Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter and writes from Ohio University.
Republicans seem to be throwing everything but the kitchen sink – and it’s probably in the queue somewhere – at Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton, of Bexley. That’s a sign of GOP concern, not confidence.
Acton, a Youngstown-born physician, is vying with Upper Arlington zillionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native and tech tycoon, to succeed retiring Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, a Cedarville Republican.
Ramaswamy has an Ivy League education; Acton is a graduate of Youngstown State and Northeast Ohio Medical universities.
If the fairly recent past were any measure, Ohio Republicans, at this stage of a gubernatorial campaign, should be feeling better than they
seemingly do about their candidate’s prospects, and indeed, the prospects of their all-white, all-male ticket for statewide elected executive offices.
True, in the last 30-or-so years, Republican gubernatorial victories have been tight – John R. Kasich unseated Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland by about 70,000 votes, and DeWine bested Democratic gubernatorial nominee Richard Cordray by about 160,000 votes – but in the end there was never much doubt that the GOP candidates would win (and, as likewise expected, win re-election).
This time, things look far more competitive, with assorted polls showing Ramaswamy and Acton essentially tied. Given the GOP’s historic edge in recent – note that word, recent – presidential elections, with Buckeye State voters supporting Donald Trump in 2016, 2020 and 2024 – Ramaswamy should be leading, and he’s not.
Now, gasoline and grocery prices have a lot to do with public disenchantment with Trump, and by extension with his proxy, Ramaswamy – that and the quicksand of Asian wars (a redundant phrase if there ever was one) into which Trump has embroiled the United States, imperiling the men and women wearing its uniform and driving gasoline prices into the stratosphere, especially notable in a state whose motorists favor SUVs and pickup trucks.
Add to that the rage over skyrocketing property taxes, and there’s a throw-the-bums-out undertone in the statewide push by Democrats for statewide executive office.
Republican-rigged General Assembly districts make it almost impossible – barring the Rapture – for Democrats to capture control of the Ohio House of Representatives or state Senate.
A cakewalk this isn't
Meanwhile, ex-Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Bexley Democrat, is challenging the election of appointed Sen. Jon Husted, an Upper Arlington Republican.
At this time a couple of years ago, Husted had lined up his ducks to run for governor this year to become DeWine’s successor, but Ramaswamy won Trump’s anointment for that job, so Husted accepted DeWine’s appointment to the Senate to succeed now-Vice President JD Vance, a Cincinnati Republican originally from Butler County’s Middletown, who is a likely contender for the 2028 Republican presidential nomination.
A handy measure of the Ramaswamy campaign’s ... concern ... about Acton’s showing in the polls will be the pace and tone of the Ramaswamy organization’s attacks on Acton.
Were she not a credible competitor to succeed DeWine, Acton’s name would go unmentioned in Ramaswamy ads; why ladle out free publicity for an opponent? But that’s not so, at least not now.
And that speaks volumes about Acton’s perceived threat to Ramaswamy’s quest for the governorship, which, given his wealth, should place him on a glide path to the governor’s mansion (er ... we’re all plebes now ... “Residence”).
But Ramaswamy’s not a shoo-in, so far, which is why the gubernatorial campaign is bound to become even nastier. And it isn’t even Labor Day yet, the traditional milepost en route to Nov. 3’s election.
About data centers
Sleeper Issue: It’s becoming more apparent by the day that rank-and-file Ohioans, especially in suburban and rural districts, are truly riled about Big Info’s data centers popping up across Ohio like toadstools after a spring rain.
Politically speaking, the problem at the Statehouse is that electric utilities – with insurance companies and banks, the Statehouse’s big three lobbyists – are panting to sell power to these data warehouses.
The irony, of course, is that it’s these very same (and somewhat sinister) data centers that make possible the instant consumer gratification of next-day merchandise delivery, etc. That we like. What we don’t like is being reminded of the environmental costs – and, oh yeah, of likely upticks in Ohio ratepayers’ electric bills.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter and writes from Ohio University.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Governor's race is anything but a Ramaswamy cakewalk. It's about to get nasty | Opinion
