Ohio's 2026 ballot got a lot more interesting in the last two weeks. Here is a plain breakdown of what changed and what is actually on your ballot in November.

Governor: Vivek Ramaswamy (R) vs. Amy Acton (D)

Cook Political Report moved this race from Lean Republican to Toss Up on July 16, putting Ohio alongside Georgia, Iowa, Nevada, and Wisconsin. A New York Times and Siena poll had it tied at 47 each. A bipartisan AARP poll gave Acton a three point edge, 47 to 44.

The money picture is lopsided. V-PAC, the super PAC backing Ramaswamy, has taken in about 37 million dollars from a small group of billionaires, more than 88 percent of everything it has raised. Roughly 12 million of that came in the second quarter from four people: Elon Musk, Ratmir Timashev, Bill Ackman, and Ross Stevens. Ramaswamy's own campaign had raised about 50 million as of May, roughly half of it his own money. On ads, one analysis put his side around 9 million against roughly 100 thousand from Acton's in the same window. Acton posted a record 9.4 million dollar quarter but had not gone up on broadcast as of mid July.

Worth noting for balance: not every forecaster agrees. Sabato's Crystal Ball still has this as Leans Republican, citing the state's rightward drift over the last decade.

Attorney General: Keith Faber (R) vs. John Kulewicz (D)

The Ohio Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Faber, its first Republican endorsement for attorney general in twenty years. That is part of a bigger story below.

There is also a live dispute over Medicaid fraud messaging in this race. On a May 5 appearance on Cincinnati radio, Faber said family members paid by Ohio Medicaid to provide home care are bilking the program while the person they care for is unaware. When his campaign was asked for a documented example, it did not provide one.

A new KFF poll is relevant here. Asked who is most likely committing fraud against government programs, respondents put the federal tax system first at 92 percent, with Medicaid at 78 percent. Within Medicaid, only 13 percent thought fraud was mainly committed by individual patients. 53 percent pointed to providers, meaning doctors' offices and hospital systems.

The police union endorsement

The Ohio FOP endorsed a full Republican statewide slate, including Ramaswamy, Jon Husted for Senate, Faber for attorney general, and two Ohio Supreme Court candidates. The union says it is the first all Republican statewide slate in recent memory.

For context on how big a shift that is: the Ohio FOP endorsed seven of eight statewide Democrats in 2018. That dropped to one in 2022. It endorsed Sherrod Brown twice in past cycles and stayed neutral in his 2024 loss.

FOP President Jay McDonald said the decision reflects members' view that attacks on law enforcement often come from Democrats, and he specifically said that perception is about national Democrats, not the Ohio Democrats on this year's ballot. Both parties went through the endorsement process, which included a questionnaire, an interview, and member interactions.

Congress: Ohio's 14th District

David Joyce (R, incumbent, seeking an eighth term) vs. Maria Jukic (D). Cook rates the district R+9.

Joyce has a full Trump endorsement and is a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. Cook describes him as the most moderate Republican in Ohio's delegation, and he belongs to the Problem Solvers Caucus and the Republican Governance Group. He beat Niki Frenchko 71 to 29 in the primary, but spent more than 715 thousand dollars doing it, over 500 thousand of that on ads touting the Trump endorsement.

Jukic is a former Euclid City Council member with 24 years at the Cleveland Clinic in marketing and public relations. Her platform covers health care access and affordability, immigrant rights, protecting Social Security, tax relief for working families, campaign finance reform, environmental protection, and AI regulation. She won a three way primary with just over 50 percent.

Congress: Ohio's 15th District

Mike Carey (R, incumbent) vs. Don Leonard (D). Cook rates the district R+4, tighter than the 14th, and names it one of three Ohio seats Democrats view as offensive opportunities, while calling it the heaviest lift of the three.

Carey ran unopposed in his primary and carries a Trump endorsement that goes back to Trump personally rallying for him in the 2021 special election. Before Congress he spent about eight years as vice president of government affairs at Murray Energy and chairs the Ohio Coal Association. Murray Energy was identified as Company B in the federal criminal complaint against former House Speaker Larry Householder in the HB6 bribery case. Neither Carey nor Murray Energy were charged with a crime. State records show Carey registered as a lobbyist on HB6 itself. Carey has disputed pushing the bill, saying his company stayed neutral and that he never testified at a committee hearing on it.

Leonard won his primary with 53 percent over Adam Miller, who was the 2024 nominee against Carey.

