STAT+: Ohio governor’s race is a battle over Covid, health costs, and trust in science

STAT News reports from Ohio, where Democrat Amy Acton — a physician who became nationally known for leading Ohio’s aggressive Covid-19 response as state health director in 2020 — was campaigning for governor on a promise to bring the same approach to state politics. At a Labor Day festival in the industrial city of Lorain, supporters waited along the Black River, once called the “river of fish tumors” because steel mill slag deformed catfish and now undergoing rehabilitation, eating boba tea and pastelitos from food trucks while a live band covered ’90s hits. They did not yet know Acton would not make it onstage.

Earlier that day, at a campaign event about 90 miles east in Canfield, a man carrying two handguns, brass knuckles and a Taser charged toward Acton while yelling her name, knocking over an elderly couple in the crowd. The man, Patrick Havas, has pleaded not guilty to charges including assault.

Of the high-profile electoral contests this November, the Ohio governor’s race may be the most direct test of where public opinion in the heartland stands on health care, trust in science and the lasting legacy of the Covid pandemic. Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, is the billionaire founder and former CEO of biotech company Roivant who built his political profile as a 2024 presidential candidate partly by accusing the government of overreach during the pandemic — claims he has made central to his gubernatorial campaign.

STAT visited events for each candidate on the same day in August to gauge how Acton and Ramaswamy are tapping into American health anxieties and how their messages are resonating with Ohioans. Acton stands by her pandemic decisions but is betting that Ohioans are ready to move on and focus on problems such as health care affordability and access. The excerpt notes that Affordable Care Act enrollment in Ohio dropped by one-third in the past year after federal subsidies expired, the most of any state.