Jeffrey Yass has added at least $10 million to the outside money backing Vivek Ramaswamy’s run for Ohio governor, pushing his total giving to V-PAC to at least $30 million and deepening the spending gap in the race. That fresh cash gives Ramaswamy and his allies an even larger lead over Amy Acton, whose campaign has reported raising $21.8 million.
The new donation matters now because the race is headed into its most expensive stretch, with Ramaswamy and his allies already having spent or reserved $82.3 million on TV and digital ads this year. Acton’s side is expected to spend $11.1 million, and an additional $9.4 million campaign funded by the Democratic Governors Association is set to begin after Labor Day, when the pro-Acton air war is supposed to really start.
That imbalance lands in a contest that polling shows is tight enough for every dollar to matter. A poll released Aug. 13 found 47% of Ohio voters viewed Acton negatively, up from 37% in June, and the same poll projected a very close or tied race. Yass, of Pennsylvania, has long been one of the biggest backers of school vouchers and school choice programs, and his latest contribution extends a political wager that has already made Ramaswamy the better-funded candidate by far.
Acton, though, is not running as a straight-line liberal in a race where Republicans are attacking her that way. She has backed Issue 3, supported Medicaid work requirements and endorsed Ohio’s ban on transgender girls and women in girls’ and women’s sports, positions that put her at odds with most Democrats even as they have not blunted the attacks. On Tuesday in Columbus, she used an appearance to tout a new endorsement from the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association and said she opposes a longshot citizens’ effort to eliminate qualified immunity.
The question now is not whether outside money will shape the Ohio governor race. It already has. The question is whether the late-arriving Democratic spending can catch a pro-Ramaswamy machine that has been running all year, or whether Yass’s latest check has already made the gap too wide to close before Election Day.