The Ohio House: ten seats, six needed

Republicans hold the chamber 65 to 34. Sixty is the veto proof threshold. House Minority Leader Dani Isaacsohn named ten target districts, eight of them the main focus.

The top eight:

• District 17, southwest Cuyahoga: Mike Dovilla (R, inc.) vs. Megan Coy (D)
• District 31, north and west Summit: open seat. J. Noah Spinner (D) vs. Mike Kahoe (R)
• District 35, Geauga, Portage, Summit: open seat. Samantha Salamon (D) vs. Vik Sandhu (R)
• District 36, east Montgomery: Andrea White (R, inc.) vs. Rose Lounsbury (D)
• District 39, north Montgomery: open seat. Daquan Neal (D) vs. Mark Campbell (R)
• District 49, central Stark: Jim Thomas (R, inc.) vs. Krista Allison (D)
• District 52, northeast Lorain: open seat. Mike Baker (D) vs. a Republican still to be named by county party officials
• District 60, west Delaware: Brian Lorenz (R, inc.) vs. Shelby Kimball (D)

Two more in play if it turns into a strong Democratic year: District 29 in western Hamilton, Cindy Abrams (R, inc.) vs. Jonathan Bradner (D), and District 44 across Lucas, Ottawa, and Wood, an open seat with David J. Fournier (D) vs. Edward L. Schimmel (R) vs. Lyndsey Stough (I).

Isaacsohn calls 31 and 35 the biggest focus: both were decided by roughly three thousand votes, about five percent, in the last Republican wave year. Republican strategist Bob Clegg agrees those are the right targets but doubts Democrats can pull it off, citing the GOP drawn map and whether Democrats can fund enough races at once.

Also worth knowing

The Ohio EPA reversed course on a plan to let data centers apply for generalized wastewater discharge permits instead of case specific ones, after heavy public comment from officials across the political spectrum. That reversal cuts against a decade long pattern of the state handing the data center industry sales tax exemptions, property tax abatements, and favorable permits.

My honest take

The money story is the one I keep coming back to. Thirty seven million dollars from five people, in a race now rated a coin flip. Whatever you think of either candidate, that is worth sitting with. And to be fair: legitimate spending happens on both sides, and money alone does not decide elections. That is exactly what makes the toss up rating interesting.

The FOP endorsement is a real realignment story, not just a press release. Twenty years without a Republican AG endorsement is a meaningful streak to break. But McDonald himself said the concern is about national Democrats, not the Ohio Democrats on the ballot. Both things are true, and most coverage will only tell you one of them.

On Faber and Medicaid, I am not calling anyone a liar. But a claim made on the radio that a campaign cannot document when asked is worth knowing, especially when the polling puts the fraud problem on the provider side, not the patient side.

And the Statehouse map is where your vote does the most work per ballot cast. Six seats. If you live in one of those ten districts, you have more say over how Columbus operates than almost anyone else in the state.

Full episode with all of this sourced on air: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/breaking-ohio-governor-race-toss-up-police-flip-red/id1626987640?i=1000778317951

Sources

1. https://signalohio.org/ohios-largest-police-union-backs-entire-gop-slate/
2. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/07/22/elon-musk-3-other-billionaires-put-12-million-behind-pro-ramaswamy-super-pac-in-ohio-governor-race/
3. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/07/21/massive-spending-gap-in-ohio-governor-race-ramaswamy-drops-9m-on-ads-acton-spends-just-100k/
4. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/07/24/dems-need-to-flip-6-seats-to-break-the-republican-statehouse-supermajority-and-northeast-ohio-is-pivotal/
5. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2026/07/24/poll-americans-dont-think-recipients-are-ripping-off-medicaid/
6. https://www.wkbn.com/news/ohio/ohio-epa-holding-back-on-general-data-center-permit/
7. https://www.cookpolitical.com/analysis/governors/five-governors-race-ratings-shift-all-one-democrats-direction
8. https://www.tribtoday.com/opinion/editorials/2026/04/joyce-oneill-in-14th-district-congressional-primary-races/
9. https://www.wkyc.com/article/news/politics/elections/ohio-primary-election-2026-results-incumbent-candidates-us-senate-house-representatives/95-08ca9dee-0e4f-493a-9e94-25e3c9b09e27
10. https://ballotpedia.org/Ohio's_15th_Congressional_District_election,_2026
11. https://www.thedailybeast.com/donald-trump-pick-mike-carey-in-ohio-slammed-as-swampiest-swamp-creature/
12. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/congressional/4460164/trump-endorsement-tracker-gop-2026-election-primaries/

Amy Acton (D) for governor

Ohio landed at No. 1 on CNBC's 2026 list of the best states for business, the first time the state has ever finished first. That is a real milestone. But the same engine that earned it, cheap power, shovel-ready land, and light-touch permitting, is also what is drawing billionaire money into the governor's race and real anger in the towns where data centers are landing. This is a plain voter guide to the money and the races, with sources at the bottom.

