“Park the damn jet.”

That was the message from Nick Owens, a former Brown County Republican Party chairman and former member of the State Board of Education, as Republicans publicly questioned Vivek Ramaswamy’s reliance on private aircraft while campaigning for Ohio governor.

“People want to see you in their neighborhoods and in their living rooms,” Owens told NBC News. “There’s no reason to be flying around in a jet in Ohio.”

The criticism follows campaign-finance records showing Ramaswamy’s campaign has spent at least nearly $690,000 leasing aircraft since he entered the governor’s race.

And the flights were not limited to cross-country travel.

Federal flight records reviewed by the Ohio Capital Journal documented multiple short flights between Ohio cities, including trips from Columbus to Port Clinton, Cleveland and Youngstown. The in-state flights lasted about 30 minutes.

Nearly $700,000 spent leasing aircraft

Campaign-finance reports show Ramaswamy’s campaign spent nearly $560,000 leasing aircraft from V Leasing LLC through the end of June, according to the Capital Journal.

V Leasing lists as its address a house owned by Ramaswamy.

The campaign spent another nearly $130,000 with TVPX Aircraft Solutions, a Utah-based aircraft-leasing company, bringing the documented total to nearly $690,000.

Ramaswamy has also loaned his campaign more than $25 million.

The arrangement drew scrutiny from Jordan Libowitz of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, who raised the possibility that donor money could ultimately flow back to Ramaswamy if the campaign eventually repays his loans after using campaign funds to lease aircraft through V Leasing.

“If he is basically fronting money to rent a plane from himself, and then if he does not forgive the loans but reimburses himself, he’ll essentially be using donor funds to pay himself,” Libowitz told the Capital Journal.

No campaign-finance violation involving the aircraft expenditures has been established, and whether Ramaswamy ultimately repays the loans remains unknown.

Private jet used for short trips across Ohio

The campaign’s use of private aircraft has included trips that could otherwise be driven in a matter of hours.

On April 7, federal flight records showed Ramaswamy traveling by private aircraft from Ohio State University Airport in Columbus to Port Clinton before a campaign appearance in Lakeside.

The next day, he flew from Columbus to Cleveland for another campaign event.

On April 15, Ramaswamy flew from Columbus to Youngstown for a meeting with the Fraternal Order of Police at the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

After winning the Republican primary, he again flew from Columbus to the Cleveland area for a May 21 campaign event in Brecksville.

David Cohen, director of the University of Akron’s Bliss Institute of Applied Politics, questioned the need for private aviation on those trips when the Capital Journal examined the spending in August.

“He’s flying between Columbus and Akron for crying out loud, and Columbus and Cleveland,” Cohen said. “That’s a two hour drive. Get in the car.”

The Port Clinton flight gives the spending issue a direct northwest Ohio connection: Ramaswamy used a private aircraft to travel from Columbus to Ottawa County for a campaign stop rather than making the roughly two-hour drive.

Republican criticism breaks into the open

The aircraft spending had already drawn scrutiny from campaign-finance observers and political analysts. A Sept. 25 NBC News report showed the criticism spreading to Republicans as Ramaswamy campaigns against Democratic nominee Amy Acton.

Owens, the former Brown County GOP chairman, directly connected Ramaswamy’s use of private aircraft with the candidate’s efforts to reach voters.

“People want to see you in their neighborhoods and in their living rooms,” he said.

Republican Marietta City Council President Susan Vessels has gone further politically, endorsing Acton. Vessels told NBC that Ramaswamy’s wealth and his previous support for data centers were among her concerns.

“I just think that Ohioans maybe want a change at this point,” Vessels said.

Jet spending collides with Ramaswamy’s affordability message

The criticism comes as Ramaswamy has increasingly centered his campaign messaging on the cost of living.

On Sept. 23, Ramaswamy joined Ohio Senate President Rob McColley and House Speaker Matt Huffman to call for temporarily suspending Ohio’s 38.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax for 90 days.

But Ramaswamy’s explanation for how the state could cover the hundreds of millions of dollars in lost transportation revenue ran into trouble almost immediately.

Ramaswamy pointed to Ohio Department of Transportation cash reserves, saying Ohio’s fiscal position meant the state could afford the suspension.

“Ohio, under Republican leadership, has thankfully been on a good fiscal trajectory that we can do this,” Ramaswamy said.

After the announcement, however, Ohio’s Office of Budget and Management said the nearly $1.6 billion sitting in the relevant ODOT fund was not spare money.

“It supports $5 billion open purchase orders for operations, maintenance, and capital improvements,” OBM spokesperson Pete LuPiba told the Ohio Capital Journal. “There is no money in the account that is not planned for future projects.”

House Republican leaders estimated the proposed 90-day suspension could cost roughly $640 million to $700 million. They have said other state funds could instead be considered to replace the lost revenue.

The campaign aircraft expenditures and the state gas tax involve entirely separate funds. But the political contrast is now unavoidable: Ramaswamy is campaigning on the financial pressure facing Ohioans who fill their cars with gasoline while his own campaign has spent nearly $700,000 leasing aircraft, including for short flights across the state.

Owens, a fellow Republican, reduced that contrast to five words.

“Park the damn jet.”