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Ohio Governor Candidate Comparison

Amy Acton

Amy Acton knows what it’s like to struggle. She grew up in Youngstown and experienced poverty and homelessness before becoming a doctor, a public health leader, and the Director of the Ohio Department of Health. She went to medical school right here in Northeast Ohio at NEOMED. Amy has lived through some of the same challenges that Ohio families face, so she understands what it’s like to watch grocery and gas prices go up while you’re trying to make rent or pay the mortgage.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy grew up in Cincinnati as the son of a middle-class family. He attended a private high school and then went to Harvard and Yale. He spent much of his career outside Ohio—working at a hedge fund in New York City and starting Roivant Sciences there before moving its headquarters to Switzerland. He returned to Ohio in 2021 and co-founded Strive Asset Management here, but that company later moved its headquarters to Dallas. Now Vivek wants to be Ohio’s next governor. But after spending so much of his career somewhere else—and moving his companies out of state—it’s fair to ask: Does he really understand what everyday Ohioans need to get ahead?

Affordability
Healthcare
Education
Utilities

AFFORDABILITY

Amy Acton

Amy believes tax cuts should go to the Ohioans who need them most—working families. She’ll fight for things like a child tax credit and an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit so families can keep more of what they earn and have a little more breathing room. Acton’s tax-relief plan would help more seniors and people with disabilities qualify for property-tax relief, provide rebates of up to $1,000 when property taxes rise sharply, and protect homeowners from predatory tax-lien sales and high-interest loans.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek says Ohioans just need to increase their take-home pay. But that doesn’t address what families are dealing with right now: the rising cost of childcare, healthcare, housing, utilities, and groceries.

HEALTHCARE

Amy Acton

Amy has a plan to lower prescription-drug costs and health insurance premiums, forgive medical debt, and protect access to Medicare and Medicaid. That matters, especially when so many Ohioans are already struggling to make ends meet.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek, on the other hand, has said that creating Medicare and Medicaid was a mistake. Rather than offering a comprehensive plan to make healthcare more affordable, he has made cracking down on Medicaid fraud his “absolute top priority.” In other states, aggressive enforcement measures have driven eligible people out of the program due to burdensome bureaucratic red tape. 

EDUCATION

Amy Acton

Amy has earned the support of leading education organizations, including the Ohio Education Association and the Ohio Federation of Teachers. We all know the way Ohio funds its public schools is broken. Amy will restore the bipartisan Fair School Funding Plan and make sure Ohio lives up to its constitutional responsibility to fairly fund our local schools. She also wants to rein in the private-school voucher system and make sure there is real transparency and accountability for how our tax dollars are spent.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek wants to cut billions from Ohio’s budget without explaining how he would replace that money. That could create a $10 billion hole in the state budget and mean even deeper cuts for public schools that are already struggling. When asked about a plan on funding public ed, he lacked specifics and pivoted to putting more requirements on our kids. He supports taxpayer-funded private-school vouchers for even the wealthiest families—benefiting private schools like the one he attended. He has also proposed closing public universities across Ohio, even though those schools have helped make college possible for people no matter where they live across our state.

UTILITIES

Amy Acton

Amy has a concrete plan to lower energy costs and prioritize clean energy wherever possible. She also wants to put guardrails on data centers to ensure they pay their fair share of utility and environmental costs.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek is focused on supporting legacy industries like coal instead and was light on any real plan to reduce costs for consumers. He has sided with tech billionaires who benefit from little regulation on data centers and AI, while getting benefits with his heavy investments in cryptocurrency.