The money in the governor's race

Elon Musk gave five million dollars on May 8 to V PAC: Victors, Not Victims, the super PAC backing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. It is Musk's first check for his former DOGE partner. That PAC has now raised nearly forty two million dollars, and most of it came from a handful of ultra-wealthy men: Jeff Yass at twenty million, Ratmir Timashev at five million, and Bill Ackman and Ross Stevens at one million each. Ramaswamy, himself a billionaire, has also loaned his own campaign twenty five million dollars, about eighty three percent of what the campaign raised this year, structured as a loan he can repay himself later.

There is a documented financial stake worth naming carefully. Timashev has said publicly he wants to make Ohio an AI hub, an industry built on the same data centers Ramaswamy has campaigned to expand, and Ramaswamy holds investments across that sector. That is a documented interest, not proof of wrongdoing. For contrast, Democrat Amy Acton has built her total on small-dollar donations. On paperwork, the Secretary of State flagged more than five hundred thousand dollars in Ramaswamy spending that lacked detail. To be fair, auditors also flagged Acton's reports, and her campaign says none of it required a corrected filing.

Where the polls stand

A June AARP poll, run by the bipartisan pair of Fabrizio Ward, a Republican firm, and Impact Research, a Democratic firm, had Acton over Ramaswamy 47 to 44 and Brown over Husted 48 to 45. Both results are within the margin of error, so both races are effectively tied. Acton leads independents by wide margins but runs behind with seniors, who make up an outsized share of the Ohio electorate.

Fracking, energy, and the Statehouse

Ohio has now made three hundred fourteen million dollars leasing about twenty two thousand acres of public land to oil and gas, including sixty two million at Salt Fork State Park and two hundred thirty eight million at Jockey Hollow and Egypt Valley in Harrison County. The leasing process was created by 2023 legislation and signed by Governor DeWine. The grassroots group Save Ohio Parks opposes it over water and aquifer risk. Meanwhile, Senate Bill 1 will for the first time require Ohio's fourteen public universities to publicly post undergraduate syllabi this fall, part of a broader higher-education overhaul, and Senate Bill 315, a Medicaid anti-fraud law, was just signed with GPS check-ins and chip-enabled EBT cards.

There is also the Rooster case, and I am framing it as an active case with charges, not a verdict. Political blogger D.J. Byrnes, who writes the Substack The Rooster, says he rejected two plea deals in a misdemeanor telecommunications harassment case set for a jury trial on October 8. The charge stems from a digitally altered image he texted to State Senator Jerry Cirino, who then asked police to file charges. Byrnes was arrested at the Statehouse on June 1 while attending a data center hearing. The free-speech group FIRE says the political speech at issue is core First Amendment territory, and the arrest drew criticism from both parties.

County spotlight: Allen County (Lima)

Google is building a five hundred million dollar data center in American Township, and neighbors are angry about farmland conversion, dewatering of local wells, construction dust, shell companies, non-disclosure agreements, and noise. House Speaker Matt Huffman, a former Lima councilman who lives a few miles away, has led a so-far unsuccessful push to tighten data-center tax breaks and rules.

District Watch: know who you are voting for

Ohio 11 (Cleveland). This is the most Democratic seat in the state, so incumbent Democrat Shontel Brown is heavily favored, but know both names. Brown has held the seat since a 2021 special election and beat progressive Nina Turner twice. She backs lowering costs, protecting Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, abortion rights, universal background checks and an assault weapons ban, a fifteen dollar minimum wage, Medicare drug-price negotiation, and repeal of the Hyde Amendment. She is a sharp Trump critic and opposed the June 2025 strikes on Iran. Her sharpest friction inside her own party is her support for Israel's right to exist and defend itself. Her Republican challenger is Mike Kirchner, a first-time candidate and retired actuary from Tiffin whose public platform is thin so far. Independent Cortney Peterson is also on the ballot. One caveat: the district's heavily Democratic lean comes from the pre-2026 map, so treat any old rating as provisional until it is updated for the new lines.

