COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been focusing his bid for Ohio governor on the November general election, finally got a chance Tuesday to put the long primary campaign behind him as the Trump-backed biotech entrepreneur prepares for an expensive race against former state health director Dr. Amy Acton.
The battle for votes will also set the stage for Ohio’s third tight U.S. Senate race in the past four years, as well as several U.S. House races expected to be hotly contested in the fall.
Executive offices across the state are open this year due to term limits, but so far the gubernatorial race has attracted most of the attention.
Ramaswamy, the 2024 Republican primary presidential candidate, swept through the state’s political scene early last year in a wild reshuffle. Then – Sen. J.D. Vance is on the verge of being promoted to vice president, and leading gubernatorial candidate Jon Husted has been appointed to replace him in Washington.
That opened a window of opportunity for Republicans to gain a lead in the statewide vote.
Primaries set up fall showdowns for governor, Senate
Although Ramaswamy is a newcomer to state politics, his national profile, tech industry connections and close relationship with Trump have given him the support of the Ohio Republican Party. With it, he cleared a potential field that included the current state attorney general, state treasurer and lieutenant governor.
But Democrats also see an opportunity in the opening of the governor’s seat, even though the state’s former bellwether has moved convincingly Republican in the Trump era. The president’s lagging approval ratings for the economy and dissatisfaction with the war with Iran are fueling the race.
They chose Acton, a physician and public health expert. She became a household name in Ohio during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when she appeared alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine on daily coronavirus broadcasts. Her comforting presence during the crisis made her a beloved figure to many Ohioans.
But the government’s aggressive actions — including shuttering businesses, closing schools and canceling elections — have also earned Acton many enemies and made her an occasional target of people unhappy with pandemic policies, with some armed protesters showing up outside her home. Ramaswamy’s campaign has sought to capitalize on lingering anger over pandemic restrictions by attacking Acton for his role in the early stages of the crisis.
Acton is running unopposed in the Democratic primary, while Ramaswamy faces a challenge from Kathy Pucci. The engineer and car designer is a YouTube provocateur who has repeatedly attacked Ramaswamy’s Indian heritage and Hindu beliefs and painted him as an out-of-touch billionaire “tech bro”.
Husted is running unopposed in the Republican Senate primary, a special election to fill the remainder of the six-year Senate term Vance won in 2022. Husted’s likely opponent will be Democrat Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator who lost a 2024 re-election bid to Republican Bernie Moreno in a $500 million campaign. Brown faces a primary challenge from first-time candidate Ron Kincaid.
Early voting begins on April 7 under a number of new election laws, including citizenship checks and a four-day grace period for receiving mail-in ballots. So far, there have been no reports of any widespread problems among voters as a result of the changes.
Republicans view some Democratic-controlled House seats as vulnerable
The state also held multiple partisan congressional primaries after a new round of redistricting that slightly favored Republicans.
The most competitive Republican primary is in the Toledo-area 9th District, where they have a chance to take on Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, the longest-serving woman in Congress.
The five-way race includes former state Rep. Derek Melling (who Kaptur defeated by less than a percentage point in 2024), an Air National Guard veteran, a health care industry worker, a current state representative and former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deputy director Madison Sheahan.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman’s Cincinnati district is considered a “must-win” by Democrats, and the three-way Republican primary includes Eric Conroy, a CIA and Air Force veteran who has been endorsed by Trump, Vance and Moreno.
Landsman also faces a primary challenge from Damon Lynch IV, the grandson of a prominent civil rights leader. Lynch criticized Landsman for his initial vote against the war powers resolution on the Iran war, which Landsman later voted for.
In the Akron-area 13th District, five Republicans, including 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and business owner Neil Patel, are vying for a chance to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes.
Democrats think new House map gives them chance to regain seats
As Trump-backed national efforts redraw congressional maps in favor of Republicans, Ohio Democrats took a potentially worse approach and unanimously approved the maps they got.
Now candidates from all parties are rushing into congressional primaries across the state for a chance to take on incumbent Republican representatives, who hold 10 of Ohio’s 15 seats.
The newly drawn 7th District in the Cleveland area has attracted eight Democrats hoping to challenge Republican Rep. Max Miller, a former senior Trump adviser, in November. Among them is former Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the 2014 Democratic candidate for governor.
In Northeast Ohio’s 14th District, former state Supreme Court Justice William O’Neill is one of three Democrats seeking to take on Republican Rep. Dave Joyce. Joyce also has two primary challengers.
Meanwhile, six Democrats are on the ballot in Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Turner’s Dayton-area 10th District. Republican U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli’s 6th District along the Ohio River has seven, and Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Latta’s 5th District has five.
