Ohio Gubernatorial Candidate Cites Aging In Place As Campaign Issue

Coinciding with the 2026 congressional midterm elections, the state of Ohio will choose a new governor next year since incumbent Mike DeWine (R) is term limited.

While many political polling houses characterize the race as a likely Republican retention, one Democratic candidate spoke about some of her priorities — including aging in place — in a recent interview.

Amy Acton is a licensed medical doctor and served as the director of the Ohio Department of Health for just over a year, leaving in June 2020.

She initially declared her candidacy for next year’s gubernatorial election in January, and she arrived in the town of Sidney at the invitation of Shelby County Democratic Party Chair Chris Gibbs, according to reporting at the Sidney Daily News.

One element that has shaped Acton’s candidacy is the statewide response she helped to lead after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. As an adviser to Gov. DeWine, she was part of his first-in-the-nation decision to close schools and limit in-person gatherings to no more than 100 people — despite the state’s number of confirmed infections being very low at that point.

Speaking with the news outlet shortly following her speaking engagement, she credited the fast-moving pace of the pandemic for giving her insight into the state’s political processes. And she also described an understanding of senior-focused issues — including housing and aging in place.

“Some of the most important work I did with the governor, and I think a governor can do, is catalyze and convene people,” Acton said. “Even in COVID, so many of the problems weren’t solved.

“… If these problems were easy, they’d be solved already. It takes multiple systems working together to work on housing or work on aging in place, or work on childcare issues, or even solving our issues around escalating property taxes.”

She also cited aging in place when asked about issues that people in the state’s agricultural sector are concerned about.

“Women often inherit farms, they do the books on farms, they run the culture and the 4-H of the community,” she said. “These women were saying their biggest issues were health care, if somebody has to work a second job off the farm to get health insurance. They worry about aging in place. They worry about paying for meds, like all of us do.”

She also cited a high rate of Ohio seniors who rely on the Medicaid program for health insurance, and how the state’s broader housing situation needs to be improved to achieve better health outcomes for residents.

The Ohio gubernatorial election will take place in November 2026. Acton is currently the only declared Democratic candidate, but several others have expressed interest.

On the Republican side, former county school board president Heather Hill has declared, as has Vivek Ramaswamy, the former 2024 Republican presidential candidate, U.S. DOGE Service architect and businessman.