CINCINNATI — As the May primary inches closer and closer, two candidates for Ohio governor are already preparing for a showdown this November.
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy is projected to win his primary on May 5, while Democrat Amy Acton is running unopposed. If both win, they'll battle to become Gov. Mike DeWine's successor later this year.
WCPO's Adrian Whitsett and Tanya O'Rourke asked both the same questions so voters can gauge for themselves which candidates suit them best. You can watch both full interviews and read their answers to our three biggest questions below.
Watch the full sit-down with Amy Acton here:
Watch the full sit-down with Vivek Ramaswamy here:
Neither of you has held public office. How do you differ from your opponent(s)?
Acton: "Well, you know, I'm a doctor. I'm not a politician, but I am a lifelong public servant, and all of my work over my 60 years of life all goes back to the same thing: trying to solve these really hard problems that hold us back.
"I've been trained to do this work, and I've lived a lot of the situations that I'm working on. And (everywhere I go) in this state, we see record numbers of people show up ... they're just longing — people are longing for us to get back to work, solving the problems of our everyday lives. That's something they've seen me do in crisis, but it's something I've done my whole career, and my own experiences allow me to understand.
"I'm up against someone that I feel is, frankly, out of touch and possibly dangerous. The policies that he puts out are reckless. He is very much somebody who has done the work of Doge that thinks that things that have gotten us ahead, like our colleges or Medicaid and Medicare in our state, Social Security, are mistakes. What we need aren't folks who are working for special interests and elite billionaires. We need folks that understand the problems of everyday Ohioans that listen and listen deeply, and fight every day. And by the way, it's not just me, we're doing a massive call to public service. We've got a lot of hard work ahead, but I've seen what Ohioans are capable of doing, and I know we can do this. Ohioans are ready for change."
Ramaswamy: "Well, look, I think you have to approach it with humility. Neither me nor my Democratic opponent have ever held elected office, but perhaps, unlike my opponent, I have built major businesses. I was born and raised in the city. My parents came halfway around the world with nothing to their name. Roivant, my first company, is one of the most successful biotech companies founded in this century. It's a $20-plus billion business that has developed multiple life-saving and life-changing FDA-approved products.
"I founded another business that pairs seniors with Medicare plans that better serve them. I've built a number of successful businesses across different sectors. I do think we need a businessman at the top right now. This is not so much about right versus left in fixing affordability issues in Ohio; this is about right versus wrong. It's about up versus down. I am passionate about ensuring that every person in this state is able to achieve the same things I have at an even greater scale. I want our young people to be successful, and I think it's a big difference between me and my opponent.
"If you listen to my opponent, with due respect, I think she's articulated no vision for the state, but constantly criticizes me for, in her words, being a billionaire. Well, you know what? I view success is something we should celebrate and actually ensure that every kid in the state is able to achieve that same success at an even bigger scale, to be able to say that you know what you don't have to worry about whether your kids are able to get a good education or not as a working family, to know that both the mother and father may have important jobs that they have to do during the day without having to think about child care costs, because they're able to still enjoy a nice evening and a vacation from time to time with their family and their children."
How would you keep or attract talent to Ohio?
Acton: "Well, first of all, we absolutely want our young people to stay, and we want young people to come to Ohio. We have some of the best universities, both public and private. We have great workforce training. We have incredible companies, and we wanna keep an environment where people will come and start up. But sadly, what we're hearing from a lot of young people is that they need things like affordable housing, great education, great job opportunities and a great culture."
Ramaswamy: "Many of those kids, when they graduate from high school or when they graduate from college in this state, they're going to pursue economic opportunity in other states, and we're going to turn that ship around by bringing high-paying jobs back to Ohio.
"That means taking the income tax burden down. It means cutting red tape. It means making Ohio the best state in the country and the most attractive state in the country to build a business. And I know a thing or two about this, because that's my background. I'm not a politician, I'm an entrepreneur, and I want this to be the top state in the country, to both raise a young family and also to build and grow a business."
What's your stance on eliminating income tax in Ohio?
Acton: "We need immediate relief. The Statehouse was not able to fully accomplish that in the last budget. I know they're looking at it, but we have to, and I, as governor, will do something right away, using homestead exemption and other tools.
"But the truth ... the hard truth is that we have to look at all of it, you know, we need taxes to provide for the things that we can't solve on our own, the things of our everyday life, and we have to have a fair way to do it. I think that's what Ohioans want."
Ramaswamy: "There are other parts of the state budget that need to be paid for, no doubt about it. The way you ultimately pay for it in the long run is through more savings, through cutting waste, fraud, abuse, government overgrowth, and then added revenue through economic growth that we bring to our state.
"And it won't be immediately that we get to zero, but we have a clear plan over time to get the state to be a zero income tax state, and that allows other businesses to plan and say, 'Hey, we're not moving to Texas or Florida or Tennessee, we're moving to Ohio.'"
