Casey Putsch's Doomed Campaign for Ohio Governor

He has claimed to have come from nothing, from a poor family, but was born in Tiffin, Ohio, to a golf pro father and a local television actress mother, and raised with racing opportunities. He does sometimes speak out against real problems, big ones, like the globalist elite and corrupt government, but fails to get specific or offer any practical solutions.

Even betting markets reflect the doom: Putsch hovers at single-digit odds to win the primary, while Ramaswamy dominates at 80-90%.

Fun fact: His last name is Swiss-German and literally means, "a secretly plotted and suddenly executed attempt to overthrow a government."

Ask Putsch about the state budget, school funding, taxes, or even how roads get built in Ohio, and you’ll get a blank stare. He doesn’t have a clue.

His fundraising efforts for his 3.5-month campaign have been limited, with less than $50,000 raised, primarily from himself, his family, and some YouTube supporters.

Candidates have to file campaign finance reports during the year when they are running for office. In an analysis of Ramaswamy’s campaign finance filing, 52% of the nearly $9.8 million he raised this filing period came from Ohioans, with donors from California, Florida, Texas and New York following.

About 94% of all of those contributions came from real, traceable individuals, not political action committees (PACs) or companies, or shady anonymous donors. His average donation was $56, a number that fits real people giving.

On top of not being knowledgeable in the day-to-day of government, Putsch’s groyper nonsense has torched his campaign’s potential and is likely part of his fundraising woes, too.

In a YouTube video, Putsch talked about "a list of all the good things Adolf Hitler did or was responsible for creating in his life." He insisted on what he claimed was "objective truth" and later called Ben Shapiro, Daily Wire's Jewish conservative commentator (who surrounds himself with Christians of different denominations), a "rodent." Putsch argued that anyone claiming Hitler had "no good ideas" was "wrong."

In an interview with Ohio Capital Journal reporter Morgan Trau, Putsch clarified that he does not deny the Holocaust but stated there were "benefits to what Hitler did." These comments alienated Jewish voters and concerned Christian Republicans who viewed them as antisemitic and uninformed.

(Adolf Hitler was a chronic hypochondriac and drug addict, pumped full of amphetamines like Pervitin, cocaine, and opioids by his quack doctor Theo Morell. Had catastrophic military blunders like the no-retreat order at Stalingrad that doomed millions and sealed his regime's collapse.)

Putsch has, on multiple occasions, praised and aligned himself with people like Nick Fuentes, who has made remarks about loving Hitler, declaring "Hitler is great" during a December 2024 live event. Fuentes has reportedly praised Putsch as a "true nationalist.”

Fuentes has repeatedly talked about how he hates all women, likely due to some trauma from a rejection, referring to them as "baby machines" in a June 2021 video and worse on others, though he admitted in a 2023 interview that he has never been with one in his entire life.

Casey Putsch could've won hearts by championing reforms like scrapping property taxes with a real plan or protecting rights for Ohio's mechanics and farmers, rather than vague complaints.

He’s managed to drive away the very base he needed to get some movement for his campaign. His “buckeye nationalist” shtick only attracts a handful of online fans, not many real voters. Families in suburban Toledo want answers to real problems, not another guy parroting the same tired conspiracy theories every other wannabe influencer is pushing.

His X activity shows ongoing meltdowns, e.g., baiting critics with "You’re in the Epstein files too?" repeatedly (accusing opponents like Kurt Schlichter and others of cover-ups), or mocking smears while pivoting to "Ohio Autobahn" and trains.

We all know there’s more to the Epstein story, we know there are tons of others who should be in prison right now, we all know powerful people are corrupt, we all know large corporations only care about money... we know. If he were to offer new information, fund or pursue his own investigation, or in some way contribute to solving the massive mystery, I’d respect it, but he hasn’t.

I will say, for his Genius Garage, he deserves some credit, but it also shows he’s not the “common man” he pretends to be. Putsch founded the nonprofit in 2012. It teaches kids engineering through building cars, pretty cool and a noble pursuit. The program has trained over 100 students. Sources describe small cohorts (6-12 per term, focused mentoring) with high placement success (like moving on to work at Tesla/Ford/GM), so 100 high-quality students in 14 years might be great, I have no frame of reference or industry experience to judge that by.

Of all the things about Casey Putsch that seem unlikable, his work with auto engineering and racing is pretty cool.

