I’m going to say something a lot of Republicans probably don’t want to hear. I think Vivek Ramaswamy is going to lose the Ohio governor’s race. And I don’t think it will be because Ohio suddenly stopped being conservative. I think it will be because Ohio’s Republican leadership made a mistake by trying to pick the governor before Ohio Republicans ever got to vote. The Ohio Republican Party endorsed Vivek nearly a year before the primary. That should bother conservatives, regardless of who they support. We believe in elections. We believe voters should have a choice. We believe the people not party insiders should decide who represents them. You don’t get to complain about the political establishment while benefiting from the establishment deciding the race before the primary even happens. Then there’s COVID. Vivek has made Amy Acton (not sticking up for her) and Ohio’s COVID response a major part of his campaign. Fine. Republicans have every right to criticize the decisions made during COVID. I certainly have my own criticisms. But here’s the part people need to remember. Vivek was involved in Ohio’s COVID response in 2020. He worked with the DeWine administration as an adviser and participated in discussions about Ohio’s response. And when it comes to the 2020 primary being postponed, Mike DeWine has said repeatedly that decision was his. So blaming Amy Acton for everything while conveniently leaving out the Republican governor who was actually in charge and leaving out his own involvement in the administration’s COVID response doesn’t exactly scream accountability. Conservatives shouldn’t have one standard for Democrats and another for Republicans. If someone wants to run on accountability, then their own record should be fair game too. This isn’t personal. It’s politics. And I think Ohio voters are going to look at the whole picture. The early endorsement. The attempt to make the primary feel like a formality. The COVID record. The attacks on “heritage Americans” as a way to make us less than. Ohio Republicans aren’t stupid. They don’t need the party to tell them who to vote for. They don’t need Washington to tell them. And they sure don’t need a coronation. They need a choice. I believe Vivek is going to find out the hard way that winning an endorsement is not the same thing as winning the confidence of Ohio voters. The primary belongs to the voters. Not the party. Not the consultants. Not the insiders. The voters. And that’s exactly how it should be.