By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-09-16 15:36:46 | Updated at 2026-09-16 16:33:07
1 hour ago
The battle for the Ohio governorship has grown increasingly contentious, as the Democratic candidate refused to debate her Republican opponent—then challenged him to divest from his data-center-related investments.
Former Ohio state medical director Dr. Amy Acton rejected invitations to debate Vivek Ramaswamy, a self-made billionaire whom President Donald Trump has endorsed.
On Sept. 14, Ramaswamy wrote on X about Acton, Ohio’s former health director: “She isn’t just hiding from me. She’s hiding from the voters. Absolutely disgusting & disqualifying.”
After Ramaswamy announced he accepted interview offers from CNN and an NBC affiliate on Sept. 2, Acton’s campaign stated she was focused on talking with Ohioans, “not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family.”
Ramaswamy has accused Acton of making false statements about him, too.
Although Ohio has traditionally been considered a Republican-dominated, state, the Cook Political Report shifted the governor’s race from “lean Republican” to “toss-up” in July.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows the Acton–Ramaswamy contest in a statistical tie. A new poll, released on Sept. 16 by Bowling Green State University in Ohio, showed Acton ahead of Ramaswamy by 3 percentage points. However, that is within the poll’s margin of error, again making the race a statistical dead heat, with less than two months to go before the Nov. 3 election.
Race Gets Noticed
On Sept. 6, as the debate-snub controversy was still ramping up, Acton drew national attention for a campaign-stop incident. At the Canfield Fair in northeast Ohio, “an armed individual lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people,” Acton’s campaign wrote.
“This kind of violence has no place in Ohio,” it stated.
However, Mahoning County Prosecutor Lynn Maro later told a judge that Patrick Havas, 38, apparently wanted to ask Acton questions; a preliminary investigation found no evidence of threats against Acton.
Maro also told reporters that the Acton camp asked people to stop recording videos before the incident. Ramaswamy later stated that he makes no such restriction at his public appearances.
Meanwhile, TV attack ads from the two candidates and their supporters accelerated.
Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, greets constituents along the parade route of the 54th Annual CDC Parade in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sept. 7, 2026. Jeff Swensen/Getty Images
A Challenge
On Sept. 15, Acton went on the offensive. She challenged her opponent in a public statement.
“I am calling on Vivek Ramaswamy to sell his individual stock and commit to not investing in data centers,” she wrote.
Acton said she doesn’t own individual stocks; she pledged not to own or acquire any if elected governor.
Her pledge came four days after Cleveland News 5 reported that Acton and Ramaswamy both benefit financially from data centers, yet the candidates are proposing how to regulate the high-tech facilities.
The Ohio Ethics Commission does not make financial disclosures available on its website, and the agency did not answer The Epoch Times’ request prior to publication.
While Acton’s campaign did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on Sept. 15, Ramaswamy campaign spokesman Evan Machan said, “Amy has finally been exposed that she owns stock in data centers.”
“Her hypocrisy is becoming a pattern: Say whatever it takes to get elected and hope Ohioans don’t notice the truth,” Machan wrote in an email to The Epoch Times. “If she’s confident in her record, she should debate Vivek on CNN before Election Day and answer for it.”
A UMass Amherst poll, released Sept. 14, found 65 percent of people oppose construction of a data center in their local community.
Considering that level of controversy, candidates’ data-center policies could strongly influence the outcome of a number of election races, including the Ohio governor’s contest.
‘Critical Issue’ Identified
Ramaswamy began talking about the impact of data centers shortly after he launched his Ohio gubernatorial campaign in early 2025.
“A critical issue that almost no one is talking about: a looming electricity shortage in our state,” he wrote on March 27, 2025, on X. He called the data center boom “good,” but pointed out that the state needed more energy production to support it.
Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, in this file photo. Courtesy of Vivek for Ohio
Although Acton began her campaign before Ramaswamy, it took her longer to add data centers to her agenda.
In July 2026, she announced support for “a conditional moratorium on data centers.”
The announcement was “an escalation of a position Acton has held since spring [2026],” her campaign said.
Acton says she would require data-center developers to meet certain criteria. Those include covering 100 percent of their own utility costs, building “exclusively with union labor,” complying with environmental standards, and supporting community needs.
“Data centers are moving into Ohio’s communities in secrecy, raising costs and undermining our core values. This is unacceptable; Ohio cannot trust Vivek Ramaswamy to protect communities from his fellow big-tech billionaires,” Acton’s website says.
Demand for ‘Free Electricity’
Ramaswamy called Acton’s plan an “insufficient” response to an issue he had explored extensively for the preceding 18 months.
“My Democrat opponent recently announced that data centers must not contribute to higher electric bills for ratepayers, a concept that I advocated for in early 2025,” he wrote in August 2026, “long before she started parroting the same.”
In his “Ohioans-First Data Center Pledge,” Ramaswamy lists three non-negotiable requirements.
“Data centers must ensure nearby Ohio families receive free electricity by providing power or compensation,” he said.
They must also pay full property taxes—revenue that would help defray Ohio homeowners’ tax bills, he added.
The data centers also “must comply with strict air and water quality standards, minimize and recycle water use, and prioritize brownfield and industrial sites,” Ramaswamy said.
Ramaswamy promised that, if he is elected, he would issue an executive order on his first day in office “to immediately halt the approval of any new data center project announcements in Ohio” until lawmakers approve the necessary restrictions.
