Ohio Democrats won both statewide races at the top of Tuesday's ballot. Amy Acton, the state's former health director, defeated Vivek Ramaswamy for governor, and former Sen. Sherrod Brown ousted Republican Sen. Jon Husted.
Acton will be the first woman elected governor of Ohio and the first Democrat elected to the office in two decades, the Ohio Statehouse News Bureau reported. About 85% of the vote had been counted when the race was decided shortly before 11 p.m. Eastern, or 8 p.m. Pacific. The totals stay unofficial until counties finish their canvass.
Acton's win
Acton, 60, ran the Ohio Department of Health under outgoing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and stood beside him at the state's daily COVID-19 briefings in the early months of the pandemic, until she resigned in July 2020. Her campaign promised a statewide child tax credit and medical debt relief.
The race turned bitter in late October, when Ramaswamy's campaign ran an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother, and DeWine was among the Republicans who criticized it.
She will take office in January facing a Republican legislature.
Brown returns to the Senate
Brown won the seat Husted has held since Jan. 21, 2025, when he was appointed to replace JD Vance after Vance became vice president, according to the Senate's list of Ohio senators. The same list shows Brown served in the Senate from January 2007 until January 2025, when Republican Bernie Moreno, who had beaten him in the 2024 election, took over his old seat, so Tuesday's win sends him back to the chamber after two years away.
Brown will serve the rest of Vance's term and would face voters again in 2028. With more than $500 million spent by the campaigns and outside groups, it was the most expensive Senate race in Ohio history, the bureau reported. About 87% of the vote was in when that race was decided at 11:12 p.m. Eastern.
