The race for Ohio governor is growing with former Republican Presidential Primary Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announcing his candidacy on Tuesday.

21 News's Lindsay McCoy sat down with Ramaswamy on 21 News at 5 p.m. to talk about his platform and his stance on the issues.

We first asked Ramaswamy about his promise to end Ohio's income tax and property tax, which has raised concerns amongst opponents. We asked how he would offset the lost funds for programs and infrastructure.

Ramaswamy told 21 News there are at least eight other states with no income tax that Ohioans are moving to rather than staying in Ohio and believes that removing income tax will attract more people to the state and help with economic growth.

"That's not what I want. I want this to be the state where every kid grows up and stays here to pursue their American dream here. To lead us to be not just one of the better states in the Midwest, [but] I want to lead us to be one of the top states in the country ... where people flock to, move in to [and] repatriot our kids here who have moved out of here to seek economic opportunity elsewhere," Ramaswamy said.

The next topic discussed was work requirements for Medicaid benefits and how these changes could be implemented without harming the most vulnerable Medicaid recipients including children.

Ramaswamy told us this requirement would not apply to children, but would apply to able-bodied people ages 18 to 54 years old who don't have children.

He went on to say there is a worker shortage in Ohio and that he wants to fix that by not disincentivizing people who are seeking work and that he wants to make sure people are able to "stand on their own two feet."

"I want everyone in this state to have the same path to the American dream that I and so many others in this state have lived, but to be able to do it in a truly compassionate way, but providing the hand up when necessary without making it a permanent hand out, and that's part of the culture of work we want to recreate in our state," Ramaswamy said.

We next asked Ramaswamy about how he was originally part of efforts from the so-called "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE) led by Elon Musk that are currently underway.

Some Republicans who supported this have since pulled back on these efforts questioning if supporters of these cuts are looking at which jobs are being cut before they cut them.

When asked whether or not his cutting efforts in Ohio would differ from Musk's efforts and how he would execute his efforts, Ramaswamy said he would do it "in the way that brings the American dream to Ohio."

"I'm cutting red tape and overregulation. ... I'll give you an example. It takes 18 to 36 months generally to get a permit for a new natural gas pipeline construction in this state. That should be six months or less. ... It shouldn't take six years to get permitting for a power plant for all the approvals that you need," Ramaswamy said.

"I'm less focused on 'what are we tearing down' and more 'what are we building up.' We're building up that American dream. We're building up economic excellence in this state," he continued.

You can watch our full interview with Ramaswamy in the video player above.