It’s generally thought that voters don’t decide on who they’ll vote for based on their running mates. But the two leading candidates for governor still said they have specific reasons for selecting the men they introduced as their lieutenant governors on Wednesday.
At a roundtable event at a small restaurant in the Columbus suburb of Bexley early Wednesday afternoon, Democrat Amy Acton said she brought on former party chair David Pepper because he’ll be, in her words, "the worst enemy of corruption" being committed by Republicans.
“They should be very scared right now, because of what David poses in terms of going in the door and not looking the other way at what has been just accepted pay to play and ways of operating," Acton said. "I need a partner who's up to that challenge. And I just want somebody with integrity who cares."
The anti-corruption angle is one Democrats have tried before, with little success. But Pepper said he and Acton are the outsider candidates who can bring change to people who want something different.
“This is the change candidacy. The status quo of Ohio is not working for so many people—urban, suburban, rural," Pepper said. "You pick the guy who's the president of the Senate of a statehouse that always is getting in trouble with corruption? That's not a change candidacy.”
A few hours later at a larger party venue in downtown Cleveland, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy told a crowd of supporters he picked Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) to get his agenda accomplished, including cutting income and property taxes.
"If your actual goal is to not just translate this into words and the serial cycle of complaints and grievances, but actual action, then it will require me as a governor to work with our legislature to quickly, rapidly, surgically, unapologetically enact this vision into legislation," Ramaswamy said. "And in order to do that, I'm going to need a governing partner who's going to help me achieve those legislative victories. That is where the rubber ultimately will hit the road, starting in the first few months that we're sworn into office."
McColley used a lot of his time on stage to compare the candidates and echo what Republicans have been saying for months—attacking Acton for the state’s early COVID policies and then for resigning as the state's health director in June 2020.
"Ohio needs a businessman, not a bureaucrat. Ohio needs a creator, not a quitter. Ohio needs a visionary, not a victim," McColley said. "Ohio needs somebody who's going to focus on affordability, not somebody who's going to put in lockdown policies that are going to raise our prices. Ohio needs somebody who knows how to grow the economy, not shut it down."
Ramaswamy's pick of McColley may have played a role in persuading one of the last GOP holdouts in Ohio to endorse him.
Gov. Mike DeWine threw his support behind Ramaswamy on Wednesday, after saying for months that he was going to endorse the Republican in the race. In December he said was still having discussions with the tech billionaire. On Wednesday, DeWine told reporters following a Statehouse event in Columbus that McColley is “someone who understands Ohio” and “understands the legislature."
“That’s the first big pick, that’s the first big decision that person has to make, and I think Vivek Ramaswamy hit a home run with this,” DeWine said.
Candidates for governor and lieutenant governor must file their paperwork with the secretary of state's office by Feb. 4. Acton isn't expected to have opposition in the May primary, but automotive engineer and designer Casey Putsch said he will challenge Ramaswamy.
