Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel confirms he's considering a run for governor

[Diamond_Dog]

May 8, 2025, 6:48 PM EDT / Updated May 8, 2025, 7:40 PM EDT

By Henry J. Gomez

CLEVELAND — Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, a Republican and a former Ohio State football coach, confirmed Thursday that he is considering a run for governor in 2026.

Tressel, who previously said he was not thinking about a bid but stopped short of ruling one out, indicated in a statement first shared with NBC News that his thinking has changed.

(snip)

Allies of Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur whose candidacy for governor is backed by President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, are pushing hard to win the endorsement over state Attorney General Dave Yost. But term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine has been calling committee members urging them to hold off, citing the possibility that other candidates could jump in the race, NBC News reported this week.

DeWine’s effort has been viewed by many party insiders as a move to keep the state party from committing advertising and organizational resources to Ramaswamy before Tressel makes a decision. The governor picked Tressel to be his deputy less than three months ago, immediately triggering speculation that he was grooming him for even higher office.

“I think he would like to forestall an endorsement taking place, because I think he would like to see if he can convince Jim Tressel to run for governor,” one Republican leader in the state said of DeWine this week.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/ohio-lt-gov-jim-tressel-confirms-considering-run-governor-rcna205734

[MichMan]

1. Has tremendous name recognition

[Raven123]

2. Expected it.

Given the current GOP candidate list, he might just win.

Vivek Ramaswamy - Trump’s guy
Dave Yost - the current Ohio AG

The names I have heard so far. Tressel seems a lot like DeWine. Say little and ride the MAGA coattails.

[Botany]

3. Tressel was fired by Ohio State for being a complete shit as he was speaking about Jesus.

He used to rig “give aways’ at his summer football camp to make sure future Ohio State
players won the prize.

Read the Sports Illustrated about him. I used to believe he was a good guy and boy was
I wrong.

[LisaM]

4. He rigged raffles against little kids!

He also directly lied about teaching a course in football that was pretty much only open to football players and guaranteed them credit and a good grade. I remember some OSU guy claiming that wasn't true but it took me about two minutes to dig up a course catalogue and locate the two courses he taught.

[Botany]

6. He was a complete Jesus talking phony. He was fired for cause but he also got a lot of money to not

talk about that President of Ohio State and the A.D. were well aware of what was going on
in the program. They said it was paying out his contract but it wasn’t.

Young men from all over went to his football summer camps and some of them worked
mowing lawns and other jobs to attend Tressel’s camps but when they had raffles the
winners of jerseys, shoes, balls, pants, and shirts just about always were players that
were going to go to OSU or that Tressel was recruiting because Jim and his brother had
rigged the drawings. When Ohio State wanted to talk about that and other ways players
got paid (he did that @ Youngstown State too) he was signing his book and giving talks
about doing the right thing for Jesus.

Although he was definitely an upgrade over Cooper and he had good relationships with
high school coaches, youth football coaches, and teachers throughout the state. High
School coaches tried to dissuade their players from going to Cooper’s summer camps

And he was very good @ not answering questions if he didn’t want to.

[LisaM]

7. Yes, I remember in a game one of his players stomped on the Wisconsin's QB's windpipe.

He couldn't call signals and had to come out; Wisconsin had to put in a backup (of course, no penalty called!) Wisconsin lost a squeaker.

When they asked Tressel about it later, he did just what you described. He gave a blank stare and said, "oh, I don't know anything about that". Riiiight....the head coach in a huge game didn't notice that the QB for the other team had to come out.

[Botany]

8. That was Robert Reynolds who was a linebacker.

Reynolds also had arrests for assault and was known to be a dirty player in college
and when he was in the NFL (short stay) too. I kind of think he had CTE but he
was a piece of work. Tressel had a freshman named A.J. Hawk who could have re-
placed him too. I think his brother @ a smaller college in KY also had some issues too.

[Diamond_Dog]

5. I wish Ohioans would "just say no" to more Republicans!

Dems have a crack in the door here, they’d better take advantage of it!