Candidate Comparison
Ohio General Election Day: November 3, 2026
Independent Research. Real Ohio Voices.
Every candidate profile on this page is built from research into their records — not their promises. We examined how each candidate voted, what they fought for, who funded them, and what their choices have actually meant for Ohioans. The result: a side-by-side look at who's running to represent you, and what their records say about how they'd show up for working families.
Statewide Candidates
Governor
Amy Acton
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
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?
Attorney General
John Kulewicz
Kulewicz spent 44 years as a lawyer at Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, one of Ohio's largest law firms, arguing cases up to the U.S. Supreme Court. He's campaigning as a lawyer rather than a career politician, promising to take on "price-fixing monopolies" that he says are driving up everyday costs for Ohioans. He's pledged to keep pushing the state's case against the FirstEnergy executives behind the $61 million HB 6 bribery scheme, saying Ohioans who paid higher power bills deserve to see the execs be held accountable for it.
Keith Faber
Faber has worked in Ohio's Republican-run government for almost 20 years. Ohio just had its biggest corruption scandal ever — a power company bribed lawmakers with $61 million to pass a law, and that's a big reason your electric bill went up. The people accused of the bribery still haven't gone to trial. If Faber becomes Attorney General, he'll decide if that trial moves forward. He says he wants to "wait and see" until after the election. Faber has also taken campaign money from energy companies. He also says he wants to back the police and prosecutors, and points to his time catching people "lying, stealing and cheating" with government money as proof he can handle a bigger job.
Auditor
Annette Blackwell
Blackwell has served as Mayor of Maple Heights, Ohio, since 2016. Before being elected, she worked in the private sector, focusing on financial and tax matters. After being elected Mayor, Blackwell worked to turn her city around from the financial turmoil it was dealing with. This resulted in her winning the Clean Audit Award after helping the city recover financially. She is running for Auditor to promote transparency in how public funds are spent and to help safeguard local community funds.
Frank LaRose
LaRose is the current Secretary of State; he previously ran and lost the race to be a U.S. Senator. Now that he is term-limited and can no longer be Secretary of State, he is running for Auditor instead. His campaign message in the race is about financial transparency, but as Secretary of State, his main focus has been on elections, in which his record is one of making it harder to vote and inserting partisanship into his office.
Treasurer
Seth Walsh
Walsh has served four years on the Cincinnati City Council, focusing on budget, housing, and finance issues. He also serves on the Cincinnati Retirement System Board of Trustees, giving him direct insight into pensions. Before being elected, Walsh worked in economic development, spearheading $85 million in investments in Cincinnati, helping revitalize neighborhoods and assisting small businesses. Walsh is running for Treasurer to be a transparent, responsible steward of taxpayer funds while helping Ohioans afford to buy homes and retire securely, while promoting economic growth.
Jay Edwards
Edwards is a former member of the Ohio House of Representatives who served as chair of the Finance Committee. As head of the committee that oversees the budget, Edwards supported giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while continuing the defunding of our public schools. Edwards is running on ending “waste, fraud, and abuse” of public funds, which often targets Medicaid and other essential services while ignoring the handouts corporations get from the government. Further, his time in the Ohio Legislature was closely tied to the HB 6 corruption scandal, including voting for the bill, receiving donations from supporters of HB 6, and refusing to expel former House Speaker Larry Householder after his felony conviction.
U.S. Congress
U.S. Senate
Sherrod Brown
Brown represented Ohio in the U.S. Senate and has been a champion for working-class families. He stands up to greedy corporations and wealthy interests. He is a long-time defender of affordable healthcare and has led efforts to make housing, healthcare, and education more affordable. His work in the Senate has prioritized protecting everyday Ohioans.
Jon Husted
Husted has served as Ohio’s Lieutenant Governor and Senator, playing a major role in bringing data center projects to Ohio and supporting tax incentives for the tech industry. He has supported legislation that slashes Medicaid coverage, SNAP funding, and tax credits for working families in Ohio, at the state and federal levels, doubling down on his commitment to wealthy interests rather than Ohioans.
Congressional District 01
Greg Landsman
Landsman is a former teacher who helped make Cincinnati the first city in the country to provide two years of quality preschool. On City Council, he expanded investments in childcare and affordable housing and helped establish an eviction-prevention fund that kept families in their homes. Now finishing his second term in Congress, Landsman has worked to protect Social Security and lower healthcare, prescription drug, and utility costs—including confronting drug-pricing middlemen and fighting to keep data centers from driving up families’ electric bills.
Eric Conroy
Conroy won his primary with Donald Trump’s endorsement and has closely aligned himself with Trump’s agenda, even as its policies and tariffs drive up the cost of groceries, energy, and other everyday necessities for Ohio families. He grew up on Cincinnati’s West Side and is an Air Force veteran and former CIA officer.
Congressional District 07
Brian Poindexter
Poindexter is a union Ironworker, an apprenticeship instructor, and a former union organizer who knows the struggles Ohio families face to make ends meet. Coming from a 3rd-generation union family, Brian knows how to stand up to corporate special interests. He worked his way through night school while building a career in the trades. In Congress, he will fight for policies that put working families first. Brian knows the economy depends on working people to run it and is committed to policies that level the playing field for hardworking Ohioans.
Max Miller
Miller grew up in a wealthy and influential Cleveland family and holds millions of dollars in assets through his family’s trust. He later worked in the Trump White House before being elected to Congress in 2022. Miller has been accused of serious domestic abuse by his ex-wife—the daughter of a prominent Ohio Republican official—and a former girlfriend. The allegations have led to ongoing legal proceedings and raised serious questions about his conduct.
Congressional District 10
Kristina Knickerbocker
Knickerbocker is an oncology nurse practitioner who grew up outside of Dayton and volunteered at local food pantries. She draws on her medical experience and personal healthcare struggles and is running on a platform centered on affordability, protecting Medicaid and SNAP, and lowering prescription drug prices for Ohio families.
Mike Turner
Turner has spent the majority of his time in office building a record around supporting President Trump’s agenda on healthcare, federal spending, and tariffs at the expense of working Ohio families, including supporting the big, ugly bill that slashed ACA tax credits, Medicaid, and SNAP.
Congressional District 13
Emilia Sykes
Rep. Sykes is a two-term Congresswoman from Akron, Ohio. She has secured more than $700 million in federal funding for her district, and over $16 million has gone directly to constituents. She has also advanced bipartisan legislation like the Lower Your Taxes Act and the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act.
Carey Coleman
Coleman is a former talk radio host and Cleveland television weatherman. He has no prior elected or government experience. Right now, he is his largest donor, accounting for 64% of his cash on hand. He made jokes about violence against Democratic members of Congress and has downplayed the January 6th insurrection.
Congressional District 15
Don Leonard
Leonard knows what it's like to struggle. Raised by a single mother, he experienced poverty and homelessness growing up. Those experiences shaped his commitment to ensuring every Ohio family has the opportunity to succeed. As a teacher, he has empowered his students and fought against efforts to attack free speech.
Mike Carey
Carey spent more than two decades advancing the interests of the coal industry, including serving as a lobbyist for Murray Energy—a company linked to the largest public corruption scandal in Ohio history, and legislation that continues to increase Ohioans’ electric bills. Carey was once described as a “one-man wrecking ball” for his efforts to defeat legislation that would have placed environmental guardrails on the industry.
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