ICYMI: Vivek Ramaswamy Accepted Donation from Known Nazi Reenactor

ICYMI: Vivek Ramaswamy Accepted Donation from Known Nazi Reenactor

February 17, 2026

Columbus, Ohio - New reporting has revealed that Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign accepted a $500 contribution from notorious Nazi reenactor and former Ohio Congressional candidate Richard Iott. Ramaswamy's campaign has not refunded the contribution.

READ: Vivek Ramaswamy pocketed cash from notorious Nazi reenactor as his Ohio campaign hits the skids

• Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate now running for Ohio governor, is the latest Republican politician who has accepted a campaign donation from a former GOP congressional hopeful who liked to cosplay as a Nazi.

• The Daily Mail has learned that the Ramaswamy campaign accepted a $500 donation on August 15 from Richard Iott using public campaign disclosure data.

• Several attempts to contact Ramaswamy's campaign on Friday went unreturned.

• Iott was among the Tea Party-aligned hopefuls to try to enter Congress in the 2010 election, but his campaign was upended when the Atlantic published photographs of him in a 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking uniform.

• That division was part of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's military in World War II, mostly fighting along the Eastern Front, and assisted in the genocide of Hungarian Jews. At the time, Iott didn't deny participation in the reenactment group.

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