Blue Wave Building? Ohio’s Amy Acton

A very fat pet cat circled around Amy Acton as the Ohio gubernatorial candidate delivered her pitch at a Friday night Seattle fundraiser. It bespoke the $10 million TV campaign that Ohio Republicans have already launched against her.

Acton, a medical doctor and the former director of Ohio’s Department of Health, is campaigning about restoring health to the Buckeye State’s Democrats, who have lately fallen on hard times. She once was center stage, with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, in daily briefings during the height of the Covid 19 crisis. DeWine is term limited, so the GOP is running biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in a somewhat-overlooked 2026 race.

Acton is not a culture warrior. Ramaswamy certainly is — delivering feverish critiques of “woke” culture and affirmative action, meanwhile floating conspiracy theories. He is also an outspoken nationalist. Acton defines an underpinning theme of her campaign, saying: “Everyone is tired of the hatred and vitriol.” She analyzes her race, a dead heat in polls, as a struggle against “extreme wealth and power ideology.”

Ohio is a presidential battleground, a state used to picking winning candidates who have often proven to be losers when it comes to governing.The roster includes presidents (Warren Harding, William McKinley), presidential candidates (Robert Taft), and Vice President J.D. Vance. Acton says: “We are the flip opportunity of 2026.”

Outgoing Gov. DeWine represents an old-fashioned Main Street conservatism. Ramaswamy holds the pedigrees, a Harvard man with a law degree from Yale. He entered politics at the top with abortive 2024 presidential run, then exited and endorsed Trump. He is a picture of the MAGA movement, powered by billionaires at the top and foot soldiers who would follow the Donald, in Trump’s words, even if he shot someone on 5th Avenue in New York.

Ohio voters are getting a choice, not an echo. Ramaswamy is an abortion foe, from a party that tried to subvert a statewide vote on the issue. Acton is pro-choice, backed by such feminist groups as Emily’s List, which raises money to seed Democratic candidates who support abortion rights. Ramaswamy is a person of self-generated wealth; Acton is married to a school teacher. 

Ohio is a mosaic of America’s diversity, even though use of the D-word is verboten under Trump. Western Ohio holds small manufacturing towns. Columbus is home to Ohio State University. Eastern Ohio is blue collar country, typified by Youngstown (where Acton is a native with a steel industry that has gone elsewhere). “People are hurting,” she told the Seattle fundraiser. “Our biggest export is young people.”

Eastern Ohio has deserted Democrats, feeling that Democrats have deserted it. Republicans sure noticed, holding the party’s 2016 convention in populous Cleveland. The Acton candidacy is a chance to reclaim lost ground. Acton talks down-to-earth issues, such as health care costs and a nation of people working harder than ever and earning less. Touring the state, she has discovered that many of its farms are run by women.

In Acton’s view, Ohioans have focused on the federal government, without adequate attention to how the state is run. Recent events could change that. Leading Republican legislators have been engulfed in the largest scandal in state history. A $1.3 billion bailout of two struggling nuclear power plants was greased with $60 million in bribe money. Larry Householder, former House Speaker, was handed a 20-year sentence by an unforgiving judge. At least one Democratic minority lawmaker was also caught up in the mess. But the scandal doesn’t exactly give weight to law-and-order rhetoric in the Ramaswamy web site.

Of seeking to be the state’s first female governor, Acton says: “This was not my plan in life.” Nor was the phone call from Caroline Kennedy to say Acton had copped a Profile in Courage award. Ohio was one Republican-ruled state to recognize health dangers of the COVID 19 pandemic. The Seattle fundraiser marked Acton’s first Seattle visit but not likely the last. With the possibility of a blue wave cresting in November, this is a race to watch.

This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.