COLUMBUS, Ohio >> Fresh off of his unexpected departure from President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy has set his sights on becoming governor of his home state.

The 39-year-old biotech entrepreneur who made an unsuccessful bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination has lined up strategists with Ohio experience and plans to announce his run as soon as this week.

Ramaswamy will try to follow the paths of Vice President JD Vance and Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno — two political newcomers who won Senate seats with the help of Trump’s endorsement. His plans have complicated things for a deep bench of veteran Republican politicians, especially the ones who also aspire to succeed term-limited Gov. Mike DeWine. Attorney General Dave Yost announced his candidacy on Thursday.

So far, Ohio voters have continued to support candidates with government experience for state-level offices, while favoring business backgrounds in their presidential and Senate picks.

“At the federal legislative level, that’s a different yardstick and standard than for governor of Ohio,” said Republican consultant Terry Casey. “Historically, the governor’s a little closer to voters — clearing highways, running prisons — than senators and members of Congress.”

Ramaswamy stands to benefit from instant popularity among Trump’s most ardent backers and long ties to both Vance and Moreno. He attended Trump’s second inauguration and is a well-known booster of the president.

Attending a recent breakfast with more than 600 state GOP activists, Ramaswamy was mobbed by people seeking to have their photos taken with him and his wife, Apoorva. Ramaswamy, who travels with his own small security detail, was again swarmed the same evening during a black-tie inaugural ball in Washington sponsored by the Ohio Republican Party.

“The question is can you bypass the 20 years’ worth of political history that used to be required to run for governor,” said Ryan Stubenrauch, a Republican strategist and former senior policy adviser to DeWine.

Ramaswamy is the son of Indian immigrants and a native of Cincinnati. He earned Harvard and Yale degrees before joining a hedge fund firm and leading its pharmaceutical investments. Ramaswamy launched his own venture in 2014, Roivant, specializing in buying discount patents for drugs stuck in development and resurrecting them. His portfolio is now measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars, enough to dwarf the $15 million he loaned his presidential campaign.