Oops: Ramaswamy invested busted for cashing in on COVID emergency

Looks like the Ohio Democratic Party/the Amy Acton campaign is revving up the opposition research machine with a nice little hit in Politico Influence yesterday:

RAMASWAMY’S COVID LOBBYING: A biotech company founded by Vivek Ramaswamy spent more than $70,000 in 2020 and 2021 to lobby the federal government for the development and approval of Covid-19 drugs, Jacob reports.

— The previously unreported filings come to light as just about every aspect of the pandemic gets relitigated in the Ohio governor’s race between Ramaswamy and Democrat Amy Acton, who led the state’s health department when Covid-19 first emerged. In that first year of the outbreak, Acton played a key role in decisions to close schools and polling locations — moves Ramaswamy has used to lambast her as “Dr. Lockdown.” He has also accused her of spreading “Covid ideology” and said that her role in the state’s response to the virus “disqualifies her” from being governor.

— Acton’s campaign says Ramaswamy’s rhetoric contradicts his actions as a biotech executive at the time. Democrats have also criticized another one of Ramaswamy’s companies that pushed for a national Covid registry that would have segregated Americans based on Covid-19 vaccine status during the pandemic. Ramaswamy also reportedly paid to have his role on the state’s Covid response team scrubbed from his Wikipedia page.

— Ramaswamy stepped down from Roivant’s leadership in February 2023. Ramaswamy’s campaign and Roivant didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Amusing though this little tidbit is, in all seriousness, if the Acton campaign want this stuff to stick and hurt Ramaswamy, they cannot be placing it with… Politico.

It’s super Beltway and almost no Ohio voters read it.

The editors are also famously connected with the Obamas and their alumni network, so getting covering there mostly serves to highlight negatives with Barack and Michelle.

Who, uh, don’t vote in Ohio.

We’re here if the Acton campaign is interested in sharing any future dirt. And hey, we even get links at actual big readership conservative media now and again.