Make Ohio Great Again - Official Launch

It's great to see you. How about the future First Lady of Ohio right here and the two troublemakers with her. They stayed up late. It's great, great to be here guys. We started at home where I grew up in Butler counties where I lived till I was five. We moved to Evendale after that. My wife and I knew that when we had kids we didn't want to raise them in Manhattan. We don't want to raise them somewhere else. We wanted to raise them right here close to the home where we grew up and we're raising them right here in Columbus, Ohio. So thank you Columbus for coming out tonight. We're grateful for you. So that's some good news. America is back and it feels fantastic right now and we're just getting started. We do have a lot of work yet ahead of us though and that work is still just beginning. Over the last four years we went through a national identity crisis in this country. Faith, patriotism, hard work and family all but disappeared during Biden's presidency. Under his tenure as the U.S. President less than 16 percent of Gen Z said they were proud to be an American and we had a 25 percent recruitment deficit in our own U.S. military. That was unacceptable to me as an American. I spent the better part of last year working tirelessly traveling this country to help send Donald Trump back to the White House because it was a fork in the road for the future of the country and in November America made the right choice by re-electing the greatest president of the 21st century. I'm grateful for it because now there's a new fresh new energy in the country. A new enthusiasm. A new verb. We can all see it. We can all feel it. I'm truly as optimistic as I have ever been for the future of our country. We're on the cusp of a new golden age for America. A revival in our conviction in what it means to be a citizen of this nation. What does it mean to be an American? It means we believe in merit. That we believe in hard work. That you get ahead in this country not on the color of your skin but on the content of your character and your contributions. It means we believe in free speech and open debate. And I say this as the kid of legal immigrants to this country who came here to pursue those same values. You can have arguments with your dad or your neighbor at the dinner table and still be friends at the end of it. It means we stand for the rule of law in this country. That your first act of entering this country cannot break the law. It means that the people we elect to run the government ought to be the ones who actually run the government not unelected bureaucrats in the deep state. Whether that's in Washington D.C. or Columbus, Ohio. It means that we as Americans are courageous. That we are brave and that when called upon even heroic to serve our country in our hour of need. Those are the American ideals. That is the American spirit that won us the American Revolution and that is the American spirit that Donald Trump is reviving as our 47th president. But it is not a one-man job. It doesn't work that way. If we are going to be saved it is going to be because we all step up and save ourselves. And you know what? That starts with the states. If President Trump succeeds as I expect in the next two years that means a wide range of federal programs from education to health care are going to be kicked back to the states and to the people where they belong. That is what true federalism is all about. Donald Trump is reviving our conviction in America but we need a leader back home right here in Ohio who revives our conviction in our home state. That is why today I am honored to announce my candidacy to serve as the next governor of a great state known at the heart of the greatest country known to mankind. The state where I was born and raised. The state where Apoorva and I are raising our two sons today. A state whose best days are still yet ahead of us. I am honored tonight to announce my candidacy to be the next governor of our great state of Ohio. We will lead Ohio to be the top state in the country to raise a young family. The top state in the country to start and grow a new business. The top state in the country to give our kids a world-class education in math, reading, writing and critical thinking. The state that gives our kids the tools they need to equip them to be victors not victims in a competitive global economy. The state that embraces capitalism and meritocracy instead of apologizing for it. The state that takes a hatchet to red tape and regulations so we can be a state where every entrepreneur can thrive. The state that leads in the sectors of the future. Look at where we are right now in advanced manufacturing right here in New Albany in the heart of Ohio in the heart of our country. Look at what's possible 360 degrees around this place is nearly brand new producing and providing for the supply chains of our country. We want to lead in the sectors of the future from semiconductor production to AI to aerospace. I want Ohio to be the state that patriots across this country flock to not just Florida or Texas. I will lead Ohio to be the state of excellence in America. There are some who think that's unrealistic. Not quite. In fact it wasn't long ago that Ohio was actually that state. Today young people on the internet make fun of Ohio. It irritates me. Something is a little bit old or outdated or out of touch they would say only in Ohio. Well you know what at the turn of the last century people weren't laughing at Ohio. They were aspiring to be Ohio. In the first industrial revolution we were the third most populous state in the country. We were the wealthiest state in the union. An economic powerhouse with fertile farmland with great natural resources right underneath our ground. The leading edge of that industrial revolution. Even in the 1950s six of the top 15 wealthiest cities in America were right here at home in Ohio. Toledo was the glass capital of the world. Akron was the rubber capital. Youngstown and Cleveland were jointly the steel capitals of the world. Dayton provided the computing power to power the entire industrial revolution. My hometown of Cincinnati was known around the world as the queen city. The consumer products capital of the world. Providing the food supply chain for the rest of the country. We were the