Amy Acton runs for Ohio governor against Ramaswamy

Amy Acton, who served as Ohio's health director during the early months of the pandemic, is running for governor as a Democrat.

Acton faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and Libertarian Don Kissick, according to BallotReady election data. She is certified for the ballot. Her running mate is David Pepper, former Ohio Democratic Party chair, whom Acton chose in January 2026, according to her Wikipedia biography.

Candidate information

Party: Democratic
Office sought: Ohio Governor
Election date: Nov. 3, 2026
Birthplace: Youngstown, Ohio (born Feb. 16, 1966)
Education: Bachelor's degree from Youngstown State University; medical degree from Northeast Ohio Medical University (1990); master's in public health from The Ohio State University
Announcement: Acton announced her candidacy on Jan. 7, 2025.

Acton was the first woman to serve as director of the Ohio Department of Health, according to Wikipedia. She received the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2021 for her work in that role. USA Today named her Ohio Woman of the Year in 2022.

Experience and public service

Acton served as health director from 2019 to 2020, then as chief health advisor in the Office of Governor Mike DeWine in 2020, according to BallotReady and Wikipedia. Before state government, she worked as an associate professor at The Ohio State University and as director of Project LOVE (Love Our Kids, Vaccinate Early). She trained at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Ohio State University and Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

After leaving state government, Acton helped found the Center for Human Kindness at the Columbus Foundation. She was president and chief executive officer of RAPID 5 from 2022 to 2023.

On the issues

The following positions are drawn from Acton's campaign website and represent the candidate's own stated views.

Healthcare and costs: Acton said she would use state power to reduce prescription drug costs and crack down on higher costs driven by pharmacy benefit managers. She said she would demand more transparency from hospitals and insurance companies and work to erase medical debt. On reproductive health, she said she would protect access to abortion care, contraception, fertility treatments and miscarriage care.

Education: Acton said she would restore public school funding to a constitutional level and gain control of what she called an opaque private school voucher system with runaway costs.

Economy and affordability: Acton said she would conduct a top-to-bottom review of JobsOhio, requiring more transparency. She said she would support small businesses, expand workforce development and invest in broadband and transportation. On energy, she said new data centers are causing bills to increase and pledged that consumers would not shoulder those added costs.

Government reform: Acton said she would mandate more disclosure, reform campaign finance and open bidding and contracting processes to serve the public rather than private interests.

Public safety and workers' rights: Acton said she would fully fund police and public safety and pursue gun violence reforms. On labor, she said she would stand up for union and collective bargaining rights, combat wage theft and keep right-to-work legislation out of Ohio.