Final Ohio campaign finance report shows Acton raising more, spending less than Ramaswamy

Campaign finance reports filed last Thursday give Ohio one final look at the governor’s race ahead of Election Day. Outside groups like Super PACs will continue reporting independent expenditures with the Federal Election Commission, but Thursday’s report is last window into Ohio campaigns’ direct fundraising and spending.

Over the summer, Ohio campaigns report what they raised on a monthly basis, but not what they spent. So, when it comes time to make their final filing ahead of Election Day, they’re reporting two weeks of fundraising but more than four months of spending.

The gulf between the two in Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s report is large. While his campaign brought in $1.5 million, it spent $51.1 million. Ramaswamy also reported making another $5 million loan to his campaign. That brings its total outstanding debt to $41.3 million.

Continuing a recent trend, Democratic candidate Amy Acton reported raising far more than her Republican competitor. Acton’s campaign reported bringing in $3.9 million — more than double Ramaswamy’s take — while spending $26.2 million.

Ramaswamy’s report

Among Ramaswamy’s donors making contributions of $10,000 or more are American Electric Power, the Ohio branch of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, Elevance Health — formerly Anthem, and a political committee representing Ohio banks.

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The Winkelvoss twins, who notably almost invented Facebook, both made maximum donations to Ramaswamy’s campaign. The brothers now run a venture capital firm and head up a cryptocurrency Super PAC called Digital Freedom Fund.

That PAC has spent another $5.9 million in Ohio attacking Democrat Sherrod Brown or boosting his Republican opponent U.S. Sen. Jon Husted.

Ramaswamy’s campaign spent more than $35 million on media and television ad placements between July and Oct. 14. The biggest single media expenditure is the most recent — nearly $8 million on Oct. 8.

From the outset of his campaign, Ramaswamy faced criticism for crisscrossing the state in a private jet. In September, NBC reported on growing unease among GOP officials who urged him to “park the damn jet.”

Ramaswamy didn’t take their advice.

The pre-general report includes nearly $870,000 in charges related to Ramaswamy’s private jet travel. The campaign maintained two concurrent aircraft leases totaling almost $386,000. In addition, Ramaswamy’s campaign reports spending nearly $484,000 with the private jet charter company Talon Air.

Ramaswamy also reports making two in-kind contributions to Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s campaign to fly to campaign events.

Acton’s report

The biggest contributions Acton reports are a pair of donations totaling about $262,000 from the Ohio Democratic Party candidate fund. She also got donations of $10,000 or more from committees representing Franklin County Engineer Adam Fowler, Columbus teachers, the Ohio life sciences industry, and the Ohio Hospital Association.

But the OHA appears to be hedging its bets. Every contribution its PAC has made since Oct. 2025 has gone to Republicans. And although it gave Acton $10,000, it gave Ramaswamy a maximum donation of $16,615 two weeks prior.

Two notable individual donors backing Acton are executives with the defense company Anduril, which is building a manufacturing facility called Arsenal-1 just outside Columbus. CEO Brian Schimpf and COO Matthew Grimm both gave Acton maximum donations.

Acton’s campaign reports spending about $22.3 million on advertising placements and production. Roughly $1.7 million of that was later refunded to the campaign bringing the total closer to $20.6 million.

Like Ramaswamy, Acton’s campaign logged a lot of flight miles. But because they fly commercial it cost a lot less. Despite scores of airfare reimbursements, Acton’s total bill was about $57,600 — or less than a month and a half of Ramaswamy’s cheapest aircraft lease.

Follow Ohio Capital Journal Reporter Nick Evans on X or on Bluesky.