pioneers, the explorers, the unafraid. The people who no bureaucracy or government would dare stand in the way of. The state where the Wright brothers grew up before they took flight. The state where Neil Armstrong and John Glenn gained the self-confidence as kids to eventually go on to reach the outer frontiers of outer space. We were the pioneers. That's who we were. We were the state of excellence. And we can be the state of excellence again because we have all of the advantages we did back then. The same Erie Canal to New York City. The same Mississippi River to the Ohio River. The same fertile farmland. The same great hard workers that represent the best of our country located at the heart of the greatest nation known to mankind with 60% of North America's population. Think about that. Within a single day's driving distance of where we are right now. God has blessed our state with all the gifts we could possibly want to lead the United States of America to our revival. All we need to do here in Ohio is start believing in ourselves. Again in our ability to do it. We're in a second industrial revolution right now in America. And I believe deep in my bones that Ohio can lead the way again. If Silicon Valley led the American economy for the last 10 years, I want it to be the Ohio River Valley for the next 10 years. And we're going to make it so. I'll be honest with you. I will always give you the truth. I don't think it's always going to be in the sectors of the past this time around. It may not be rubber production next time, but it'll be in the sectors of the future from semiconductors to nuclear energy, from biotech to Bitcoin to our defense industrial base. The state where we use AI not to take jobs, but to make jobs through workforce training and education. This is where I want to lead our state to be the state of economic excellence in America. This is our modern day Northwest Ordinance. We're a conservative state and we deserve it to be governed like one. That isn't going to lose us elections. That will win us elections because it'll put more money in your pocket. It'll lift up more people from poverty. It'll revive civic pride in self-confidence in our young people. It'll actually be the source of making patriots from across this country, who share our values from New York to California and even from Texas to Florida, to move right here to Ohio to establish their roots here. And yes, that includes so many of Ohio's children who go on to other states. We're going to repatriate them by their own choice to make Ohio the state where they go on to achieve their American dream, just like their grandparents and their parents did right here at home. That is going to require a new generation of leadership in our state. It's going to require a governor with fresh legs who's willing to drive hard change, who's willing to drive and run through any obstacle that stands in the way of taking this state to our future. It's going to require some policy changes. We need to bring down the income tax in this state eventually down to zero because you deserve to keep what you earn. It is your money, not the government's. We need to bring down property taxes in this state immediately, which have gotten insanely high in our state. When your property tax matches the payments on your principal for your mortgage, it starts to feel like your owned land is a lease from the government that is un-American. And one way or another, I will end it as your next governor in the great state of Ohio. We're going to end the wave of violent crime across the cities of our states by letting police officers actually do their jobs with the proper training needed to do it well while respecting at every step the Second Amendment rights of every Ohioan which shall not be infringed. And part of the way we're going to do that is by bringing back, this is a touchy subject but I'm going to go there, it's going to be by bringing back the psychiatric hospitals that over so many decades were shut down because our jails should not be the main form of psychiatric health care in this state. That is not compassion. That is cruelty to everyone involved and we have to have the courage to stand for truth. We're going to end the war on work and yes that means reattaching work requirements to Medicaid and welfare in this state. We have a worker shortage and we're not going to pay more people to stay at home than to go to work. That is not compassion. That is cruelty and it will end as your next governor of this state takes office. We're going to be the state that takes the hatchet to red tape and regulations to the bureaucracy to government overreach. We're going to make sure every expenditure in the state of your taxpayer money from the state level to the local level to the county level to the municipality is going to be publicly transparent on the blockchain so you're able to see how your money is actually spent to allow sunlight to be the in our state. We're going to slash and burn every unnecessary regulation under my administration as your next governor for every new regulation that hits the books. We will require that there are at least 10 more that are rescinded and if that doesn't happen we're not having that new regulation in our home state right here. We need to take the permitting timelines down 18 to 36 months to permit a new natural gas pipeline. That should be six months or less for our state to be competitive and on my watch as your next governor it will be so that I can lead Ohio. We can lead Ohio to energy dominance, manufacturing dominance, AI dominance without apologizing for excellence because that is who we are. The top state in the country to become an entrepreneur and grow that new business. These aren't just academic solutions to enhance our GDP. They're vital improvements to our economic and social fabric in this state. So we're no longer a state where little league teams are closing shop because they can't find a local company to sponsor them. So that young mothers don't have to think twice before having that second or third or fourth kid for fear of the cost of a new stroller or a car seat or a bigger car. So that every parent has that bone deep conviction that their kids will go on to live an even better life than they did not by leaving the state but by staying in this state to pursue their American dream. I will lead Ohio to become the state of economic excellence in America and to do that we will also have to make our state the state of educational excellence in America. The truth of the matter is there's a crisis in America that frankly both political parties aren't talking enough about. It's the crisis of educational achievement in our next generation. It's an unfortunate hard fact today that 75 percent of eighth graders aren't even proficient in math according to international standards. 