REPORT: Vivek is planning to dip out on Elon and DOGE

If so, what's next?

If you’re like me, you might have been wondering how DOGE was going to work with two big dogs—Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy—at the top. Well, the DOGE dynamics might be changing and soon.

According to a few media reports floating around on Sunday, Vivek may be considering making a big political move that would mean putting his DOGE days behind him in order to run for governor of Ohio.

I reported on some of his latest maneuvers over at RedState. Vivek supposedly lobbied hard to be named as JD Vance’s successor in the Senate, but Ohio Governor Mike DeWine opted instead for his own lieutenant governor, Jon Husted. Husted will serve through 2026, when a special election will be held to decide who should serve the remainder of Vance’s term, which ends in 2028. It’s a good bet that Husted would run in 2026, so where does that leave Vivek?

Well, if these reports are true, he’ll be announcing soon that he’ll be looking to replace DeWine in 2026; DeWine is term limited from running again. And that apparently means that he’ll be unable to remain part of President-elect Trump’s plans to slash the size of the federal government.

And it makes a ton of sense that, at this moment in time, Vivek would want to capitalize on his high public profile to run for higher office. He has the all-important fundraising machine at the ready, having run for president not that long ago. There couldn’t be a better time for him to make this move.

However, Trump is keeping things interesting by saying at his big pre-Inauguration rally Sunday that Vivek would be concentrating on economic issues at DOGE. It’s possible that Vivek could do double-duty for a while, using DOGE to buttress his policy chops while planning his gubernatorial run.

Eventually, though, the campaign trail would come calling, making it difficult to keep his attention on DOGE.

This would leave Elon Musk as the big DOGE dog, a position he would likely relish. DOGE, despite being a non-governmental entity, will be housed in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is part of the White House complex and mere steps from the West Wing. This means privileged access to Team Trump, something Elon seems to relish.

Of course, all of the Vivek talk is just rumors at this point, so we shall see what happens!