Democrat Amy Acton wins Ohio governor's race

Democrat Amy Acton was elected governor of the US state of Ohio on Tuesday, beating biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump. The result ends 16 years of Republican control of the governor's office and marks a rare Democratic win in a state Trump has carried three times.

Acton, 60, ran Ohio's health department during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic. She will be the first woman to serve as Ohio's governor and the first Democrat to hold the post since Ted Strickland in 2006.

The campaign platforms

Acton built her campaign around lowering living costs. She promised an earned income tax credit, a child tax credit of up to $1,000, a public prescription drug platform, and property tax relief for seniors and middle-income homeowners. She presented herself as a pragmatist who had served in the Republican administration of Mike DeWine.

Ramaswamy pledged to make Ohio income-tax free within a decade, cut energy bills and restore "law and order" in the state's cities. Trump endorsed him on the day he launched his campaign.

A bitter contest

The race to succeed DeWine, the term-limited Republican governor, became one of the most expensive and acrimonious in the country. In the final weeks, Ramaswamy's campaign aired an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother calling her a liar. Her mother lost custody after Acton's stepfather was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12. Politicians from both parties criticised the ad, but Trump and Vice-President JD Vance backed it. The campaign said it would spend $4m airing it; the ad was discontinued last week.

Acton is a first-time candidate who, like Ramaswamy, had never held elected office. Early polls showed her trailing by double digits, with about a quarter of voters saying they had never heard of her. By mid-October, Ramaswamy and his allies had spent more than $100m on ads against her, roughly three times her campaign's spending. Polling moved in her favour through the autumn, and several October polls showed her ahead.

Acton will lead a state that backed Trump by 11 points in 2024 and will govern alongside a Republican-controlled legislature, with potential clashes over tax reform, school funding and datacenters.