Amy Acton defeats Vivek Ramaswamy, becoming Ohio’s first woman governor
The doctor who led Ohio’s health department early in the pandemic beat the Trump-endorsed entrepreneur after one of the most bitter and costly races of the year.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov 4 – Amy Acton has won the race for governor of Ohio, beating Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and becoming the first woman ever elected to lead the state.
She is also the first Democrat to win the job since 2006. And she did it in a state that backed President Donald Trump by 11 points just two years ago. Her victory ends 16 years of Republican control of the governor’s office in Ohio.
Acton, 60, is a doctor. She ran Ohio’s health department during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, under Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who can’t run again because of term limits.
At her victory party, she raised both fists in the air and then made a heart shape with her hands.
She told supporters that her campaign had been a movement by and for the people. She said the win was for every Ohioan who wants leaders who solve problems and don’t mistake kindness for weakness.
She called the race tough, but said it was now over.
“Ohio has chosen unity and decency over division and hate,” Acton said. She said the healing would start right away.
It was one of the most costly and bitter races in the country.
In the final weeks, Ramaswamy’s campaign ran an ad that featured Acton’s estranged mother calling her a liar. Acton’s mother lost custody of her when Acton was a child, after her stepfather was charged with abusing her.
The ad drew anger from members of both parties, many of whom urged Ramaswamy to pull it and say sorry. But Trump and Vice President JD Vance stood by it. The campaign said it would spend $4 million to air the minute-long spot. It was taken off the air last week.
Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur, won Trump’s backing on the day he launched his campaign. Like Acton, he had never held elected office.
He promised to revive the American Dream in Ohio. His plans included eliminating the state income tax within a decade, lowering energy bills, and restoring what he called law and order in the state’s cities.
Acton ran on lowering costs. She promised an earned income tax credit, a child tax credit of up to $1,000, a state-run platform for prescription drugs and property tax relief for seniors and middle-income homeowners.
She pitched herself as a practical problem solver. She often reminded voters that she had served in a Republican administration under DeWine.
Her path to victory was a rocky one. Early polls had her far behind, by double digits, and about a quarter of voters said they had never heard of her.
For months, Democrats wondered whether better-known names would jump in instead. That list included former Senator Sherrod Brown and former Representative Tim Ryan. Neither ran for governor.
Ramaswamy and his allies poured money into the race. By mid-October, they had spent more than $100 million on ads against Acton, about three times what her own campaign spent.
Many of those ads went after her role in the state’s shutdowns during the pandemic. At a rally in Youngstown in October, Trump called her a radical leftist and insulted her.
But the polls kept moving her way through the fall. By October, a string of surveys showed her in the lead, and she held on to that lead until Election Day.
The cost of living was the top issue for many voters in Ohio, as it was across the country. Prices have kept going up, and gas and diesel got more expensive after the United States and Israel went to war with Iran in February.
Ohio last had a Democratic governor when Ted Strickland held the job from 2007 to 2011.
Acton will be sworn in as governor in January.
