Ohio GOP primary candidate who asked AI bot to praise Hitler loses, gets 17.5% of vote

Political outsider Casey Putsch loses in landslide to Trump-supported Vivek Ramaswamy; other races on Tuesday showcase Trump’s grip on party, special elections streak for Democrats

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch, a political outsider whose campaign included antisemitic dogwhistles and multiple allusions to Adolf Hitler, won 150,000 votes in the US Republican primary despite losing the race.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate who had US President Donald Trump’s backing, prevailed with 82.5 percent of the vote, while Putsch won 17.5%.

Putsch, an automotive engineer who calls himself “The Car Guy,” made headlines during his campaign when he advertised an upcoming “beer hall rally,” which, combined with his last name, evokes the name of the “beer hall putsch,” a failed coup attempt led by Adolf Hitler. He had also made a YouTube video in which he asked the artificial intelligence tool Grok to name Hitler’s “good” qualities.

Putsch was initially endorsed by the Anti-Zionist America PAC, or AZAPAC, a group founded last year with the aim to “de-Zionize” the American government and end military aid to Israel. Multiple AZAPAC-endorsed politicians falsely believe that Jews were responsible for the 9/11 terror attacks and that Israel was behind the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

The group later removed Putsch’s name from its website without providing an explanation, referring questions to the Putsch campaign and declining to comment.

In the general election for governor in November, Ramaswamy will face Amy Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, who ran unopposed for the Democratic nomination. Acton played a key role in the state’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the primaries for the special election for Ohio’s Senate seat, former Senator Sherrod Brown easily won the Democratic primaries. In the general election, he will face off against Republican Senator Jon Husted, who was appointed to the vacant seat when JD Vance became vice president.

Democrats believe their path back to a US Senate majority runs through the state.

Tuesday’s other races saw a string of victories for Trump-backed challengers to seven Indiana Republican state senators who opposed the president’s redistricting plan. Meanwhile, Democrat Chedrick Greene won a special election for a state Senate seat in Michigan, in a closely matched district where Harris won by less than 1 point in 2024, continuing an almost universal swing toward Democrats in special elections since Trump’s election.

AP contributed to this report.