70 percent of them aren't proficient in reading. We rank number 26 out of 38 developed countries when it comes to math and reading proficiency despite the fact that we spend more money than every one of them on education. There are kids in other countries where English isn't even their first language performing better on English proficiency than our own kids right here at home. That is unacceptable to me. Speaking as a parent and an Ohioan and an American I refuse to stand by and watch as China laughs at our gradual decay into oblivion. We're going to take charge and turn that ship around starting in Ohio and show the rest of the country how it's done. As your next governor I will lead Ohio to be the top state in the country and in the world when it comes to leading our kids to excel inside and outside the classroom in math, in reading, in writing, in physical education. That is going to require taking our school choice programs to the next level. We're not the worst but we're not the best. We got to go the full distance of Arizona and Iowa where not only are private schools and charter schools a viable option but even homeschooling a viable option for every parent who desires that for their kid. So no kid is trapped in the zip code where they're born so their parent can send them to the best possible school they can and we're going to accomplish that. But that's a conservative solution that many red state governors agree with across the country. What I want to talk about tonight is leading our state to also fix our public schools so they are able to compete with the best of the alternatives. This isn't just about throwing more money at the problem. It's about delivering actual solutions. We have to make sure our kids are safe in the schools they attend. That's why as your next governor I will ensure that our dedicated base of police officers is used such that one of them is in at least every one of our schools in this state with the proper training needed to do their jobs while they're there. We have to make sure that our kids show up to school and that means combating the growing problem of chronic absenteeism in Ohio schools which sadly has only gotten worse after the COVID-19 school closures. I'll pledge this as your next governor. Never again will we bend the knee in this state to an Anthony Fauci knockoff who allowed our public schools to be shut down while our private schools managed to remain open. She owes those kids an apology. We will stand for the achievement of our students both inside and outside the classroom from the sports fields to the math classes to pursue excellence in every domain. That is who we are as Ohioans and as Americans and to that end I will be proud to lead Ohio to be the first state in the country to adopt the most common sense reform we could possibly want to revive our public schools by implementing merit-based pay for every teacher, principal, administrator, and superintendent of public schools in this state and I mean it when I say this I'm not looking to pick a fight with the teachers unions. I'm not looking to pick a fight with anybody but I will do whatever and I mean whatever is required to stand for the achievement of our students because we owe that to the next generation. I'll be crystal clear about this. The best teachers in our state deserve to be paid a lot more than they are right now. I think about Mrs. Kinney who taught me in sixth grade at Robert E. Lucas Intermediate School, part of Princeton's public schools in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was a school that had a special magnet program. I switched into it in sixth grade. She changed my life. She caused me to see in myself potential that I didn't know I had. She lit a fire under my feet, pushed me to work harder. If it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have lived the American dream in the way that I have. She probably would have been here tonight and I'd be thanking her in person but for the fact she died in a tragic accident a couple of years ago. We need more teachers in this state like Mrs. Kinney but we're not attracting the very best anymore because there is no meritocracy in compensation. If we restore meritocracy in our schools Ohio will become the magnet for the nation of the best educators across the country and that's what we owe to our kids to we give them the very best possible teachers who teach them to excel in the subjects that actually matter not just reading writing and math but also physical education. We're going to bring back PE into early childhood education starting in kindergarten. We're going to bring back the presidential fitness test in middle schools and yes that includes the pull-ups that we had to do back when we were going through that and that's a good thing not a bad thing. We're going to serve healthier foods in our public school cafeterias because the best way to save on health costs in the long run is to have a healthier population in the first place not just physical health but that includes mental health too. We owe it to our kids to address the epidemic of depression, anxiety, fentanyl, suicide that has festered in our state for too long. We're going to start with a basic common sense reform in our public schools and actually finally get it done not just through words but through actions. We will get the cell phones out of the classroom. This is not a Republican or a Democrat idea. The data is clear. We shouldn't be paving the way for attention deficit disorder for our kids. We should actually allow them to discover with self-confidence their own abilities to achieve. We've got to fill that hole in the heart of a generation, that black hole, that void that runs deep. Our young people are hungry for purpose, for meaning, for identity, hungry to be part of something bigger