Ohio’s Republican attorney general, Dave Yost, who announced his campaign for governor last month, has touted DOGE-like priorities during past political campaigns. And during an interview with NBC News released Sunday, the attorney general reiterated that he was “DOGE before DOGE was cool.”

WHAT IS DOGE? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY

Yost’s comments come after President Donald Trump tapped Ramaswamy, an Ohio native, to co-lead DOGE alongside Elon Musk shortly after his reelection in November 2024. The position offered the billionaire entrepreneur a massive platform to expand his political career. As the president prepared to take the oath of office in January, Ramaswamy withdrew from DOGE, later announcing that “elected office was the right place” for him to enact changes. On Feb. 15, he filed to run for governor of the Buckeye State.

During Ramaswamy’s own interview with the outlet, which previewed what his campaign would focus on ahead of his campaign launch on Monday, the entrepreneur downplayed analogies between his previous plans for DOGE and his own agenda for Ohio. Still, he cheered on “bringing some of [DOGE’s] principles of efficiency and spending and deregulation to our state” and promised to carry out those principles in a way that would be “wildly popular with everyone who is a parent and has skin in the game for the next generation.” 

Yost, who has served as Ohio’s attorney general since 2019 and has already set records with nearly $2.5 million raised for his gubernatorial campaign, jabbed at his competitor.

“He has wanted, over the last year, to be president, to have a Cabinet spot, to be co-leader of DOGE,” Yost said. “The governor of Ohio is not a consolation prize. … My concern is that what he seems to do best is to quit.”

“It’s the difference between somebody who can give a speech and somebody who can do a job,” he added. “I just candidly think I’m much better prepared to bring bold leadership to Ohio.”

In posts to social media, Yost has highlighted DOGE’s work to scrutinize federal spending. He has also rallied behind focusing on DOGE-like priorities in his own state, making comments earlier this month that rooted for “cleaning the federal closet.” 

Other than Yost, Ramaswamy’s path to claiming a GOP primary win has largely been cleared after several other people viewed as likely contenders pulled their names from the running. Ohio Lt. Gov. Jon Husted was tapped to fill a Senate seat that was vacated by Vice President JD Vance while Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose endorsed Ramaswamy. 

Aside from DOGE references, Ramaswamy has signaled his own campaign gubernatorial campaign will focus on themes on which he has long harped, including reviving a “culture of victory over victimhood” and championing a culture of meritocracy over identity politics. Those talking points are outlined in his 2022 book, The Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence, and were reiterated by the entrepreneur as he campaigned last year for Trump. 

In Ohio, some of those goals translate into changes in the education system and pursuing excellence in the classroom.

“Merit-based pay for teachers, merit-based pay for principals, administrators and superintendents,” Ramaswamy told the outlet. “The best teachers deserve to be paid much more than they are right now, and yet they’re not, because there’s no meritocracy in compensation. That would make the state the magnet for the best educators across the country.”