Amy Acton joins Ohio State College Democrats at Senator Bill DeMora’s tailgate on Sep. 19. Credit: Courtesy of Gracie Vaughn.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton won the race for Ohio governor, defeating Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday.
The Associated Press confirmed the results around 10:45 p.m. It was a close race, marked by a controversial ad from the Ramaswamy campaign that gained national attention.
“I want to make something very clear to the people of Ohio,” Acton said at her speech after winning the race. “I will be a governor for all Ohioans. I am in this fight for all of us.”
In his concession speech following the race, Ramaswamy said that he has some concerns about the future direction of America, and that there is no avoiding that.
“I do believe that there have been many ups and downs in our country’s history,” Ramaswamy said. “But, in the end, we have still found our way upward. I have confidence that, sometimes, these things happen for a reason.”
The last time a Democrat candidate won the gubernatorial election was in November 2006 with Gov. Ted Strickland.
Acton is the first woman to be elected governor in Ohio, according to a press release from Rutgers’ Center for American Women in Politics.?
She was also a professor at Ohio State in the college of public health from 2012-2016, per prior Lantern reporting.
Acton was appointed by former Gov. Mike DeWine to Ohio’s top public health position and was the first woman physician to hold the position, according to her website. She helped DeWine manage the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020.
Josie Speakman, a fourth-year in political science and President of College Democrats, said in a statement that the College Democrats at Ohio State are thrilled with tonights election results across Ohio and the nation.
“Tonight’s win is an utter rejection of Trump’s ideology and policies,” Speakman said. “Across the nation, citizens are showing up, Republican and Democrat, to unite behind real change. Tonight we celebrate the countless hours of work, by hundreds of thousands of volunteers. Tomorrow we return to make sure change comes for the people of Ohio.”
Hunter Willmitch, Ohio State College Republicans president and fifth-year in political science and public leadership, management and policy, said that the College Republicans at Ohio State are disappointed that Ramaswamy did not win, but they send congratulations to Amy Acton.
Willmitch added that he believes that this turnout was the result of the Trump administration breaking campaign promises, such as gas prices and affordability.
“I think this is a massive wake up call to the Republican Party that we need to get our act together and we need to go back to the drawing board and figure out what we did wrong and prepare for 2028, because this was not a very good midterm,” Willmitch said.
Here are some of Acton’s key issues and policies she wishes to address as governor, according to her campaign website.
Health care
Acton is looking to lower the cost of healthcare and making it more accessible for Ohioans, she stated. She proposes transparency to insurance and hospital pricing, lower healthcare premiums in the process, and support small businesses in covering their employees.
She said that she will also push to require that out-of-pocket purchases for medication counts towards Ohioans’ health insurance deductibles.?
“On my first day in office, I’ll direct our state to work to relieve medical debt for pennies on the dollar to give our families some breathing room and the fresh start they need,” she said on her website.
Education
Acton has made public education a central part of her campaign, saying she will restore Ohio’s public school funding and implement the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan, a K-12 education funding model that is designed to calculate actual education costs.
Acton also wants to increase investment in math and literary programs, as well as creating workforce training programs and free lunch and breakfast to all students.
LGBTQ+ rights
Amy stated that every Ohioan, including members of the LGBTQ+ community will receive equal protection under the law, and will push anti-discrimination laws to prevent people from being denied housing, unjustly fired from their job or being denied equal pay due to their sexual orientation, gender, religion or race.
Women’s rights
Amy said that with a background in medicine, she understands the importance of making reproductive healthcare decisions.?
“When I am Governor, I will protect reproductive freedom so that every woman can access safe, legal abortion care, contraception, fertility treatments, and miscarriage care,” Acton stated on her campaign website. “I will fight back at attempts to undermine Issue 1 and continue to protect and expand access to reproductive care for all Ohioans.”
