(Editor’s Note: This op-ed regarding the candidacy of Ohio Democrat gubernatorial candidate, Dr. Amy Acton, was submitted by Dr. Jeff Crecelius of McArthur.)
Ohio has an important decision to make in November 2026. In recent decades, Ohio has declined in nearly every category — education, health outcomes, life expectancy and economic opportunity. Ohio’s Appalachia region feels this.
The Governor’s race between front-runners Amy Acton of the Democratic party and Vivek Ramaswamy of the GOP will play a huge role in determining our state’s future. Though I don’t know both candidates, I know one quite well. I have voted for both Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates. The person I believe that has the most integrity and honesty and who will have the interest of all Americans and their freedoms in mind gets my vote. Leaders without a moral compass simply invite corruption and instability.
The candidate I don’t know is Vivek Ramaswamy. It is clear he is smart and successful. I appreciate he is a family man. What is lacking in his resume is any record of caring about the people of Ohio. For me, the ship named ‘The Billionaire Has My Back’ has sprung a leak.
Mr. Ramaswamy attended private high school, costing $17,000 a year, in Cincinnati. He uses his large, private Lear jet to fly to campaign stops within Ohio. The chance he understands the plight of the middle class or those who truly struggle seems quite remote. How could he identify with those who worry where they’ll find work, how they’ll put food on the table, pay the electric bill, have healthcare or clothe their children?
The candidate I do know is Amy Acton. Dr. Acton and I trained together at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in 1990. Later, I had the honor of being her children’s doctor. In our 35-year relationship, I’ve known Amy as a colleague, a mother and as a constant public servant to Ohio.
Amy grew up under difficult circumstances. Her parents divorced when she was 3. She moved a dozen times, lived in the basement of a shop for several years, experienced neglect and hunger and survived living in a tent during a Youngstown winter. She and her brother were finally rescued to a more stable life at 12 years. She worked three jobs to finance herself while studying and making grades at an accelerated six-year combined college/medical school program. She’s hard as steel.
Dr. Acton’s public service includes developing a residency program in child advocacy, receiving a Master’s degree in Public Health before becoming the director of LOVE (Love Our Children/Vaccinate Early). She taught at The Ohio State University as a Professor of Maternal and Child Health and Global Public Health and was lauded by her students, winning their Excellency In Teaching Award. She then joined The Columbus Foundation to fight against vaping and for homeless youth.
As COVID approached, it was Dr. Acton who first recognized its gravity and led Ohio, other states and even countries to react. Dr. Acton did the job assigned to her as the Director of Public Health. It’s theorized she saved between 8,000 and 25,000 Ohioans between March and May 2020. To date, COVID has killed 1.22 million Americans, including 43,000 Ohioans.
The threat was real. It was difficult. It was a 100-year pandemic.
Some say she walked away when the going got tough. This is not true. She stayed in her position for months while angry protesters camped outside her home. In truth, she resigned because the Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, pressured her to sign orders to open Ohio’s fairs. She knew more deaths would ensue. She would not defy her Hippocratic oath. Householder is now serving 20 years in federal prison for his bribery corruption conviction.
This brings me to my final point. When it comes to integrity, truth, justice and kindness — ‘content of character,’ as Martin Luther King, Jr. described it – nobody is on the same playing field as Dr. Amy Acton.
(Editor’s Note: It is the policy of The Telegram to accept and publish Letters to the Editor and Opinion/ Editorial pieces. The views expressed in those submissions do not necessarily reflect the views of The Telegram staff and should be viewed as being only the opinion of the writer.)
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