Candidate for Lt. Governor visits Muskingum County to discuss affordability crisis

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – A candidate for lieutenant governor returns to Zanesville for the second time this election season to discuss the affordability crisis Tuesday morning.

Democratic running mate in the governor’s race, David Pepper, was joined by members of the United Steel Workers (USW) at the Muskingum County Democrats’ office. The group voiced concerns over Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s candidacy as governor. The primary theme was the cost of living, comparing the lives of those who live paycheck to paycheck with those of billionaire Ramaswamy.

“He’s literally flying around the state and country in this fancy corporate jet and I think what happens when you do that is people feel like you’re not really on the ground. You don’t understand their issues,” Pepper said. “You know, he proposes consolidating colleges and universities. If you are on the ground, in communities, you realize what a terrible idea that is. You realize that not only would it cost students and families, but it also really would hurt the economy of these communities. So he’s running this kind of bizarre fly-over campaign.”

Pepper and speakers from the USW also criticized Ramaswamy for moving his financial firm, Strive Enterprises, from Columbus to Dallas, Texas. They said that the move shows how Ramaswamy has allegiances to the Buckeye State.

WHIZ emailed to Ramaswamy’s campaign about this claim and many others. Connie Luck, the communications director for the campaign, sent the following response.

“Vivek founded the company in Ohio and later stepped down from the board prior to running for office. The decision to move the company out of state happened after Vivek stepped down. Vivek has said this is one of the events that motivated him to run for Governor, to ensure that more startups and businesses choose to stay in Ohio instead of opting for zero-tax states like Florida, Texas, and Tennessee,” Luck wrote.

Pepper has accused billionaires of dominating the Ohio State Legislature and that electing Ramaswamy to the governor’s office would only make the corruption and the cost of living worse for Ohioans. After the event, Pepper shared what his and Dr. Amy Acton’s priorities would be if elected in November.

“We know that the cost of living crisis is impacting all sorts of viewers in your region, people all across the state. It is not a partisan issue and so our number one goal, outside of cleaning up the corruption which has made it all worse, is getting in there and taking on all those cost issues,” Pepper said. “And there’s solutions to them that don’t require years to wait; they can be done immediately on a lot of these fronts.”

One example of a solution Pepper proposed was to sign an executive order into law to crack down on wage theft committed by employers. Luck was also asked about the affordability issues raised by Pepper.

“The Acton campaign can talk about affordability, but her liberal, big-government proposals will dump billions in wasteful spending on Ohio’s families, bankrupting our state and ushering in an era of Mamdani-style socialist policies that Ohioans broadly reject,” Luck wrote.  “Vivek is focused on putting more money in our families’ pockets through lower costs, bigger paychecks, and better schools through serious policy proposals that would cut property and income taxes, lower energy and housing costs, and raise standards to give our children the best education to set them up for lifelong success.”

The election is Nov. 3 and the deadline to register to vote is Oct. 5. You can learn more about how to vote by visiting this link to the Ohio Secretary of State’s office.

This story was updated at 3:19 p.m. to include the response from Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign that WHIZ received after the story was originally posted.