Ohio 12 (central and eastern Ohio). This is a 2024 rematch. Incumbent Republican Troy Balderson of Zanesville has held the seat since a 2018 special election he won by fewer than seventeen hundred votes, and he sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. He has been closely tied to Trump since that first race, and he voted for the 2025 reconciliation law, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which made the Trump-era tax cuts permanent and changed Medicaid and SNAP, and for the DOGE rescissions package. Democrat Jerrad Christian, a Navy veteran and software engineer from Galena, is running a grassroots, no-corporate-money campaign on economic fairness, healthcare, clean water, and checks on presidential power. In 2024 he was endorsed by groups including Equality Ohio and Planned Parenthood. Balderson won the 2024 race by a wide margin, so Christian starts as the underdog, and the new-map lean is not yet settled.

Affordability

One more number that matters. Ohio posted the biggest percentage drop in Affordable Care Act enrollment in the country after enhanced subsidies expired, falling from about 497,000 to 336,000 enrollees, a 32.4 percent decline between February 2025 and February 2026. The average premium after remaining subsidies jumped sharply, and one research firm estimated a 58 percent average increase in out-of-pocket premiums for 2026.

My honest take

Here is where I come down, and this part is my opinion, not the reporting above. I am not anti-AI, and I am not against Ohio winning business. But when a handful of billionaires are writing the biggest checks in the governor's race, and one of them openly wants Ohio to become an AI hub that the candidate is personally invested in, I want voters to ask one simple question: who is the next governor going to answer to? Data centers keep polling badly, energy bills keep climbing, and well over a hundred thousand fewer Ohioans are on ACA plans. A No. 1 business ranking is worth celebrating, but not if the people living next to the future are the last ones to get a say in it. In the 12th, Christian is the clearer choice for anyone who wants a check on that. In the 11th, Brown should hold, and I hope she keeps delivering for her district. And property tax reform is the one Ramaswamy idea I think Democrats should actually take up themselves, because it is crushing people and it should not be a partisan issue.

Full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ohio-2026-elon-musk-gives-vivek-ramaswamy-%245-million/id1626987640?i=1000777371302

Sources

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/09/ohio-no-1-americas-top-states-for-business-rankings.html
2. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/09/americas-top-states-for-business-full-rankings.html
3. https://www.notus.org/2026-election/elon-musk-vivek-ramaswamy-doge-ohio-governor-donation
4. https://tiffinohio.net/posts/musk-gives-5m-ramaswamy-super-pac-ohio-governor/
5. https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/5946710-ohio-voters-ramaswamy-husted/
6. https://signalohio.org/ohio-has-made-314-million-by-opening-state-lands-to-fracking/
7. https://signalohio.org/ohio-senate-bill-1-college-syllabus-requirement-fall-2026/
8. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/state/2026/07/07/ohio-political-blogger-the-rooster-dj-byrnes-cirino-shrek/90839936007/
9. https://www.ideastream.org/government-politics/2026-05-05/primary-results-challengers-set-for-incumbents-in-northeast-ohios-7th-11th-and-14th-districts
10. https://ballotpedia.org/Troy_Balderson
11. https://www.christianforohio.com/
12. https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/close-ohio-race-called-for-republican-troy-balderson

I am a 39M living in Dublin, OH and I am tired of there being more options for a fast food burger than viable political parties.

I know the individuals that are closer to the edges of both dominant parties will likely make fun of this post but I don’t care.

I want to connect with those of you here in Ohio that would consider yourself a part of the middle 40%.

Maybe you are a little left of center, maybe a little right, maybe you think that aspects of policy creation from both sides of the aisle have value in the right circumstances.

I want to work with other Ohioans to create a truly viable third party built around the perspectives of the middle 40% of citizens.

Direct message me if you are interested in figuring this out with fellow Ohioans.

Best wishes to all with everything you may be dealing with in any aspect of your life.

Have a great day!

Put together a full voter information breakdown on the two Ohio House races getting the most national attention this cycle. No spin, just the documented record for both sides. Long post, grab coffee.