As a car guy from a golf-course family in Tiffin, Putsch understands hands-on work to some extent but still fails to see the problems faced by the common man in Ohio, because he’s never been one. Working on your own family's golf course, or as a high-end mechanic, isn’t the even close to the same as the work most Americans do to make ends-meet.

He’s always been part of the upper-middle class+. (Only about 14% to 15% of the U.S. population is considered upper-middle class.)

After graduating, he was working part-time as a Ferrari mechanic while restoring a 1957 Devin special race car. He drove it to his first road race at the Vintage Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio with the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA).

In the mid-2000s, he started buying and selling cars for a race shop. Founded Putsch Racing (later Putsch Auto Media), a business focused on high-end race car preparation, restoration, and trackside support for clients with vintage vehicles. Again, a far cry from his claims of coming from nothing and being a “regular guy.”

He then went on to create his YouTube channel, focused on cars.

In 2018, he joined X (formerly Twitter) under the handle @CaseyPutsch. Early posts focused on cars and Genius Garage; later shifted to political commentary.

In 2021, in a YouTube video, Putsch unleashed a bizarre critique of popular car channel Donut Media, accusing them of "low effort," "lack of research," and gatekeeping the automotive community (there are tons of successful car channels).

He spoke of himself as a superior "car guy" while simultaneously complaining about their success, coming off as envious and hypocritical (given his own ego-driven content). This petty meltdown drew mockery on Reddit (not exactly a source of goodness itself, but still), labeling him an "eccentric weirdo with an enormous ego."

In 2022, an automotive blog accused Putsch of pressuring them to remove an article. The piece portrayed him as relying on family wealth (which he constantly calls out in others, making him a hypocrite), running a groyper YouTube channel, and auctioning off a fake supercar replica.

Putsch claimed to have built the "most efficient" diesel car (the 100+ mpg Omega Car) through Genius Garage, but critics consider it overhyped, and it has not resulted in any practical applications.

He’s got a few decent points about billionaires and globalism, but he swings at the wrong targets, makes vague complaints, and never offers a real solution. All he does is yell, act angry, and repeat what everyone already knows. That’s easy. What we need are leaders who can actually solve the problems.

While building watches on YouTube, Putsch ranted that the U.S. is a "corporate prison farm" run by criminals (which may be true to some extent, but again, he failed to get specific or offer any way forward), expressing disdain for both parties (including Trump and Republicans in general).

He was extremely paranoid about being "Killaried" (as if he had revealed anything that would make him a threat to the establishment, illusions of grandeur. Most people at the top have no idea he even exists.) and name-dropped Elon Musk and Ramaswamy as supposed bad guys, which may be true on some level, but again (again), he failed to support his claims with anything real.

This unfiltered paranoia alienated his even some of his car enthusiast base, shifting his channel toward his personal politics and further reducing his mainstream appeal.

He posted:

"We already have no government 'for the people, by the people' THEY hate us. I just want to live long enough to see EVERY Epstein associate and co-conspirator EXECUTED worldwide. FUCK the uni-party and their political gamesmanship. Trust NOTHING associated. Especially EVERY politician…."

While his sentiment resonates with some, he has not conducted investigations, gathered evidence, or taken substantive action, instead just repeating widely known claims in porrly written X posts.

He also shared online:

"Just had a thought… Why the fuck should I obey the speed limit if TRUMP can’t hold accountable the Epstein people?????? @realDonaldTrump FUCKING take care of this… Sincerely, WE THE FUCKING PEOPLE. Putsch for Ohio."

That’s insane, stupid really. What does driving safely and caring about your fellow Americans on the road have to do with bringing to justice the Epstein syndicate? Absolutely nothing.

You can do one correctly while still demanding justice on a totally unrelated matter. It’s more telling of his ignorance than anything else, more of the no-reason, crazy extremism that drives away people capable of rational thought.

It's really no different than the weird liberal boycotts or protests that target the wrong businesses or locations, just pure ignorance. He's a fake conservative and pretend All-American dude.

On the ongoing Epstein syndicate mystery, Putsch keeps reusing already-known info, posting things, acting like he somehow discovered them. These are things that have been known for years, and which every single person has seen across the web for weeks to months. It's more of his illusions about himself, thinking the stuff he remembers from X and Instagram posts is his own revelation or discovery, or thinking other people are too dumb to realize it... it would be funny if it wasn't so sad and strange.

He constantly steals posts and pretends he made a discovery.

