Amy Acton and David Pepper

Democratic

Governor and Lieutenant Governor · Summit County, Ohio · November 3, 2026

Also on the ballot: Don Kissick and James L. Mills (Libertarian), Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert A. McColley (Republican)

Amy Acton, a physician and former Ohio health director under Gov. Mike DeWine, is the Democratic nominee for governor in 2026, campaigning on affordability, reproductive rights, and public-school funding. Her running mate is David Pepper, a former state party chair and Hamilton County commissioner.

What this office decides

The governor proposes the two-year state budget, signs or vetoes bills (including line-item vetoes of spending), appoints the heads of state agencies, fills vacant judgeships, and sits on the Ohio Redistricting Commission. The governor and lieutenant governor are elected together on one ticket to four-year terms.

How this race lines up with you

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Dossier

Researched 2026-09-23 · Claude Code research agent with web search

Donald Trump: nothing found. No statement by Trump about Acton found; criticism of her COVID record comes from Ohio Republicans generally, not Trump personally.

Who they are

Amy Acton, a physician, led the Ohio Department of Health under Gov. Mike DeWine during COVID-19 and is the unopposed Democratic nominee for governor (Wikipedia). Running mate David Pepper is a former state party chair and Hamilton County commissioner (WOUB).

Positions

Taxes & spending: Would expand the Homestead Exemption and rebate up to $1,000 when property taxes rise over 4% a year (Acton campaign site).
Schools: Backs the Fair School Funding Plan; opposes vouchers, saying "public money should be for public schools" (Acton campaign site).
Health care: Proposes an "Ohio Rx" purchasing platform and pledges to "protect against attacks on Medicaid and Medicare" (Acton campaign site).
Personal freedom: "Every Ohioan deserves the right to make their own reproductive health care decisions" (Acton campaign site).
Energy & environment: Would appoint PUCO commissioners who "prioritize ratepayers" using "the lowest-cost and cleanest sources of energy" (Acton campaign site).
Gun policy: Her site covers police funding, not firearms specifically (Acton campaign site); an aggregator attributes support for DeWine's 2019 "Strong Ohio" background-check plan to her, unconfirmed elsewhere (search snippet, Battleground Vote).

Record

Never elected before; led Ohio's early pandemic response as appointed health director, 2019-2020 (Ohio Capital Journal - blocked, used headline).

Money

About $11.5 million raised, $8.1 million cash on hand by mid-June 2026 (Signal Ohio); spent about $5.5 million by late August (Statehouse News Bureau).

What we couldn't find

No gun-policy specifics on her site; the "Strong Ohio" claim traces only to aggregators.
Some Ohio Capital Journal pages were blocked (403).

Sources (13)