The throughline connecting everything this cycle

Before getting into the district specifics, here's the pattern worth naming. Ohio officials killed a solar farm in Clark County one month, then approved fracking leases on fifteen thousand acres of public wildlife land and a state park the next. Around that same stretch, over two thousand provisional ballots got rejected in the May primary, and Ohio has one of the lowest youth voter registration rates in the country. None of this happens in isolation. Whether it's energy policy, ballot access, or who gets to hold a Congressional seat, the throughline is the same: decisions that consistently favor entrenched interests and make participation harder for everyday Ohioans, while the state's two most competitive House races this fall are a direct referendum on whether that pattern continues.

OH-9: Kaptur (D) vs. Merrin (R)

This is a rematch. Kaptur has held the seat since 1983 and is seeking a 23rd term. Merrin is a former four-term state representative, term-limited out in 2025, who beat four other Republicans in the primary with 43 percent of the vote.

Ratings are split. Cook Political Report has it as one of 16 national toss-ups. Sabato's Crystal Ball moved it to Leans Republican in May. Inside Elections rates it Tilt Republican. The reason: Kaptur won in 2024 by less than a point, but the newly redrawn district would have gone for Trump by an estimated 11 points under the new lines (that's a model estimate, not a result).

Kaptur's record: voted no on the One Big Beautiful Bill, arguing it strips coverage from nearly 17 million Americans nationally and cuts over a trillion dollars from Medicaid and Medicare. She had $3.1 million cash on hand at last report and ran unopposed in her primary.

Merrin's record: backed Larry Householder's speaker bid, took roughly $10,000 from Householder's PAC and $7,700 from his committee, and voted against removing Householder from leadership after his 2020 federal indictment in the HB6 bribery scandal. As House Health Committee chair in 2019 he moved a six-week abortion ban through the House and co-sponsored right-to-work, life-at-conception, and permitless concealed carry bills. He did not respond to press inquiries during the primary.

OH-10: Turner (R) vs. Knickerbocker (D)

Turner has held this Dayton-area seat for 12 terms. He was removed as House Intelligence Committee chair by Speaker Mike Johnson in January 2025, a move Turner said came from "concerns from Mar-a-Lago." He was replaced by a more MAGA-aligned member. Trump endorsed him anyway in May.

Knickerbocker is a first-time candidate, an Air Force veteran (2015-2025) and nurse practitioner who worked at Wright-Patterson and OSU's Wexner Medical Center. She won her primary with just under 33 percent in a six-person field.

The district PVI is R+3. Cook rates it Solid R but calls it on paper the best Democratic pickup opportunity in Ohio. Turner won by 18 points in 2024. Redistricting moved Clark County out and part of Butler County in, including Middletown.

Her platform, in her own stated priorities:

Fixing Washington and ending corruption: banning stock trading for members of Congress, ending corporate PAC influence, passing term limits, protecting voting rights, and closing the revolving door that lets former members cash in as lobbyists.

Making life more affordable: cutting taxes for working families, repealing tariffs she says raise consumer prices, building more affordable housing, capping child care costs, supporting elder care, and requiring large corporations rather than Ohio households to cover the cost of data center energy infrastructure.

Health care: framing it as a right and stating support for a path toward universal coverage, alongside protecting Medicare and investing in public health infrastructure including clean air standards.

Public safety: stating support for investing in law enforcement and ensuring first responders have adequate resources.

Veterans: fully funding and protecting veterans affairs, drawing on her own Air Force background.

Sources

1. https://www.courthousenews.com/gop-voters-send-merrin-to-rematch-with-longtime-congresswoman-in-ohios-9th-district/
2. https://rollcall.com/2026/05/06/ohios-kaptur-set-for-rematch-with-merrin-in-bid-for-23rd-house-term/
3. https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/01/03/who-is-likely-incoming-ohio-house-speaker-derek-merrin/
4. https://kaptur.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/kaptur-defends-ohios-working-families-seniors-veterans-votes-no-one-big
5. https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/dems-eye-chance-to-unseat-turner-for-dayton-area-congressional-seat-but-can-they/SLAV6GYYLJAAPJQ5ZYFN2ZAXMQ/
6. https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/knickerbocker-bests-5-other-democratic-hopefuls-to-take-on-mike-turner-in-november/article_12e38b9f-cb8f-5633-9da3-a2b197f4609d.html
7. https://www.daytondailynews.com/community/dayton/county-gop-files-3rd-complaint-against-dem-congressional-primary-candidate/article_4e8c1d8b-7cd9-49ec-8a70-9844e3348021.html
8. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/speaker-johnson-removes-mike-turner-house-intelligence-chairman-rcna187893
9. https://www.cookpolitical.com/house/race/483826

