Ohio Republicans jumped the gun in what some news outlets are reporting as one of the earliest gubernatorial endorsements in the party’s history. Last week, the state GOP announced its endorsement of Vivek Ramaswamy, former co-chair of the federal Department of Government Efficiency, nearly a year before the 2026 primary election.

This move comes despite members of the State Central Committee not even knowing yet who might enter the race.

Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel says he is considering a bid for governor. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has already made his intentions clear. And the filing deadline for the race is Feb. 4, 2026 — nearly nine months from now.

Why the rush?

We don’t know, of course. The meeting during which the decision was made happened behind closed doors. But just ahead of that meeting, Donald Trump Jr. leaned on members of the committee in a social media post.

“I understand that early endorsements aren’t the norm, but these are not ordinary times,” he wrote. “We have a country to save, and we don’t have any time or money to waste.”

It is not clear what made the younger Trump insist the committee should act outside the norm, but there was enough sense of urgency to make Laura Trump weigh in as well. She called in to open the committee’s meeting and reminded members to “Unite, unite, unite!”

Meanwhile, good candidates — veteran public figures already well known to Ohioans — may now feel frozen out of the process. That is a shame, as surely Ramaswamy and the others have a right to a vigorous primary campaign filled with debate and discussion about what Ohio needs.

Again, voters will not have a chance to weigh in on these candidates until May 5, 2026. It may, indeed, turn out that Ramaswamy earns the endorsement, but it is impossible to know now if that will be the case. State committee members did Ohio voters a disservice by failing to take their time to endorse the right candidate for the right reasons.