Vivek Ramaswamy showed up to Ohio State's home opener in Columbus wearing a black jersey emblazoned with the Buckeyes logo and the number 1 — and within hours, social media had decided it looked like something pulled off a discount rack. The Republican candidate for Ohio governor posted photos of himself greeting fans in the crowd along with the caption, “Great start to the season. Let's go Bucks,” but the reaction quickly turned into a pile-on over the jersey's authenticity rather than praise for the Buckeyes' performance.
According to The Independent, whose reporting formed the basis of much of the online uproar, online critics mocked the jersey as a generic CVS version, described it as a Temu knockoff, and joked it looked fresh off the rack at Walmart. One X user went further, describing it as a $19.99 Walmart special, while another asked bluntly, “You're a billionaire, why don't you own an officially licensed OSU jersey?” Ohio State's official jerseys are red with striped sleeves, a detail that made Ramaswamy's black, unbranded version stand out even more starkly against the sea of scarlet in the stands.
Not everyone piled on, however. Per the same account, some commenters defended Ramaswamy's jersey choice, even as others declared it a dealbreaker. “I can't vote for you with that jersey on I'm sorry man,” one X user wrote, a comment that captured the tone of much of the backlash. The post reportedly racked up 3 million views, turning a Saturday football outing into an unexpected campaign flashpoint.
Why the Jersey Stood Out at Ohio Stadium
Part of what made the moment land was the setting. Top-ranked Ohio State demolished Ball State 56-3 in its home opener on Saturday, piling up 671 total yards in front of the home crowd, according to Ohio State Buckeyes athletics, in a game that marked Ball State's first-ever visit to Ohio Stadium. Ramaswamy, an Ohio native and Harvard graduate who watched the game in Columbus, wore a jersey that didn't carry the swoosh that appears on every official Buckeye uniform.
That's no small detail in Columbus. Ohio State's athletic department operates under a 15-year, $252 million exclusive apparel contract with Nike running through July 2033, a deal that requires official team game jerseys to feature Nike branding, per reporting from Hoodline's coverage of the school's licensing arrangements. The commercial stakes around Buckeye apparel have only grown since an NCAA rule change took effect August 1, allowing sponsor patches on game uniforms, which led Ohio State to sign an estimated $17 million annual patch deal with JPMorgan Chase. In that context, a jersey that looks like it skipped the licensing process entirely was always going to draw scrutiny from diehard fans.
According to ESPN, more than 60,000 pieces of counterfeit merchandise valued at more than $1 million overall were seized by Collegiate Licensing in a prior enforcement effort, illustrating the broader scrutiny surrounding unauthorized college apparel.
A Weekend Trip That Drew Its Own Criticism
The jersey controversy wasn't the only thing Ramaswamy's Labor Day weekend generated. He had attended the U.S. Open in New York City the day before the Ohio State game, and Democratic rival Amy Acton seized on the trip. “Vivek Ramaswamy thinks he is too good to spend Labor Day weekend in Ohio, instead jetting off in his private plane to watch the U.S. Open in VIP seating with his billionaire friends,” Acton wrote, criticizing his attendance at the tennis tournament before he returned to Columbus.
Ramaswamy, whose Forbes-estimated net worth sits at $3 billion, founded a drug development company before entering politics, and critics have previously seized on comments he made in 2024 arguing that American culture venerates mediocrity over excellence and that a culture celebrating the prom queen over the math Olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers. Those past remarks resurfaced online alongside the jersey mockery as further evidence, in critics' telling, of a candidate out of step with everyday Ohioans.
A Race That Remains Neck and Neck
The jersey flap landed squarely inside an unusually tight governor's race. A Tulchin Research poll conducted July 29 through August 4 found Acton leading Ramaswamy 46% to 44% among likely Ohio voters, within a 4-point margin of error, as reported by Newsweek. An earlier bipartisan AARP survey of 800 likely voters, conducted in mid-June, showed a similar 47% to 44% Acton edge overall — though Ramaswamy held a 51% to 41% lead among voters 50 and older.
Ramaswamy enters the stretch run with enormous financial firepower. He entered the final stretch with $31 million, including $25 million of his own money, before winning the nomination with 82.4% of the vote over challenger Casey Putsch, who had raised roughly $123,000. Acton, meanwhile, gained her statewide profile as director of the Ohio Department of Health during the state's initial COVID-19 response before stepping down in June 2020, and she won the Democratic nomination unopposed after former Rep. Tim Ryan withdrew.
Historic Stakes and Ongoing Campaign Friction
Ohio hasn't elected a Democratic governor in 20 years, since Ted Strickland in 2006, but this year's race carries historic weight regardless of outcome: Ramaswamy would become the state's first nonwhite and first Hindu governor, while Acton would become its first elected female governor, according to MultiState. Outgoing Republican Governor Mike DeWine is term-limited after two terms.
Tensions between the campaigns have been simmering well beyond the jersey episode. Acton's campaign declined two invitations to debate Ramaswamy in early September, saying her focus was on direct voter engagement rather than giving a platform to a candidate she has accused of spreading falsehoods — a decision that drew criticism from editorial boards and third-party candidates, per the Toledo Blade. It's the latest bump for Ramaswamy on the campaign trail after he was booed offstage in Cincinnati in July following remarks that people in his generation had already made it. The Independent reported it had contacted Ramaswamy's campaign for comment on the jersey controversy.
