Nick Fuentes vows to oppose Vivek Ramaswamy’s Ohio governor bid

White nationalist Nick Fuentes pledged to campaign against Vivek Ramaswamy in an insulting speech denouncing the Republican’s candidacy for governor of Ohio.

The statement came just days after Ramaswamy called out Fuentes during a speech at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference in which he criticized Fuentes for some of his inflammatory remarks.

“I think I’m going to go to Ohio and the word we’re looking for is denial. We have to deny Vivek Ramaswamy the governorship. That’s the only race that matters to me in ’26. That’s the only one that matters to me,” Fuentes said during a live stream Tuesday. He also used a slur to describe Ramaswamy and said he didn’t care if a Democrat beat him in the gubernatorial race.

Asked by Fox News Digital for a response, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy’s campaign said Wednesday: “We are focused on the issues that matter most to Ohioans, not the fringe voices who prefer a far-left Democrat over the Trump-backed conservative.”

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Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025. At right, white nationalist Nick Fuentes, outside a Turning Point event on June 15, 2024, in Detroit. (Cheney Orr/Reuters; Dominic Gwinn/Getty Images)

Ramaswamy laid out his vision of what it means to be an American during his speech Friday at AmericaFest.

“What does it mean to be an American in 2026? It means we believe in these ideals from 1776,” he said at the Turning Point USA event. “That means we believe in merit, that the best person gets the job regardless of skin color.”

“This means we believe in freedom of expression and open debate,” he added. “Even for those who disagree with us, from Nick Fuentes to Jimmy Kimmel, you can express your opinion openly without the government censoring you.”

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Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest 2025, Friday, Dec. 19, 2025, in Phoenix. (Jon Cherry/AP)

Ramaswamy then said, “If you believe in the normalization of hatred toward any ethnic group, toward white people, toward black people, toward Hispanics, toward Jews, toward Indians, you have no place in the future of the conservative movement, period.” »

“And I won’t apologize for it. I won’t cover up when I say it,” Ramaswamy continued. “If you believe that, and you’ll forgive me for giving you an exact quote from our online commentator, Nick Fuentes. If you think Hitler was pretty cool, you have no place in the future of the conservative movement. You can debate foreign aid, Israel all you want. That’s fine. That’s fair. But you have no place with this level of hatred.”

Ramaswamy declared his candidacy for governor of Ohio in late February.

Ramaswamy is running to replace Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, shown here in the Old Senate Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on January 21, 2025. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

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Current Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, who is also a Republican, is term-limited and will leave office in January 2027.

David Rutz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.