Amy Acton Defeats Vivek Ramaswamy to Become Ohio's First Woman Governor

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Orbit Post) Democrat Amy Acton defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the race for Ohio governor on Tuesday, according to U.S. media projections reported by Reuters. The Associated Press called the race for Acton.

With 85 percent of the vote reported, Acton had 50.7 percent to 46 percent for Ramaswamy, according to the Wall Street Journal report of the AP call. The AP results feed listed the Ohio governor race as called, with Acton at 2,086,241 votes to 1,882,843 for Ramaswamy and 86.54 percent of precincts reporting in that snapshot. Libertarian Don Kissick had more than 3 percent of the vote.

A first for Ohio

Acton becomes the first woman elected governor of Ohio. She is also the first Democrat to win the office since Ted Strickland in 2006, ending a 20-year Democratic losing streak in Ohio gubernatorial elections. She won in a state that President Donald Trump carried three times, a result that stood out on a midterm night watched closely in both parties.

Neither lead candidate had previously served in elected office, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ohio voters were choosing between two first-time candidates for the state's top job, and they picked the Democrat in a state that has voted Republican at the presidential level in recent cycles.

Who Acton is

Acton is the former director of the Ohio Department of Health. She held that post under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine during the early months of the COVID pandemic, when she became a familiar public face of the state's response. She will succeed DeWine, who is term-limited and could not run again.

Her path to the governor's office runs from a state cabinet job to a statewide win. A Democrat who served in a Republican governor's administration defeated the Republican nominee in a state Trump won three times. That combination made the Ohio race one of the most closely followed governor contests of the 2026 midterms.

Who Ramaswamy is

Ramaswamy is an entrepreneur who ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries before dropping out and endorsing Trump. Trump backed him in this race. The endorsement was not enough to hold the governor's office for Republicans once DeWine's time in office ended.

The result gives Democrats a governor's office they last won two decades ago. Acton's win also puts a former state health director in charge of the state she once served during a public health emergency, this time as its elected governor.