Ohio Democratic candidate for governor Amy Acton refuses to debate

Ohio Democratic candidate for governor Dr. Amy Acton has turned down the opportunity to debate her Republican opponent Vivek Ramaswamy.

In a statement, her campaign pointed to a string of inaccurate attack ads and said Acton is focused on “talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family.”

Ramaswamy, meanwhile, went on Fox News and challenged Acton to show up and defend her positions.

“If you certainly are not willing to debate then you certainly can’t lead the state,” Ramaswamy said.

A reversal

The last time Ohio elected a leader, it was incumbent Republican Gov. Mike DeWine who refused to debate Democratic candidate Nan Whaley.

DeWine debated in 2018 when he first ran for governor, but 2022 was far from the first time he chose not to take the stage. Democrats spent nearly a month on “DeWine debate watch” issuing daily press releases complaining about his decision to duck his opponent.

Ramaswamy’s campaign is now throwing that material back at Acton — citing an Ohio Democrats press release from September 2022 that shared editorials criticizing DeWine. The party highlighted how debates “are the equivalent of a job interview.”

The campaign also dug up a past statement from Acton’s running mate David Pepper. In 2014, Pepper unsuccessfully ran for Attorney General against DeWine. There too, DeWine refused to debate, and Pepper said he was “showing contempt for voters and civic groups.”

University of Akron Political Scientist David Cohen said DeWine was “probably not criticized enough” for refusing to debate in the 2022 election, but DeWine at least was a known quantity.

“Mike DeWine had held elected office in the state of Ohio for decades,” Cohen said. “Amy Acton and Vivek Ramaswamy have never held elected office.”

“For a lot of people,” he added, “(a debate) would be their first way to get eyeballs on them and to be able to make an assessment of how effective a leader they would be for the state of Ohio.”

It’s a point that Libertarian candidate for governor Don Kissick was quick to make on social media. He posted video of himself pressing Ramaswamy to agree to a debate after an Ohio Conference of Teamsters event. Kissick noted he’s “still waiting” on a commitment to debate from both major party candidates.

“Political malpractice”

Cohen is unequivocal about the importance of debates: “It’s the only opportunity that the voters get to see the candidates on the same stage and to measure them against one another,” he said.

For the person who will be in charge of signing the state budget, that’s a crucial measuring stick, he added.

Jen Miller who heads up Ohio’s League of Women Voters was just as unambiguous. In a statement, she said, “A healthy democracy relies on informed and engaged voters.”

She stressed that while the league doesn’t take a position on individual candidates, “Voters should have meaningful opportunities to hear directly from candidates beyond scripted appearances and political ads.”

“We encourage every political candidate in Ohio to participate in nonpartisan candidate events, and we encourage voters to ask their candidates to take part,” Miller added.

In its refusal, the Acton campaign pointed to Ramaswamy’s campaign using AI in posts depicting her as an alcoholic and running ads blaming Acton for a woman’s mother dying in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Ohio’s Health Director, Acton imposed restrictions on people visiting Ohio’s nursing homes during the pandemic but the woman in question was at a nursing home in Kentucky, and she died after Ohio had lifted its stay-at-home order.

Cohen can sympathize with Acton’s frustrations but says turning down debates amounts to “political malpractice.”

“We know that a lot of the attack ads are just completely false, certainly,” he said, “But what better forum to push back on those kinds of things and to point out that your opponent is lying then at a debate face-to-face?”

Acton’s refusal puts the focus on her, Cohen explained, when a debate could’ve put the focus on Ramaswamy’s inaccuracies.

A trend

To Cohen, Acton’s decision is yet another example in a troubling trend — more and more often candidates are refusing to debate.

He’s helped coordinate debates with the Akron Press Club for more than two decades for races like the U.S. House of Representatives, mayor, school board and more. But it has become “increasingly difficult,” he said, to get candidates to show up.

In Ohio’s last statewide election, for instance, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno participated in multiple debates during the Republican party primary. But during the general election, Moreno and Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown could never agree on a debate, despite both men insisting they were eager to do so.

“Unfortunately,” he said, “candidates and campaigns weigh the risk as being too high for a candidate to get up there and to crash and burn than to just simply go ahead and do it.”

“We’re still in early September,” Cohen said. “You know, it is quite possible that the Acton campaign will reverse course and agree to at least at least one debate.”

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