The state's two major party gubernatorial candidates said changes must be made for Ohio to become one of the most dynamic states in the country. But they have different ideas of how to accomplish that.
In 1950, Ohio was the fifth-largest state in the U.S. and a leader in business and industry. The U.S. Census showed Ohio had a population of 7,946,627. It was a period of rapid growth, with the population increasing 15% between 1940 and 1950. And Cleveland was the equivalent of the seventh-largest state, with 50 of the Fortune 500 companies headquartered there.
Ramaswamy: cut taxes and regulations
In a speech last week in Toledo, Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said Ohio used to be full of innovation, and "I believe in us to be that state again."
The Ohio Republican Party has held a firm grip on the state since 1992, with Democrats controlling the governor's office for only four of those 34 years and the House for five.
The GOP holds all of the state's executive offices, a supermajority in the legislature, and every seat except one on the Ohio Supreme Court. But despite decades of firm control by his fellow Republicans, Ramaswamy said changes are needed in Ohio.
"We have a major opportunity for Ohio to be the state that leads the United States back to greatness, to be the state that Texas and Florida aspire to rather than the other way around," Ramaswamy said to the crowd, assembled for an appearance by Vice President JD Vance, a former U.S. Senator from Ohio.
Ramaswamy has repeatedly said he wants to zero out the income tax. He said the way to grow the state is for Ohioans to earn more money and keep more of it.
“Put more money in your pocket, to improve your after-tax take-home pay, to create a regulatory environment that is so attractive and a tax environment that is so attractive in Ohio that businesses are moving back into Ohio, staying in Ohio, creating high-paying jobs that allow you to keep more of what you earn," Ramaswamy said.
Acton: change priorities for tax dollars
But the Democratic candidate for governor said the past three decades under Republicans have resulted in a lower quality of life for Ohioans.
“Our biggest export in this state is young people right now," said former Ohio Department of Health director Dr. Amy Acton in an interview with the Statehouse News Bureau.
Acton said life has become unaffordable for young Ohioans because the state hasn't put enough money toward K-12 and higher education, housing, child care and health care. Acton said Republican leaders have put their priority in the wrong places and that, she said, has resulted in a high property tax burden for Ohioans.
"The reason our property taxes are going up is this corrupt Statehouse is giving tax cuts to the most rich among us and leaving everyday Ohioans out is that they have not been funding the programs needed at the local level," Acton said. "They have not been fully funding the local fund, which actually helps pay for schools and our police, our fire, and all of our essential services. So that puts this undue burden on other mechanisms of tax to go up."
Acton said there's no need to raise taxes, but there is a need to change the priorities for tax dollars.
“The person my opponent picked to be his running mate was the architect of giving $600 million for a Browns stadium when we did not fund what a bipartisan group of business leaders and the governor wanted for our child care," Acton said, referring to Senate President Rob McColley, one of the Republican leaders who argued for the state to set aside $600 million in unclaimed funds for the Cleveland Browns stadium in Brook Park. "We are not taking care of the issues for our rural hospitals. We are not taking care of the things that Ohioans want us to fund."
Acton and Ramaswamy, along with their running mates former Ohio Democratic Party chair David Pepper and McColley, are the front-runners for their respective parties in this May's primaries.
Special thanks to Jaden Jefferson, a 17-year-old student journalist in Toledo, for assisting with this story. You can find Jaden's work on X: @Jaden_Reports
