OP-ed: The Move To Kill AxOhTax From The Inside
By: Molly Pitcher
What do you get when you take two vastly different ideological parties and corrupt them with bribes, special interests, power, and money? You have the Uniparty: two parties who pretend to be vastly different, but are actually driving rapidly towards the same goals.
What happens when neither party supports something that benefits the people? You have a profound revelation that the Uniparty is not only real, but unapologetic for selling itself out to betray the best interest of its citizens.
Recent reports have indicated that private meetings are being held in an attempt to crush the AxOHTax movement from the inside, directed by Ohio's leading gubernatorial candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy. But how did we get to a point where one of Ohio's most popular, bipartisan amendment initiative has become a target of its leading Republican candidate?
This brings me to a man named Tom Zawistowski, whom many of you know. He is Executive Director of the Portage County TEA Party, and hosts a podcast called We The People Convention. He also strongly opposes the Uniparty. He was also an avid supporter of AxOHTax’s movement to abolish property taxes. For months he openly supported the cause.
“I think that this is a hell of a lot more popular than the anger there was against Obamacare," Zawistowski said. "So, we got to get it on the ballot.”
In another interview he goes on to say that the only way to rein in Republican spending in Ohio is to repeal property taxes. Then all of a sudden, he flips. His latest opinion made on his podcast, dated January 6, 2026 illustrated this.
“I’ve been working with the AxOHTax people to try to help them. I spent probably 6 months trying to raise money to help them," Zawistowski said. "The problem is polling shows that people are afraid of a total repeal, and so we’re working now on maybe a more modified idea of like, a roll back.”
Right away, there are questions. What polling did you use? Can you share your results? Who is “we”? We reached out to AxOHTax and no one in their movement is working towards a modified roll back. Their ballot language has not changed, and neither has their philosophy.
Why the change in support for AxOHTax? Gubernatorial candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy had a similar change in philosophy. On January 8th, Vivek came out with the announcement of zero income tax in Ohio, with a property tax “rollback”. But in March 2025, the Columbus Dispatch ran an article entitled “No one likes taxes. But could Ohio get rid of them like Ramaswamy Claims?” where they quoted Ohio Rep. Ron Ferguson saying, “Vivek opened his campaign with a bold vision to eliminate property tax.” And the Cincinnati Enquirer ran an article, “Vivek Ramaswamy running for Ohio governor. Wants to end income, property taxes.” What happened that two prominent Ohio Republicans went from supporting total abolition of property taxes to a rollback?
As a state, Ohio has always relied heavily on the income tax to generate revenue. But as the income tax revenue has decreased, the state budget never accounted for that loss by decreasing spending, so the revenue had to be made up somewhere else, and the property tax revenue has done just that. You can’t eliminate income tax and property tax without dramatically reducing state spending. And the Ohio Republicans are more addicted to spending than anyone wants to admit. You also can’t serve your masters (i.e. special interests) by eliminating property tax, but you can serve your masters (i.e. special interest and billionaires) by eliminating income tax.
It only makes sense that Vivek would flip on the abolition of property taxes. But Tom Zawistowski? Why the switch? Well, a source with knowledge of the events has reported that a backroom deal is attempting to be brokered between Ramaswamy and Zawistowski to try to get AxOHTax to drop the movement of ending property taxes across the board and instead add a new amendment to rollback back property taxes in certain situations. The source reported Vivek is willing to dump millions into the new initiative, provided the old amendment is dead in the water. To quote Clueless, “as if!”
It would seem the very people fighting the Uniparty have become the Uniparty. It’s a bit like Crime and Punishment, isn’t it?
