Elon Musk is backing his former DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy's run for governor in Ohio.
The SpaceX billionaire donated $5 million in May to a super PAC supporting Ramaswamy, according to a campaign finance filing published Wednesday.
Musk and Ramaswamy, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 before withdrawing and backing Donald Trump, were tapped to co-lead the White House's Department of Government Efficiency.
Months later, the day of Trump's inauguration, Ramaswamy announced he was leaving DOGE, with media reports citing clashes between him and Musk. Ramaswamy told Fox News around that time that it was "incorrect" to say he and Musk didn't get along, but that they had "different and complementary approaches."
Shortly after, Ramaswamy announced he was running for governor of Ohio, with both Musk and Trump endorsing him in social media posts.
Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who founded a pharmaceutical company, won the Republican nomination for Ohio's gubernatorial race in May. He's up against Democratic candidate Amy Acton, a former state health official, in what's considered a close race.
After stepping away from DOGE in May 2025, Musk said he would pull back on political spending, though that proved short-lived. He's since donated millions to support Republicans, including the contribution to V-PAC, the super PAC supporting Ramaswamy.
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Kelsey is a senior reporter for Business Insider, where she covers business and tech news as well as stories about travel, luxury, and consulting.Her feature story "Disaster at 18,200 feet" received awards from the New York Press Club and the North American Travel Journalists Association, as well as honorable mention from the Society of American Travel Writers. It was also included on Longreads' and Pocket's best of 2022 lists. She has also received an American Journalism Online Award for her coverage on missing and murdered Indigenous people in Wyoming.She's appeared on CBS, NPR, NBC, and other outlets to discuss her work. She previously worked on the world news desk at the BBC in London and received a master's in journalism from Northwestern University.She can be reached by email at [email protected] or via the encrypted-messaging app Signal @kelseyv.21.Popular storiesDisaster on Denali: Inside a 1,000-foot fall on America's highest peakThrifting is more popular than ever. It's also never been worse.Rolex wouldn't service the vintage watch my mom inherited. Watchmakers say it happens all the time.A tiny, invasive bug and the climate crisis are changing how guitars are made, and shifting the course of music historyThe tourism free-for-all is overGovernment-run boarding schools were founded to 'civilize' Native Americans. Hundreds of dead children remain buried in the schoolyard graves.Meet the Texas minister who helps fly dozens of women to New Mexico every month to get abortionsPeople are flocking to Colorado for the great outdoors, but the air pollution is so bad, it's forcing many to stay insideInside Kabul: An aid worker reveals the devastating chaos that erupted during the US exit from Afghanistan
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