The long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic creeps into the race for Ohio
governor
[May 04, 2026]
By JULIE CARR SMYTH
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dr. Amy Acton, a Democrat running unopposed in her
party's primary for Ohio governor, faces some steep challenges in the
coming general election.
She is trying to be the first Democrat in 20 years to win the office in
a state that has become dominated by Republicans. Her presumed opponent,
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, has national name recognition and a personal
fortune that he is plowing into his campaign.
But Acton's most formidable obstacle may be a ghost from her recent
past: the COVID-19 pandemic.
Acton, a physician, was Ohio's public health director when the
coronavirus hit the United States in early 2020, causing a wave of
deaths, anxiety and social disruption. As the government took aggressive
action to combat it, Acton became a household name throughout Ohio.
Six years later, the orders Acton signed at the urging of Republican
Gov. Mike DeWine to battle the virus — closing schools, shuttering
businesses, restricting sporting events and suspending voting in the
2020 primary — are drawing fresh attention as she runs for the state’s
top office and have become a central line of criticism from Republicans.
During campaign rallies, Ramaswamy has accused Acton of spreading
dangerous “COVID ideology.” Her campaign said it does not think voters
will buy it.
“Dr. Acton is proud of the work she did alongside Governor DeWine to put
public health over politics, save lives and keep Ohioans safe,” her
campaign spokesperson, Addie Bullock, said in a statement. “It is
unfortunate that Vivek Ramaswamy wants to play politics on this issue.”
Choosing ‘liberty’ or ‘lockdowns’
Wearing a white medical coat, Acton was a fixture at daily COVID-19
briefings with DeWine that were highly anticipated events watched in
households across the state. Day after day, she calmly explained the
virus’ trajectory, the grim march of hospitalizations and deaths, and
reassuringly provided tips on how Ohioans should handle themselves.
“Ohio, don the mask, don your cape,” Acton said at the time, asking
ordinary people to act like superheroes.
In Ohio and elsewhere, the social trauma from the pandemic has yet to
fully heal. It has changed how millions of people in the United States
view vaccines, how deeply government should interfere in daily life and
even whether people can trust government health officers.
The below-the-surface skepticism, which continues even as concerns over
contracting the virus have faded, has emerged as an unusual storyline in
the race for governor.
Ramaswamy, the front-running Republican, is airing ads capitalizing on
lingering anger over the election order that Acton issued for DeWine. At
Republican events around the state, mention of Acton’s name elicits loud
boos.
“Are we choosing freedom or are we choosing Fauci?” asked Zac Haines, a
Republican campaigning for the state Senate, in a reference to former
national infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci as the candidate warmed
up a recent Ramaswamy fundraising crowd. “Are we choosing liberty or are
we choosing lockdowns?”
A hero to some, a villain to others
At Democratic events, Acton carries the air of the cult hero who, back
in 2020, inspired a Dr. Amy Acton Fan Club with its own yard signs, a
bobblehead doll and a proposal to honor her with a state holiday.
Campaigning this year, she seems to tread cautiously when discussing her
time as Ohio's health chief, sometimes avoiding use of the words
COVID-19 or coronavirus.
“I had the honor and the privilege, the privilege, of serving in a very
tough moment,” she told a Democratic crowd in southwest Ohio in March.
“I'm proud of Ohioans, because together we flattened that curve, we
saved a lot of lives.”
[to top of second column]
|
Amy Acton, Democratic candidate for Governor of Ohio, gestures as
she speaks with a reporter in Columbus, Ohio April 15, 2026. (AP
Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
 Ohio ranked 22nd among the states in
its per capita death rate from the virus during the pandemic's first
year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
Acton, who left the job halfway through 2020, does not dwell on what
happened after the government imposed restrictions: the mutiny
against DeWine over business closures and health mandates, the
legislation by Republicans to limit the governor's powers and the
protesters, some of them armed, outside her house.
At a recent States Forum symposium in Columbus, where people from
across the political spectrum were brought together to try to find
common ground within the “ Make America Healthy Again" movement,
Acton said she had worked for or advised five different governors.
“So I’ll work with anyone who wants to solve a problem rather than
make one,” she said, “which is what Ohioans are longing for.”
While he has endorsed Ramaswamy, DeWine denounced the campaign's ad
against Acton for suspending the 2020 primary.
“I told her to issue the health order,” the governor said. “The
decision was mine.”
Ramaswamy is dodging his own pandemic ghosts
Ramaswamy and another prominent Republican running in this year’s
midterm elections have their own ties to Ohio's pandemic response.
As CEO of Roivant Sciences, the biotechnology research company he
founded in 2014, Ramaswamy “worked with the lieutenant governor as
an adviser on COVID-19” during 2020, he wrote in a 2021 op-ed. The
lieutenant governor at the time, Republican Jon Husted, is now a
U.S. senator running for reelection. He was a regular participant
alongside Acton and DeWine at Ohio’s daily virus briefings.
A Roivant subsidiary, Genevant Sciences, also played a “fundamental
role” in the global pandemic response, according to a March news
release. The statement announced a $2.2 billion settlement with
Moderna over its unauthorized use of Genevant’s and Arbutus
Biopharma’s patents in its COVID vaccines.
During the pandemic, Ramaswamy, whose wife is a physician, supported
vaccines. He received one himself and advocated mask-wearing,
although he said he never supported governments mandating either.
One of Ramaswamy’s companies, Datavant, even pushed for a national
COVID registry that would be used to allow the small segment of the
population that was gradually gaining natural COVID-19 immunity to
“get back to normal life” while facilitating the rest continuing to
be “segregated.”
Yet since he entered politics for the 2024 presidential race,
Ramaswamy has taken steps to distance himself from those days. In
early 2023, he stepped down from the Roivant board and paid an
editor to scrub a reference to his service on Ohio’s “COVID-19
Response Team” from his Wikipedia page. He called it a simple
correction, saying the panel never met.
His campaign referred questions about his time at Roivant to the
company, which did not respond to an email seeking comment.
In an interview, Ramaswamy said both his support for a COVID
registry and his talks with Husted involved “getting the economy
going again.” While calling his position on the virus “nuanced,” he
said he intends to hold Acton accountable for the decisions to
shutter Ohio businesses and schools and to suspend voting in the
2020 primary, which eventually was conducted by mail balloting.
“As a decision maker, you have to weigh the costs and benefits of
your actions,” he said. “You can’t be unmoored from the data.”
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
