Amy Acton projected to win Ohio governorship after bitter race with billionaire Ramaswamy
The raced heated up in its final weeks after the Republican contender released an ad featuring Acton's mother.
Amy Acton is projected to win the Ohio governorship after a bitter contest with billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, according to CBS News projections.
With this win, Acton becomes the first Democrat and the first woman ever to capture Ohio’s governor’s race in two decades.
Ohio, a major battleground through much of the 2000s, backed Republican Donald Trump in the last three presidential elections, including by 11 points in 2024.
Still, the governor’s race, in which voter anger over the economy and the cost of living was the dominant issue, took a sharp turn after the Ramaswamy campaign aired a deeply personal attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother.
In the ad, Acton’s mother Donna Arthur said her daughter "lied her entire life". The ad did not note that Arthur’s husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child.
The controversial spot hung over the final weeks of the campaign. Former South Carolina Governor Republican Nikki Haley criticized it, and Ohio’s current Republican Governor Mike DeWine called it "deeply troubling".
Some, however, defended it, including President Trump and Vice-President Vance.
Trump called it "powerful" and urged Ramaswamy to keep it on the air, while Vance, the state’s former Senator, said he wanted fellow Republicans to stop "whining" about the ad and said he was "a little bit disgusted" by criticism from members of his own party.
Ramaswamy said his campaign would spend $4m (£3m) to run the ad statewide.
Once the ad started airing, the editorial board of the local Ohio outlet the Columbus Dispatch endorsed Acton, calling the ad "revolting and unsettling".
The billionaire biotech entrepreneur had run against Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024. He then shifted to the Ohio governor’s race and presented himself as a political outsider — like Trump — who wanted to advance the president’s "America First" agenda.
In his concession speech, Ramaswamy said he is "rooting" for the state, as well as Acton.
Acton, a physician and public health official, spoke during the campaign about her experience of homelessness as a child while making the case for affordability.
In her acceptance speech on Tuesday, she said "the healing begins today".
"My promise to Ohio, to those who voted for me and those who did not, is that I will work with anyone and everyone, and I always have to make life better for Ohioans," she said.
Acton will replace Republican Governor Mike DeWine, who is term limited.
Ohio is a swing state that voted for Trump in the 2024 election, but Republican candidates are now facing tight races across the country.