Tim Ryan rules out run for Ohio governor, leaving Amy Acton as presumptive Democratic nominee
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Former U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan announced Friday he will not run for Ohio governor in 2026, leaving ex-state health director Amy Acton as the likely Democratic gubernatorial nominee next year against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy.
“After careful consideration, much prayer and reflection, and after long conversations with my family, my closest friends and advisors, I’ve made the decision not to run for governor in 2026,” said Ryan, who lives in suburban Columbus, in a statement.
The 52-year-old former presidential and U.S. Senate candidate, who represented the Youngstown area in Congress for more than two decades, initially declared last year that he wouldn’t run for office in 2026. But in recent months, he has been openly exploring a gubernatorial run, and a Ryan advisor said in August that Ryan’s interest in running for governor was “renewed and heightened” by ex-U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s decision to run again for Senate instead of governor.
Even after Ryan blew past a self-imposed deadline of Sept. 30 to make a decision, he told advisors to start putting a campaign together, but he then went silent until Friday’s announcement
Many Democrats had hoped Ryan, who ran a stronger-than-expected (though still unsuccessful) campaign for U.S. Senate in 2022, would jump in the governor’s race. That hope was based primarily on skepticism that Acton, a first-time political candidate tied to politically divisive COVID-era restrictions, will be able to beat Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate from suburban Columbus who has steamrolled the Republican primary field.
Ryan, who has portrayed himself in the past as a moderate willing to court Republican voters, would have faced many of those same GOP-friendly headwinds. An Emerson College poll found Ramaswamy with 7-percentage-point lead over Ryan and a nearly 10-point lead over Acton in hypothetical head-to-head matchups.
Republicans, meanwhile, have been openly salivating at the prospect of Acton and Ryan having to fight each other for the Democratic nomination, hamstringing the victor against Ramaswamy in the general-election campaign.
There were questions about how easy it would have been for Ryan to beat Acton in a Democratic primary, as the white, working-class, male voters he has tried to appeal to have been increasingly leaving the Democratic Party.
In addition, Ryan might have had to overcome resistance from Brown, who helped recruit Acton to run for governor. A couple former top Brown campaign staffers have advised Acton since she first indicated interest in the governor’s office last summer.
Acton, in a statement following Ryan’s announcement, didn’t mention Ryan at all. Instead, she trained her fire on Ramaswamy and reiterating a campaign pledge to focus to help Ohioans with rising costs.
“I’m running for governor because it’s time for a change,” Acton said. “Together, we can lower costs, give Ohioans a little breathing room, and build the Ohio we all deserve.”
Brown’s and Ryan’s respective camps fought a short-lived proxy battle earlier this year over electing a new Ohio Democratic Party chair. Brown’s favored candidate, ex-state Rep. Kathleen Clyde of Portage County, ended up winning that battle handily over state Sen. Bill DeMora of Columbus, who previously said he expected to be Ryan’s campaign manager if he ran for governor.
If Ryan entered the governor’s race, he also would have had to give up lucrative gigs with the natural gas and cryptocurrency industries, just two years after he and his family moved from the Mahoning Valley into a $1 million house in Plain City, west of Columbus. Ryan has also said he wants to ensure that he can continue coaching his 11-year-old son’s football team.
If Ryan entered the race, he would have faced scrutiny and criticism from Democrats about his lobbying work for a fossil-fuel industry, as well as from the crypto industry, which spent $40 million last year to help now-U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno, a Westlake Republican, unseat Brown.
With Ryan’s decision to stay out of the race, there is now just one Democrat who has filed to run for governor besides Acton: Jacob Chiara, a political unknown from Northfield.
While Ohio’s candidate filing deadline isn’t until next February, so far no other major Democrats have even hinted at joining the race.
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