Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, Amy Acton, left. (Campaign photo). On the right, Republican candidate for Ohio governor, Vivek Ramaswamy. (Getty Images.)
Ohio’s race for governor in November is set. The Associated Press projects Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to face Democrat Amy Acton in November, according to unofficial results.
The results will remain unofficial until confirmed by election officials later this month.
Both candidates are political novices who have distinguished themselves as communicators. They will have plenty of opportunities to present their arguments.
Acton breaks Democratic fundraising records in Ohio; her campaign raised $10 million, according to preschool reports. Ramaswamy has already spent that much on campaign ads, and with a $25 million personal loan, he appears ready to spend even more. And that doesn’t even explain that the Super PAC supported his bid.
Acton, who did not have a primary challenger, described herself as a “feisty girl from Youngstown” in a speech to supporters Tuesday night. She drew comparisons between her own struggles with homelessness as a child and the challenges Ohioans face today trying to make ends meet.
“I’m running for governor because people in this state are struggling,” Acton said. “They are doing everything right. They are working harder than ever, but there is no respite. They are struggling with the costs of everyday life, and I am not looking away.”
And Acton pissed off his opponent for crossing the state in a private jet.
“When you look at the state from 100,000 feet, my opponent probably can’t see the struggles and stories I hear along the way,” Acton said. “Vivek Ramaswamy is not just out of touch. He is out of touch. That’s what’s happening here.”
The AP called the Republican primary for Ramaswamy less than 30 minutes after polls closed.
“I truly believe this marks, bar none, the most consequential gubernatorial election our state has ever seen in our history,” Ramaswamy told a crowd of supporters at a sports bar in the Columbus Arena District on Tuesday night.
“There has never been a greater contrast between two candidates,” he said, insisting he was celebrating success while Acton was villainizing it.
“She’ll remind you every day that I’m a billionaire,” he said, “and I’ll remind you that I wasn’t born a billionaire. I wasn’t born a millionaire. I wasn’t born anything.”
Get to know the candidates
Acton has built a career in public health both as a practicing physician and as a teacher at The Ohio State University. But her introduction to Ohio voters was a calming voice for Gov. Mike DeWine at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. She conveyed empathy and encouragement to homebound Ohioans and had a knack for presenting intricate information in an understandable way.
Acton, a sporadic Democrat in a state government dominated by Republicans for more than a decade, was blamed by some GOP members for the Covid-19 lockdowns. She ultimately resigned as state health director in June 2020, just months after the pandemic began.
Ramaswamy told supporters that the pandemic lockdowns were bad, but the bigger sin was Acton’s departure.
“For me, this is the most damning accusation against someone who wants to lead this country,” he said. “I will never give up on Ohio.”
Ramaswamy is not the first billionaire businessman to try his hand at politics, but it was not his biography that brought him here.
Around the time he stepped down as CEO of his biotechnology company, Ramaswamy wrote the first in a series of books appealing to growing “anti-woke” sentiment on the right. He parlayed that success into repeated appearances on cable news and then announced a quixotic 2024 presidential bid.
The fast-talking, long-term candidate made huge promises and got under the skin of his Republican rivals.
But Ramaswamy never criticized Donald Trump and later supported him after withdrawing from the race. He parlayed that support into a short-lived job as head of the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Elon Musk.
Basic competition
Since emerging in 2020, Acton has been a high-priority recruit for state Democrats. She announced her candidacy in January 2025, while Ohio’s influential Democratic Party was still considering its 2026 plans.
After losing in 2024, former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown left the door open to running for U.S. Senate or governor again. Last August, he decided to run for the US Senate. Former Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan also weighed his chances for governor or U.S. Senate. Ultimately, he did not take any of them.
When Ramaswamy announced he would run for governor in February 2025, Trump’s endorsement came just hours later. In May last year, the state party endorsed Ramaswamy. A few days later, his most critical rival, Attorney General Dave Yost, withdrew from the race. Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel never interfered.
But Ramaswamy attracted a notable rival in Casey’s coup. The Perrysburg resident has a following on YouTube and founded the nonprofit Genius Garage, which trains students to build race cars.
The putsch also has a history of Holocaust denial, and last month he winked at a reference to the Beer Hall Putsch – Adolf Hitler’s first, failed attempt to seize power – during the “beer hall” coup in Toledo. On Facebook Putsch he rejected this characterization as a “psy-op” and offered to buy a beer for anyone who showed up in a German car.
He also made openly racist attacks on Ramaswamy and courted groypers, a far-right fringe group known for nativism and anti-Semitism.
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