Ohio gubernatorial candidate who asked AI bot to praise Hitler is pummeled in GOP primary

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch in an interview in February 2026. (YouTube)
Ohio gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch in an interview in February 2026. (YouTube)

Ohio gubernatorial candidate Casey Putsch, whose rhetoric has included antisemitic dogwhistles, did not come close to winning the Republican primary.

But he was not swept aside by the electorate, either: Nearly 150,000 Ohio Republicans voted for him, making up 17.5% of voters.

Vivek Ramaswamy, the former presidential candidate who had US President Donald Trump’s backing, prevailed with 82.5% of the vote.

Putsch, an automotive engineer and political outsider, made headlines during his campaign when he advertised an upcoming “beer hall rally,” which, combined with his last name, evokes the name of the “beer hall putsch,” a failed coup attempt led by Adolf Hitler. He had also made a YouTube video in which he asked the artificial intelligence tool Grok to name Hitler’s “good” qualities.

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