Democrat Amy Acton Projected to Win Ohio Governor's Race, Ending 20-Year GOP Hold on the Mansion

The Fox News Decision Desk has projected that Democrat Amy Acton will defeat Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio's race for governor. If the projection holds, a Democrat will occupy the governor's mansion in Columbus for the first time in 20 years. The last Democrat to win was Ted Strickland, who beat Republican Ken Blackwell in 2006.

The result is a notable upset. Ramaswamy came into the race with deep ties to Trump's political movement. After ending his own 2024 presidential campaign, he became a prominent Trump surrogate, and he was initially tapped to help lead the administration's Department of Government Efficiency alongside Elon Musk. He left that effort as Trump took office in order to run for governor. He faced no serious primary rivals and held a significant financial advantage over Acton.

Acton, who served as director of the Ohio Department of Health, built her campaign around affordability and public education, and aimed it at voters across party lines. She portrayed Ramaswamy as wealthy and out of touch, a candidate pushing policies that would benefit people like himself. She also sought a moderate profile on some issues, breaking with many in her party by opposing policies that allow biological males to compete in women's sports.

In the closing weeks, Ramaswamy's campaign ran into trouble of its own making. He aired an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother, who called her daughter a liar and said she could not lead Ohio until she held herself accountable. The ad did not say that Acton had been estranged from her mother since childhood, or that her mother lost custody after Acton's stepfather was indicted on a charge of raping Acton when she was 12. The backlash was bipartisan, and Ramaswamy lost droves of support. He defended the ad anyway. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine called it "deeply troubling" and urged the campaign to take it down, while President Trump and Vice President JD Vance defended the decision to air it. The ad went off the air days before Election Day, with the campaign saying its planned run had ended.

Acton's own record was not unblemished. Ramaswamy and Republican allies focused on her tenure leading the state's early COVID-19 response in 2020, blaming her for school and business closures and for a controversial decision to delay primary voting by closing polling places. That line of attack was complicated by DeWine, who defended her, saying "the buck stops with the governor" and noting that he had instructed her to carry out the voting delay.

DeWine complicated Ramaswamy's pitch in other ways. In April he questioned whether the state could afford further tax cuts, casting doubt on a key plank of the Republican's platform. He also criticized Ramaswamy's proposal to close or consolidate Ohio's public universities, which Democrats framed as a way to pay for the tax cuts by reducing access to education. DeWine did, in the end, officially endorse Ramaswamy over Acton.

Ramaswamy also took fire from both left and right over awkward moments, including a batting cage video that drew ridicule on social media. A Christmas Day 2024 post, in which he said American culture had "venerated mediocrity over excellence" while discussing foreign-born engineers, angered people on the right, including fellow Indian American Nikki Haley. Many right-wing commentators still cite it as a reason to distrust him.

The projection is a call by the Decision Desk, not a final certified result. Watch how the outcome shapes Ohio's debates over tax cuts and university consolidation, and whether Ramaswamy's Trump ties carry weight after the loss.