He’s also against less-regulated AI, which puts him right in line with the same globalists and elites he claims to hate. Regulated AI just means more censorship, more government control, and more snooping on regular people. He doesn’t understand what he’s talking about.

Beyond making absurd claims and trying to speak on subjects he knows nothing about, he has been a victim of scams, which have fueled his anger, which he takes out on anyone who disagrees with him on YouTube.

In 2024, Putsch posted a video warning about some supposed “extortion, laundering, or trafficking trap” from a European racing sponsor scam. He claimed he was the target, a “patsy.” All it really did was show his terrible business judgment. He fell for fake sponsor scams and wild promises, just like those old emails about a long-lost relative leaving you a fortune if you just hand over your bank info.

By trying to spin his bad decision and lack of research (which he mocked others for) into a story of some secret cabal controlling racing sponsorships, when he really just fell for some online scam, made him look like a wacko, and made it harder for people to give credit to anything he said. He became, in a way, a “boy who cried wolf.” Now nobody wants to listen, period, even if he’s right on some things.

He did the same with his racing career. When it got tough and he couldn't progress and rise in the ranks how he wanted, he started blaming all of racing, the whole system, saying it was a secret club, and claiming no level of skill could get you in. We know this to be false for every sport. Money can get you in sometimes, but real skill gets to the top either way, and those who can't compete at all would quickly fall out of the sport.

Putsch just looks for someone else to blame for every single one of his own failures. That is an unacceptable trait in a leader.

Amongst his many bizarre posts was also:

"I got a tip that the paid pro-Vivek camp and bots were going to smear me as- 'Unserious' and 'clownish'... Back to business, Putsch for Ohio. I still like trains." Followed by: "2 words. Ohio Autobahn. That is all."

He can’t shut up about Vivek, and he’s more interested in building a racetrack than actually stopping drugs or real crime.

Putsch announced his governor bid back on December 16, 2025, in a YouTube video late at night. He opened the video talking about "rumors" on X that he would be running for governor, "rumors" that he started himself, and which got little attention.

He is challenging Vivek Ramaswamy in the May 5, 2026, Republican primary. Other candidates include Heather Hill and Renea Turner.

Former Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Amy Acton is running as a Democratic candidate with David Pepper, former chair of the Ohio Democrats, as her running mate.

Putsch completely ignores serious Ohio issues like the opioid crisis that killed at least 4,251 people in 2025, the many manufacturing jobs lost in Youngstown, and other important issues. When I did some automation work for Amazon, through a company called Dematic, in Washington Court House, Ohio (yes, that’s a real city name), every other local I met seemed to be on meth or heroin, or both. That was several years ago now, but nothing has changed.

He talks about Vivek Ramaswamy nonstop, to the point of obsession. It’s annoying and probably drove away anyone who might have listened. Putsch then continuously parrots Fuentes, calling Vivek an “anchor baby” and claiming he’s some secret globalist Democrat.

Ramaswamy's parents immigrated legally (that’s the thing, legally) from India in the 1970s. Vivek was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 9, 1985, years after his parents settled here in accordance with our laws and integrated into our culture.

Putsch tries to equate Vivek’s parents with illegals who come here and have children just as a free ticket to stay, who have no care for their children other than that, who would sell them for the right price. Putsch twists facts to stir resentment. It’s beyond “apples and oranges”; Putsch is comparing apples to turds.

Why the hate for Ramaswamy? Putsch hates H-1B visas and legal immigration by anyone at all, ever, so he tries to make Vivek into some fake poster boy for “foreigners stealing jobs.”

Such claims would be more credible if the position were not appointed by the President, who himself was elected, if Vivek were actually a true foreigner, and if he did not support ICE and efforts against illegal immigration, not to mention fighting corrupt government spending through DOGE. Putsch’s assertions lack evidence and are quickly disproven in the information age if one cares to dig a little.

Ramaswamy supports merit-based immigration, the same stance everyone in the Trump admin, and almost all normal Americans, have taken. That if you can work hard, earn, prove yourself, pass a test, pass a background check, and live by our rules, you can come. He has constantly praised American values, not Indian ones.

Putsch called Ramaswamy's December 17, 2025, New York Times op-ed "What is an American" a "leftist propaganda piece" to divide conservatives. In the article, Ramaswamy argues that American identity is rooted in loyalty to the Constitution, the rule of law, meritocracy, freedom, and citizenship. He criticizes left-wing identity politics and right-wing "blood and soil" nationalism to some extent.

