Elect Amy Acton as governor

Ohioans got to know Amy Acton during the early days of the pandemic, when, as director of the Ohio Department of Public Health, she helped spearhead the state's response to COVID-19. Ultimately, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, made the decisions, but Acton was there to advise him. They didn't get everything right, but they both prioritized public safety, which is what good public servants do. We believe Acton, a Democrat and medical doctor, would similarly prioritize the public good for all Ohioans were she elected governor to replace the term-limited DeWine. Acton, 60, like her Republican opponent, billionaire businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, 41, has never held elected office before, but her time in government service has helped prepare her to lead the Buckeye State. (Also in the race are Libertarian Don Kissick and write-in candidates Timothy Grady, Heather Hill, Renea Turner and Ron Ula, none of whom we interviewed.) "I think people are ready for change," Acton told us during an endorsement interview. In a separate endorsement interview, Ramaswamy leaned heavily into his business and executive experience. (Ramaswamy also briefly ran for president in 2024 and was supposed to have been part of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, but instead decided to focus on running for governor.) In our conversation, Ramaswamy came across as smart and knowledgeable about the issues, but we weren't persuaded his vision for Ohio's future was the best one. For example, Ramaswamy has embraced Ohio Republicans' long-held plans to eliminate the state income tax, something he told us he wanted to phase in over the next eight to 10 years. We've long been leery of that idea in large part because we aren't sure how the state government would make up the billions of dollars in income-tax revenue that would be lost. Ramaswamy insisted that economic growth would help in that regard. He also pitched tax cuts as a way to address affordability concerns, a key issue in the campaign, and drive business development, something he argued his other policies also would help with. "I want to take a friendly business environment and make it more business friendly," Ramaswamy told us. Ramaswamy said he would start with cutting capital-gains taxes, a move that would largely benefit the wealthy. Acton also promised to tackle taxes, including through child-tax credits for families earning up to $85,000 per year. Her plan would give some economic relief to those who need it most. To their credit, both candidates recognized that data centers have become politically unpopular, in part because of concerns about electricity costs. Ramaswamy has been far more of a data-center proponent than Acton over the years, but even he argued that something needed to be done. His plan, which includes a temporary data-center moratorium, calls for requiring data-center companies to pay the electric bills of residents in communities where data centers are built and for lower property taxes in those areas. He also said environmental standards needed to be enforced. Acton, too, wants a data-center moratorium, and she called for stronger guardrails about how data centers are built. She argued that data centers should pay their own way when it comes to energy and shouldn't contribute to price hikes on electricity. She said she wanted to ensure that environmental regulations were followed and that data centers were built on old industrial sites rather than farmland. She also wanted to end nondisclosure agreements between data centers and governments. Acton struck us as having a more realistic grasp of why data centers are facing such fierce opposition, and we believe she would do a better job regulating them. We also have greater faith that Acton would work to improve funding for public schools, which have long been overly reliant on local property taxes. Indeed, it's one of the reasons that local property taxes continue to climb, putting additional stress on household budgets. Although Ramaswamy recognized the importance of public schools, he also is a proponent of the state's private-school voucher program, which the courts have found to be unconstitutional. (Time will tell whether that finding survives the GOP-dominated Ohio Supreme Court.) Ramaswamy did acknowledge that private schools should be held to high standards and that greater transparency was necessary. Another consideration is that Acton would be much more likely to push back on the seemingly endless and mostly unnecessary culture-war bills that flow out of the Statehouse. Ohio's gubernatorial race has been especially ugly this year, something that was on clear display this week when an odious video featuring Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, was released. Ramaswamy's campaign ultimately claimed credit for it. In the video, Arthur, who has long been estranged from her daughter, accused Acton of lying about her past. Acton has been upfront about her hardscrabble upbringing, which included bouts of homelessness when she was young. She also has talked about being raped as a child by her stepfather, who was charged in the case, but fled the state and never went to trial. He died in 2004 while still married to Arthur. Ramaswamy has defended the ad, and his campaign has said it would invest $4 million in circulating it, but it has drawn widespread criticism, including from some Republicans. For example, on Thursday, DeWine condemned the ad, although he declined to withdraw his endorsement of Ramaswamy. Ultimately, we believe that Acton would bring the right combination of compassion and knowledge to the job, making her the best choice to be Ohio's next governor.