president in communications for the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the Journal that the loan structure creates a path for self-payment.

"If he is basically fronting money to rent a plane from himself, and then if he does not forgive the loans but reimburses himself, he'll essentially be using donor funds to pay himself," Libowitz told the outlet.

Federal flight records show Ramaswamy flew between Columbus and Cleveland and between Columbus and Akron on his private jet, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.

"The fact that Ramaswamy has spent two years flying around on his own private jet is really a bad look," David Cohen, political science professor and director of the Applied Politics Program at the University of Akron's Bliss Institute, explained to the outlet.

"I mean, let's face it: Ohio is not California or Texas. You can drive from border to border in Ohio in a few hours," Cohen added. "He's flying between Columbus and Akron for crying out loud, and Columbus and Cleveland. That's a two hour drive. Get in the car."

Democratic political strategist Mike Nellis, who previously worked for Kamala Harris, wrote on X that Ramaswamy had been boasting about driving while quietly using his private jet.

"He's been bragging on the campaign trail about driving around Ohio, and it turns out he's completely full of s—," Nellis wrote. "What an awful candidate."

"It would even be funny if the nonstop lying weren't also totally disqualifying," Democratic Governors Association deputy communications director Izzi Levy wrote on X.