Ramaswamy's article references the Founding Fathers' view of citizenship as loyalty to principles, quoting John Adams on "virtue" as essential to the republic, a point Putsch dismisses as "leftist." Virtue and honesty remain fundamental qualities, especially for prospective leaders.

Putsch claims this divides the right by ignoring heritage, but all he shows is ignorance, not insight. He attacks just to get attention and stir up drama. You can be pro-white, America First, Christian, conservative, and still stand by our traditions without tossing out good Americans.

Generational American heritage is valuable and deserves respect and conservation, without a doubt, but it can’t be the only criterion.

Running things that way (all you have to do is be an American with x generations of American ancestors), it’s equivalent to looksmaxxing, a ridiculous notion that has one single thing (looks in their case) that’s supposed to be the only prerequisite for any position at all, in any field. It’s insane on the level of mental illness. It’s just as bad as DEI, but on the other end of the spectrum.

There must be a balance, by judging people by their character and ability.

Look at the other side, the far-left and the globalist elite in America. Plenty of them are white Americans with many generations here, but they still go against everything it means to be American.

Joe Biden's ancestors primarily came to America in the mid-19th century, with many Irish ancestors fleeing the Great Famine. His great-great-grandfather, Patrick Blewitt, emigrated in 1848.

Joe Biden's "being American" didn't stop him from being the dopiest, most useless, Anti-American Commander in Chief the world has ever seen.

Merit, loyalty, and ability have to count for something. Being American is the starting point of the criteria, not the end-all be-all and only requirement.

Putsch's Twitter crashouts have further exposed his weaknesses. He posted a video ranting about Ramaswamy as a "swamp creature." He has claimed that Trump admin members secretly want to "import foreigners" to destroy jobs. Nothing supports that claim.

The Trump admin has deported over 5 million illegals since 2025 and tightened H-1B rules to favor U.S. workers.

Putsch ignores reality over and over again. He says the job market in Ohio was "destroyed" by immigrants. Unemployment in Ohio is around 4.5-5% as of February 2026. Factories in Toledo offer a starting pay of $20+ per hour. Ford is hiring entry-level positions at $21 an hour. Restaurants in Perrysburg need staff; everyone is hiring. The issue is our own people. Too many prefer welfare or drugs over work.

For some reason, Putsch blames the legal immigrants who assimilate, lose accents, and follow American ways. He treats them like "tribal barbarians" or illegals. He mixes up legal and illegal immigration. Legal immigrants like Ramaswamy's parents came through channels, built lives, raised contributors. Illegals cross unlawfully, burdening our systems at our expense.

Putsch's confusion just repels voters who value merit. Vivek Ramaswamy may not be the man Ohio needs, but neither is Putsch.

Ohio needs someone smart, strong, and who can unite the Republicans of Ohio, not divide them further.

Again, one of his biggest problems with voters is that Putsch aligns with Nazi-wannabe groypers like Nick Fuentes (who denies the Holocaust, hates Israel, hates women, has never worked a real job, and pretends to promote white Christian nationalism).

Putsch, like Fuentes, attempts "uncensored, no-holds-barred" tough-guy talk. He says, "If you don't like me, don't vote for me." For all his experience with cars and manual labor, he’s still far away from any level of macho. (He takes more selfies than about 20-30 average grown men combined.)

He tries to copy Trump’s “I don’t care” attitude to ride that fad and/or seem tough, but it just blows up in his face. Trump and his team, for all their faults, actually got things done and offered solutions. Putsch just whines and complains, with nothing to show for it.

His 2026 run is just more meltdowns, endless talk about Vivek Ramaswamy, and nonstop whining, which only make him look worse and chip away at any small chance he might have had.

As a first-time gubernatorial candidate, he also lacks any political infrastructure. Early polling shows Ramaswamy leading by miles, while Putsch's online presence hasn't translated into any broad appeal. The handful of people who like him online are mostly irrelevant, unable (legally, by age or location/nationality) or unwilling to actually vote for him.

His profane, conspiracy-heavy posts energize a niche fanbase but risk turning off moderate Republicans and independents, and none of his talk matters if it doesn’t get Ohioans to take his side. Choices like his running mate (Georgeton, a failed congressional candidate) are seen as backward-looking and not worth supporting.

Putsch may (pretend to) wave the America First flag, but his meltdowns, privilege blind spots, and zero solutions make him a liability, not a leader, especially not for white Christian Americans who want results, not jealous rage.