THORNVILLE, Ohio — As Ohio Republicans tell it, this year’s Democratic gubernatorial nominee, Amy Acton, is a lying mental case who quit her pandemic-era position as the state’s public health director from the pressure, and who will quit on you again as governor when the going gets tough. A person, her GOP opponent explained to Republican voters inside a Champs Pizza in Thornville on Monday afternoon, “who is crazy, who is unstable, and who is a liar.” As Ohio Democrats tell it, the GOP gubernatorial nominee, Vivek Ramaswamy, is an out-of-touch snake-oil salesman who campaigns around the state on a private jet and who will use the governor’s mansion to enrich himself and his friends. A person, his Democratic opponent explained to voters later that day in Dayton, who is “only out for himself” and who, if elected, will “keep putting the wants of billionaires over the needs of the rest of us.”
This is the state of the ugly governor’s race in the Buckeye State, where the mudslinging is off the charts and out-of-power Democrats are feeling hopeful that their gubernatorial nominee’s anti-corruption, anti-corporate messaging is giving them a boost in a race that should be a cakewalk for the GOP. Aggressive negative campaigning is defining this year’s midterms, even by historic standards. You can witness it in Texas, where Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico held an event with Jeffrey Epstein’s victims to insinuate that his GOP opponent, Ken Paxton, is complicit in a cover-up, while Paxton has repeatedly questioned Talarico’s sexuality. And things look nearly as bad in Maine, where GOP senator Susan Collins has pointed out that her Democratic opponent, Troy Jackson, fathered children by his second cousin, and Jackson later told Collins to “shut up” on a debate stage after she joked that a heckler was one of his supporters.
Mark your calendars. The Free Press and 2WAY are teaming up for a real-time interactive election night special, November 3 from 8 p.m. ET until late. See you there.
If the Ohio polls have it right (and they may very well be wrong), Acton has a narrow lead, and Republicans could be in for a shellacking downballot too. Surveys show tight races across the board, and a particularly competitive and expensive race for U.S. Senate between incumbent Republican Jon Husted, the former lieutenant governor tapped by Governor Mike DeWine to fill Vice President J.D. Vance’s seat, and Sherrod Brown, the former long-serving Democratic senator who lost to Republican Bernie Moreno by 3.6 points in 2024. Ohio isn’t an outlier: Tight surveys in a host of Senate battlegrounds have Republicans worried about the possibility of a blue wave nationwide.
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