Ohio just flipped — and made history doing it. Dr. Amy Acton has been elected Governor of Ohio, defeating Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to become the first woman ever ELECTED governor of the state.
The Associated Press called the race with Acton at about 51% to Ramaswamy’s 46%, with Libertarian Don Kissick taking about 3%. Acton breaks a 20-year Democratic losing streak in Ohio governor’s races — the first Democrat to win the office since Ted Strickland in 2006 — in a state Donald Trump carried three straight times. She succeeds term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and takes office January 11.
The irony: DeWine was Acton’s boss. As Ohio’s health director, she became the face of the state’s COVID response in 2020, standing beside DeWine at daily briefings. Now the doctor defeats the Trump-backed billionaire — Ramaswamy raised over $80 million, half of it his own money — to take the mansion herself.
Ohio’s flip was part of a monster Election Night 2026 for Democrats: Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman governor in U.S. history in Georgia, David Crowley became Wisconsin’s first Black governor, Gina Hinojosa knocked off Gov. Greg Abbott to become Texas’s first Latina governor, and Sherrod Brown flipped Ohio’s U.S. Senate seat blue on the same ballot.
Results: Associated Press.
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