Vivek Ramaswamy loses Ohio's governor race to Democrat Amy Acton

Democratic candidate Amy Acton defeated Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in the race to become Ohio's next governor, a seat held by a Republican for 20 years, the Associated Press reported.Vivek Ramaswamy received a backlash during the campaign for his decision to air an attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother, saying she had lied about her upbringing (Bloomberg)Acton is also the first woman ever elected to the state’s top post. The public health physician and former COVID-19-era state health director defeated Trump-backed Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate.60-year-old Acton succeeds Republican governor Mike DeWine, whom she served alongside during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. But she enters office without electoral experience, in stark contrast to her 79-year-old former boss, who is term-limited and likely to retire from elective politics after 50 years.Her victory came despite massive spending by Ramaswamy and his Republican allies. Elon Musk, for example, injected at least $5 million into a Ramaswamy-aligned political action committee, according to an AP report.Ramaswamy received a backlash during the campaign for his decision to air an attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother saying she had lied about her upbringing and telling Ohioans not to vote for her. The spot sparked national bipartisan backlash on the grounds that Acton’s mother had lost custody of her children decades ago after her husband, their stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child.Ramaswamy's campaignOhio Republicans, energised by Vivek Ramaswamy’s high profile, wealth and proximity to US President Donald Trump, unified around his candidacy early on. His path was facilitated by incumbent governor Mike DeWine, who appointed his lieutenant governor, Jon Husted, then the leading Republican contender for governor, to the Senate.The party’s decision to endorse a newcomer to Ohio politics left a number of veteran Republican politicians — including the attorney general and state treasurer — scrambling to adjust their own plans. And it wasn’t long before the move prompted some anxiety within the party.Ramaswamy’s earliest headwinds came in the Republican primary, when fierce critic Casey “The Car Guy” Putsch, a vehicle designer and YouTube provocateur, seemed to catch hold with a portion of the party’s working-class base. Putsch also directed veiled ethnic and religious attacks at Ramaswamy, who is Hindu. In the end, Putsch’s $130,000 campaign attracted nearly 18% of the Republican vote. As the general election neared, Putsch announced he planned to vote for Acton.Trump and Vice President JD Vance, an Ohio native, made repeated trips to the state in the campaign’s final weeks to rally for Ramaswamy. But it seems Amy Acton’s campaign was able to capitalise on her opponent's wealth to paint him as out of touch with average voters whose pocketbooks have been hit by Trump’s tariffs, the rising cost of living, and soaring fuel prices brought on by the war in Iran.