than themselves. Individual, family, nation, and God beats race, gender, sexuality, and climate if we have the courage to actually stand for what is right, what is true, what is good, and that we as leaders have to have the courage to actually stand for it. That means standing for the revival of faith in our state. Think about this. I mentioned the Northwest Ordinance before. We were part of the Northwest Territory established by a group of Baptists who came to Ohio and a group of states around us to seek religious freedom for persons of every faith. This was even before the Constitutional Convention. That's why they came to Ohio. I'm going to help revive faith in this state by continuing that tradition. Those guys did it 200 years ago as Baptists so that I could be here two centuries later and a guy like me can run for governor of that same state. We will stand for the revival of faith by actually protecting religious liberty for persons of every faith in our state to help fill that vacuum of purpose. We will stand for the nuclear family as the greatest form of governance known to mankind by eliminating the disincentives to family formation because the nuclear family is inherently good and lifts more people up. It's not just through the laws we pass. It'll also be through the example we set. Apoorva and I take our responsibility seriously both as parents but as leaders of this state to set an example for our young people to show them that marriage is good, that the nuclear family is good. We will hold ourselves to a high standard so that we're not talking out of both sides of our mouth when it comes to conservative values in our state. We're going to revive civic education that teaches our kids to be proud of our country and of our state rather than to be ashamed of it. That means replacing victimhood indoctrination and woke indoctrination with actual U.S. history, with actual civics lessons. It means saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in every one of our public schools with a moment of silence every morning so kids can remember and reflect on who they actually are. Every high school senior in this state will on my watch have to pass the same civics test that every legal immigrant has to pass in order to become a full citizen of this country because you cannot love a country unless you know about that country. And it's our responsibility to pass that knowledge on to our kids and their generation. After we light that fire under the feet of our K-12 primary education system, we'll then be able to take our post-secondary education to the next level. I want Ohio to have the leading universities in the country. I went to Princeton public schools through eighth grade. I went to St. Ex in Cincinnati for high school. I went to Harvard for college. I went to Yale for law school. My parents came to this country 45 years ago with no money. I've gone on to found multiple successful companies. A poor of us parents came to this country with nothing. She's gone on to live her version of the American dream as a successful throat surgeon at the James Wright here in Columbus, Ohio where she is serving and helping cancer survivors every day through her work. She was the true first public servant in our family and I'm proud of her. And we're both proud of our path to the American dream. We don't think we should hide our path to success. We're proud of it. But we also recognize that our path cannot be the only path. As your next governor, I will make it easier for graduates to also pursue a two-year vocational program in being an electrician or a welder or a mechanic or a builder so they too have a dignified path to the full American dream that we have lived in our own lives. Promote earn while you learn programs as early as high school. Get rid of the occupational licensing requirements that senselessly stand in the way of too many young Ohioans trying to find their first job. Finding a path to the American dream that doesn't run through riddling themselves with college debt on their shoulders. I don't call these professions the trades. I think we should actually abandon that. I call them professions because that's what they are and they deserve the full respect as somebody who goes on to become an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer or a banker. We want to be the state where we recruit the genius programmers who program that next generation of AI. But we also want to be the state where we train the next generation of skilled workers to use that AI and apply it to their respective fields from financial services to health care to construction design. This isn't just a game of either or. It's certainly not a blame game where one of these paths is more or less elite than the other. In my view, they're all elite actually. We're Ohioans after all. I want Ohio to be the state where every young man and young woman who wants to become a doctor or an engineer or a programmer or a banker has an opportunity to seek that education at UC or OSU or Bowling Green or OU. While we also provide the best possible path to every young man and young woman who wants to become a carpenter or a welder or a builder. The state where every path is open to every child. The state where the paths to success are plural. That is what a true meritocracy is about. America was built on the idea of a meritocracy. A nation that recognized that every one of you, every one of us, has our own unique God-given gifts. Distinct from every other person in the world. And that we are the nation where you get to achieve the maximum of your own God-given potential without any government or bureaucracy standing in your way. That is what made America great the first time. And that is how we will make Ohio great again in this second industrial revolution. Our metrics of success won't just be our GDP growth. It's not just the number of green pieces of paper that we create, though I won't apologize for that, that's a good thing too. But our actual metrics of success will be the number of people who move into the state rather than out. The number of children who are born into families in this state. The number of children who choose to remain in this state to pursue their American dream right here in Ohio. And as your next governor, I am committed to leading our state to be the top in the