Vivek Ramaswamy, Indian-Origin Republican, Loses Ohio Governor's Race, Democrat Amy Acton Wins

Indian-origin Republican Vivek Ramaswamy has lost the race for Ohio governor to Democrat Amy Acton, who became the first Democrat to win the seat in 20 years and the first woman ever elected to the state's top post.

Ramaswamy's campaign had made an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother criticising her. Acton's mother lost custody of her children decades ago after her husband, Acton's stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton as a child.

The ad had drawn bipartisan rebukes including from Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine. However, US President Donald Trump had praised the ad while Vice President JD Vance, an Ohioan, had defended it.

Her campaign overcame a formidable financial disadvantage as Ramaswamy and his allies poured vast sums into the contest, with billionaire Elon Musk alone putting at least $5 million into a political action committee aligned with the Republican candidate.

Acton, a public health physician and former COVID-19-era state health director, had instead campaigned relentlessly on affordability and better access to healthcare, appealing to working- and middle-class voters by emphasising her hardscrabble roots as an Ohio native who spent part of her childhood homeless and, for one winter, living out of a tent.

Just hours before the voting, Ramaswamy had urged voters to support his promises of lower property taxes, reduced electricity bills, affordable housing and safer streets, calling on them to hold him accountable for delivering on his commitments once elected.

"Today: vote for lower property taxes, lower electric bills, more affordable homes, and safer streets. Starting tomorrow: hold me accountable for it," Ramaswamy had said.

While DeWine is leaving office due to term limits and is expected to retire after a five-decade career in elected politics, Acton will take charge of Ohio's executive branch without having previously held elective office.

Her win has reversed years of steady electoral erosion for Democrats in Ohio, a once-pivotal swing state that party strategists had largely ceded as its electorate shifted decisively toward the Republican column during the Trump era.

With inputs from AP