Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds leasing a private jet from a company he owns, according to records cited by the Ohio Capital Journal.

Of nearly $690,000 that his campaign spent on private jets, nearly $560,000 went to V Leasing LLC, a company whose listed address is a house Ramaswamy owns, the report said. The outlet also reported that Ramaswamy has loaned his campaign more than $25 million.

Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who founded Roivant Sciences, funded his 2024 Republican presidential campaign largely with his own money before withdrawing and endorsing Donald Trump. He launched his Ohio gubernatorial bid in February, won the Republican primary in May, and now faces Democrat Amy Acton, the state's former health director, in the November election to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.

In May, Ramaswamy told a Youngstown news station that he preferred to drive, the Journal noted.

"I love long drives," he said. "You think about the time we spend in Trumbull County, and you think about the time we even spend just going for a nice jog. You think about Cuyahoga National Park, not far from where we are. I'm a nature guy."

Campaign finance records reviewed by the Ohio Capital Journal also show that his campaign paid nearly $130,000 to TVPX Aircraft Solutions in Salt Lake City.

Ramaswamy's campaign did not respond to questions the Ohio Capital Journal sent multiple times, the outlet reported.

Candidates are generally permitted to lend money to their own campaigns and to be repaid later, a practice common among wealthy self-funders, and Jordan Libowitz, vice president of communications for the nonprofit watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the Journal that the loan structure creates a path for self-payment.

"If he is basically fronting money to rent a plane from himself, and then if he does not forgive the loans but reimburses himself, he'll essentially be using donor funds to pay himself," Libowitz told the outlet.

Whether the loans are ultimately repaid or forgiven will be visible in the campaign's future finance filings.

Federal flight records show Ramaswamy flew between Columbus and Cleveland and between Columbus and Akron on his private jet, the Ohio Capital Journal reported.

"The fact that Ramaswamy has spent two years flying around on his own private jet is really a bad look," David Cohen, a political science professor and director of the Applied Politics Program at the University of Akron's Bliss Institute, told the outlet.

"I mean, let's face it: Ohio is not California or Texas. You can drive from border to border in Ohio in a few hours," Cohen added. "He's flying between Columbus and Akron for crying out loud, and Columbus and Cleveland. That's a two hour drive. Get in the car."

Democratic strategists seized on the report in the closing months of the governor's race. Mike Nellis, a Democratic political strategist who previously worked for Kamala Harris, wrote on X that Ramaswamy had been boasting about driving while quietly using his private jet.

"He's been bragging on the campaign trail about driving around Ohio, and it turns out he's completely full of s—," Nellis wrote. "What an awful candidate."

"It would even be funny if the nonstop lying weren't also totally disqualifying," Democratic Governors Association deputy communications director Izzi Levy wrote on X.