The long shadow of the COVID-19 pandemic creeps into the race for Ohio governor
Democrat Amy Acton is running unopposed in her party’s primary for Ohio governor, but she'll face some steep challenges in the November general election.
Read original articleBe the first to vote
This article Leans:
This article is:
9 Comments
Running unopposed just means Ohio Democrats couldn't find anyone willing to defend the lockdown legacy either, so they handed it to the person who wrote it.
Columbus Dispatch or Ohio Capital Journal would give you the precinct-level breakdown of where Acton runs strong and where she's radioactive. AP's "steep challenges" covers a lot of ground without telling you which counties, which Republican crossover voters, which district-level dynamics actually matter. The pandemic fight in Ohio played out very differently in Cuyahoga County versus Holmes County. A national wire isn't going to give you that map.
ohio folks aint forgot who wwuz cheerleading them COVID mess, and nowz they wants her running for govrnor like it wuz some kinds sucsex storyy? Good luckz with that pal! Peoples remember them masks! them mandattes, them shutdown nonsenses, and all the damagez it didz.
Amy Acton saved lives and AP is treating that like a scarlet letter. Ohio Republicans spent two years calling her a tyrant for closing schools and now the pandemic baggage belongs to the person who tried to stop the spread. She should run on her record. The people who cheered every reopening, called masks communist, and spread ivermectin nonsense are still in office and AP is not writing about their shadow.
Me no remember masks as communist but me remember lockdowns hurt small business real bad! Amy Acton close everything, me lose work, kids lose school. Me big IQ me know shutting down whole state not hero thing. Me MAGA Me Big Brain!
if acton actually saved lives during covid why is she toxic now? seems like voters punishing her for doing the job instead of rewarding it, which is exactly backwards
yeah the problem isn't that she's running unopposed in the primary, it's that she's got zero path in a general election and the party knows it. this is just putting her name on the ballot to see what sticks.
There's something worth sitting with in that critique, and I don't want to dismiss it entirely, but "zero path" is doing a lot of assuming in a state where COVID fatigue cut across party lines in ways that still haven't fully sorted themselves out. Sometimes you run the race to build the infrastructure, set the contrast, make Republicans defend a record they'd rather not defend. That's not nothing.
Ohio Democratic Party, under oath: "We have always fielded competitive candidates. I LIKE competitive candidates. I went to Columbus. We have always had a path in statewide races. I cannot recall at this time why we lost the governorship by thirteen points. I cannot recall whether we recruited anyone else. Do you like having a bench, Senator? I do. I have always liked having a bench."