Washington, Oct 11 (IANS) Indian-American Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s race for Ohio governor against Democrat Amy Acton is now rated a toss-up by all three major forecasters, as he seeks to become only the third Indian-American governor in US history after Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley.
Polling averages on Saturday showed Acton ahead. Track the Vote put her at 48.5 per cent to Ramaswamy’s 43.7 per cent, while PolitiKool had her at 48.4 per cent to his 43.8 per cent and noted a 3.6-point shift towards Acton over the past month.
The race for the open seat, being vacated by term-limited Republican Governor Mike DeWine, has drawn in Vice President JD Vance, who campaigned for Ramaswamy at a rally in Lima, Ohio.
“Vivek is an entrepreneur. He’s a guy who hasn’t just received a paycheck he signed a paycheck to,” Vance said.
“He’s gonna get historic property tax relief for every single citizen who owns a house in this state,” he added.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball moved the race from Leans Republican to Toss-up on September 23. Inside Elections followed in early October, and the Cook Political Report also rates it a Toss-up.
“A persistently poor national environment for Republicans informs several rating changes this week toward Democrats,” Kyle Kondik of Sabato’s Crystal Ball said, according to The Hill.
Recent individual polls are mixed. A CNN/SSRS poll conducted from September 29 to October 5 put Acton at 50 per cent and Ramaswamy at 42 per cent. A co/efficient poll sponsored by Republicans, conducted October 5-6, had Ramaswamy ahead 45 per cent to 43 per cent.
The prediction market Kalshi gave Acton a 69 per cent chance of winning on Saturday.
Ramaswamy, 40, was born in Cincinnati to immigrants from Kerala. A Harvard and Yale Law graduate and biotech founder, he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and co-chaired the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with Elon Musk before entering the Ohio race.
He has reported raising $9.88 million, which experts have described as a record.
Acton, a physician, served as Ohio’s health director under DeWine from February 2019 to June 2020 and led the state’s early Covid response.
“The cost of gas, health care, utilities; there’s no more breathing room. As governor, I’ll take on the corruption that’s raising our costs, cut taxes for the middle class, and work with both parties to solve problems instead of making them,” Acton said in a campaign statement.
Ramaswamy has framed his pitch around reviving “the American Dream in Ohio”.
“That means bringing down costs, cutting red tape, reducing government waste, and expanding our energy supply,” he said in a campaign statement.
Acton has made a December 2024 post by Ramaswamy on X, defending technology companies that hire foreign-born engineers, a central line of attack in ads and speeches, ABC News reported.
“A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers,” Ramaswamy wrote in the post.
The issue has shifted under him. The Trump administration has imposed a $100,000 fee on certain H-1B petitions, since blocked by a second federal judge, and suspended the employment green card route for eight technology firms.
In Lima, Vance also took aim at companies that move jobs abroad or replace American workers.
“…if you’re trying to replace American workers with a legal immigrant later, you know what you’re gonna get? A big fat tariff,” Vance said.
Ramaswamy has also faced attacks on his heritage from Nick Fuentes and online nativists on the right.
“I think the idea of a heritage American is about as loony as anything the woke left has actually put up,” Ramaswamy said at Turning Point’s AmericaFest in December 2025, according to Fox News.
“There is no American who is more American than somebody else… It is binary. Either you’re an American or you’re not,” he added.
Vance, whose wife Usha is Indian American, and Ramaswamy met as classmates at Yale Law School.
Ohio last elected a Democratic governor in 2006, and Trump carried the state in 2016, 2020 and 2024.
Jindal became the first Indian American elected governor in 2007 and served in Louisiana from 2008 to 2016. Haley was governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017. Ramaswamy would be the first Indian-American governor from the Midwest.
–IANS
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