country on every one of those metrics. The state where the American dream isn't just about a flowery language but is about the reality of action. The state where we raise a generation not to be hostile to capitalism or success or to those who succeed through capitalism. Not through envy but instead through participation where they have real skin in the game and are being lifted up through every one of those developments. I'm a father of two sons. They're here running around tonight. The suits have come off. And they're a little young but my message to the two of them and to every son and daughter of Ohio tonight is this. The American dream is your birthright. A world-class education is your birthright. Success is your birthright. Freedom is your heritage. And excellence is your destiny. This isn't a small vision for our state. It is an ambitious vision because that is who we are as Americans and as Ohioans. We're not victims. We're victors. We don't whine. We win. That is who we are. We don't apologize for our success. I'm not a career politician. There's no teleprompters here tonight. If I screwed something up in my speech, we have no one else to blame but my speechwriter, which is me, who you're looking at, okay? And we're going to keep it that way for the rest of this campaign. It gets me in trouble sometimes but at least you know what I actually mean when I share it with you at every step of this campaign. My message to every person who disagrees with me, whatever your party is, is that you know what, somebody who agrees with you 80 percent of the time isn't your enemy. But somebody who agrees with you 100 percent of the time probably isn't your friend either. That's the truth. I want to win the general election next year in a landslide. I'm going to fight for every Ohioan in this state every day regardless of their party to pass that American Dream on to their kids and their generation. I'm going to visit all 88 counties this year and I'm going to visit all 88 counties next year and I'm going to visit all 88 counties every one of the eight years that I serve as your governor because I want to listen to Ohioans. I don't want to govern from a bubble. I want to win in that landslide that unites our state with a Big Ten coalition that includes constitutional conservatives like me and many of you in this room but also includes every kind of Republican. It includes independents. It includes libertarians. It includes orphaned Reagan Democrats and other orphaned Democrats and anybody else who finds themselves politically homeless in this state. If you care about economic excellence in Ohio and you care about educational excellence in Ohio, then we have a place for you in this movement and a seat at the table for you. I want every Democrat in this state to hear me loud and clear when I say this tonight. We're not going to agree on everything and that's okay. It's actually a beautiful thing. We love our diversity of thought in Ohio but if you care about putting more money in your bank account, more money in your kids investment accounts, if you care about giving your kids the same shot at the American Dream that this state in this country gave to me, then we're actually on the same team and I invite you to join us in helping take our state to the next level to work together to actually get it done. I'm grateful for the wave of statewide endorsements and national endorsements we've already received. Senators Rick Scott, Mike Lee, Marsha Blackburn, others across at the national level. Greg Lopez, Steve Hilton came here from Colorado and California where they have bright futures to stay tuned for in their own respective states following in this movement of being victors not victims. I'm grateful for the statewide endorsements in this race. Look at the people we had already tonight. Frank LaRose has been an outstanding Secretary of State who's going to be an even better state auditor in his next step. I'm thankful to Frank for his endorsement. To Robert Sprague, a great state treasurer, who's going to then step into those shoes as an even better Secretary of State. I'm grateful to him for taking a step back from the governor's run after he had gone in that direction to instead endorse me and work together as a team. The likes of Christina Rogner who tonight hot off the press came out with her endorsement. Christina, I'm grateful for that. She is a star state senator in this state. She's running for state treasurer and believe me she has a very bright future ahead of her. Leaders from across this state at every level, from Columbus to Cleveland to Cincinnati, from Appalachia to Toledo, we want to lead our state to the next level. To the extent we have a primary this year, I welcome that because competition breeds innovation. I'll be conservative without being combative, though I will fight to win when necessary. The most important part is that I will work with every Ohioan who cares about the future of our state, even my strongest opponents, to take our state to the next level because even those who oppose me will have worthy ideas for our consideration. I invite every Ohioan, black or white, man or woman, urban or rural, even democrat or republican, to join us in this journey to take Ohio to our future. We don't have to be this state in decline. We don't have to be a nation in decline. We are still a state in our ascent, still on our way to that shining city on a hill, that beacon of light that makes the shining city on a hill still shine. That is Ohio for America. So 10 years from now, when we send manned rockets to Mars, when we use nuclear energy to power our electric grid, when we cure previously incurable genetic diseases, you know what they're going to say then? Only in Ohio. That's who we are, still on our way up. The nation and the state where we will look our kids in the eye and mean it when we tell them you get ahead in the state of Ohio with your own hard work, your own commitment, your own dedication, and that you know what? You are free to speak your mind at every step of the way. That is the American dream. That is my dream for Ohio. And with your help, we will turn that dream to reality. Thank you, Columbus. Thank you all tonight. May God bless you and your families. May God bless our United States of America and our great state of Ohio. Thank you all.