COLUMBUS, Ohio — Republican Vivek Ramaswamy on Friday unveiled seven executive orders he says he will sign on his first day as governor, January 11, 2027, if Ohio voters elect him on November 3 — a list topped by investigations of local property tax increases, a pause on new data center projects, and a new anti-fraud task force reporting directly to the governor. The announcement, made in a campaign release issued through PR Newswire on October 30 and paid for by the Ramaswamy campaign, follows his pledge earlier this week to launch investigations of local property tax hikes.
The first order, according to the campaign release, would direct the Ohio Department of Taxation, in consultation with the Auditor of State, to review property tax changes in every county, township, municipality, school district and special district in Ohio, and to surface how increased property taxes have been spent. Every jurisdiction that has seen an increase of more than 100 percent in property taxes since 2020 would be subject to a full investigation into its spending, the release says.
The second order would prohibit Ohio cities, townships, counties and other local jurisdictions from adopting policies that prevent or impede their law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Under the plan described in the release, a political subdivision that does not honor detainer requests or share information as federal law allows would lose eligibility for state grants run by executive agencies, including public-safety and homeland-security grants, until it complies, and the policy would be referred for possible legal action.
The third order takes aim at one of the most debated development questions in Ohio. It would direct every state agency, board and commission to pause action on any application, permit, incentive or approval for a new data center, giving the General Assembly time to pass comprehensive data center legislation built on principles Ramaswamy has previously outlined, according to the release.
Two of the orders deal with fraud and spending inside state government itself. The fourth would direct the Department of Medicaid to investigate waste, fraud and abuse and to apply for a federal Section 1115 waiver capping Ohio’s Medicaid spending, modeled on Tennessee’s TennCare III waiver, which the release says let that state keep up to 55 percent of federal savings when it spent below the cap. The sixth would order a review of every executive-branch contract paid in part or in full from the General Revenue Fund, with the Department of Administrative Services and the Office of Budget and Management weighing each contract’s legal basis, necessity, performance and the cost of ending it versus continuing it.
The fifth order would direct the Departments of Public Safety and of Rehabilitation and Corrections to prioritize violent-crime clearance rates in discretionary funding that supports local law enforcement. The release says tools including advanced forensic science would be aimed at increasing the number of violent crimes solved from what it describes as the current 34 percent level. The seventh order would establish an inter-agency anti-fraud task force, reporting directly to the governor, covering areas the release lists as Medicaid fraud, benefits fraud, child care fraud, visa fraud, voter registration fraud, trucking fraud, foreign commercial driver’s license licensure, and abuse of foreign hiring by public entities, with possible representatives from the Auditor of State, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General.
The announcement lands in the final days of a governor’s race that has drawn national attention. Ramaswamy, backed by President Donald Trump, faces Democrat Amy Acton, who served as Gov. Mike DeWine’s health director during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Columbus Dispatch reported that both candidates spent the final stretch crisscrossing the state — Ramaswamy stood with Trump at a rally in Chillicothe, while Acton campaigned in Dayton and Cincinnati — with Acton pitching fully funded public schools and tax breaks for working Ohioans and Ramaswamy pitching the elimination of the state income tax alongside his property tax and immigration plans, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Property taxes have been the through-line of Ramaswamy’s closing argument. The tax-investigation order formalizes a commitment he first outlined earlier this week, and it speaks to an issue that has dominated Statehouse debate through 2026, as lawmakers and county officials have wrestled with sharp valuation increases and the levies that ride on them. His running mate is Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, whom the release notes was first elected to the Ohio House in 2014 and was unanimously elected Senate president in January 2025.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the seven orders exist as a campaign commitment, published in full by the Ramaswamy campaign on October 30, and each is described in the release in enough detail to show which state agencies would carry it out. What we are still waiting on: the orders can only be signed if Ramaswamy wins on November 3 and takes office on January 11, 2027; several of them, including the data center pause, are explicitly framed as bridges to legislation the General Assembly has not yet passed; and Ohioans will not see the legal text of any order until — and unless — it is actually issued.
Related coverage: Trump rallied in Chillicothe this week for Ramaswamy and U.S. Sen. Jon Husted, and Ohio is set to receive $8 million as GM settles claims it sold drivers’ data.
What happens next is in the voters’ hands. Early voting runs through Sunday, November 1, and polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 3. If Ramaswamy wins, January 11, 2027 becomes the first real test of this list; if Acton wins, the orders remain a campaign document — and a record of what the Republican nominee told Ohio he would do on day one.
Photo: Sixflashphoto, CC BY-SA