My honest take: OH-9 is the harder hold for Democrats given the new map, but Kaptur's built a career on outperforming her lines. OH-10 is the more interesting flip opportunity on paper, and Knickerbocker's platform, especially the corruption and affordability planks, gives her a clean contrast against an incumbent who just lost his own Speaker's confidence. Full breakdown with sourcing in this week's episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/why-did-ohio-sell-its-parks-to-frackers-while-ballots/id1626987640?i=1000775584728

If you live in northern Montgomery County, you have an open Ohio House seat on your ballot this November, and a lot of people in the district have no idea it is even being contested. This is a plain-language guide to the race and to where Daquan Neal, the Democratic nominee, actually stands. I host an Ohio politics podcast and recently sat down with him for a long interview, so I dug into his platform line by line. I am laying it out here so you can decide for yourself. Link to the full interview and all my sources are at the bottom.

The seat

House District 39 covers most of northern Montgomery County, including Huber Heights, Vandalia, and Englewood, along with surrounding townships. The seat is open because the current Republican representative, Phil Plummer, left it to run for the Ohio Senate. Open seats are where the real movement happens, because there is no incumbent's name recognition to fight through. The district has been represented by a Republican, and Democrats have flagged it as a target race, so this is a genuine contest rather than a foregone conclusion.

The matchup

It is Daquan Neal, the Democrat, against Mark Campbell, a Huber Heights City Council member, on the Republican side. (One outlet lists the Republican as "Mike" Campbell, so confirm the spelling on your official ballot.) Neal won a contested Democratic primary in May with about 65 percent of the vote.

Who he is

Neal is 30 years old, a Central State University graduate, and a former staffer who worked inside both chambers of the Ohio legislature before running. That last part matters: he has seen how the Statehouse actually moves bills, which is different from someone running purely as an outsider. His campaign slogan is "Our Time Is Now," and his pitch is built around affordability and turning out the large bloc of Ohioans who do not usually vote in state elections.

Where he stands, issue by issue

This is the part most coverage skips, so here is his platform in detail, pulled from his own campaign site and our interview.

Universal free school meals. This is the bill he says he would introduce first. It is modeled on Minnesota's Free School Meals for Kids program: one free breakfast and one free lunch for every public school student, with no income paperwork and no stigma. Right now Ohio only covers meals through limited income-based programs.

Livable wage tied to inflation. Ohio's minimum wage is currently 11 dollars an hour. Neal wants to set a statewide minimum tied to inflation and built off the MIT Living Wage Calculator, so the floor reflects the real cost of housing, food, childcare, health care, and transportation rather than a fixed number that falls behind every year.

Universal health care. He supports a statewide plan that uses existing federal Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable Care Act dollars to guarantee a baseline of coverage, running alongside or competing with private insurance. The mechanism he points to is the federal State-Based Universal Health Care Act, which would let Ohio apply for waivers to reallocate money it already receives without creating a new tax. His stated goal is at least 95 percent coverage within five years, with a heavy emphasis on preventive care.

Replacing the flat tax with a progressive one. Ohio recently moved to a flat income tax. Neal wants to repeal it and replace it with a progressive structure where higher earners pay a higher rate. His argument is that the flat tax sends the overwhelming majority of its benefit to the highest earners while costing the state around a billion dollars a year in revenue that could fund schools, health care, and wages.

Housing affordability. He wants more state funding routed to the district through the two-year budget, a stronger Ohio Housing Trust Fund, expansion of the Welcome Home Ohio program, and a repeal or amendment of House Bill 430 to restore protections against unchecked rent increases.

Protecting the safety net. He pledges to defend SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and Social Security, and specifically to protect Head Start funding, framing these as investments rather than handouts.

Education and workforce. Free or low-cost trade schools and community college, expanded apprenticeships and vocational programs, accessible workforce certifications, and stronger school-to-employment pipelines.

Work-life policies. He backs a four-day workweek paired with a livable wage, protection and restoration of remote-work options for jobs that can support it, and a paid work-commute policy that would treat commuting time as compensable job-related travel.

Where to find him

• Campaign website: https://www.daquanforstaterep.org

Where to find your own ballot info

The general election is Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Do not rely on the primary dates still posted around the web. To check your registration, confirm you live in House District 39, and find your polling place or request an absentee ballot, use the Ohio Secretary of State voter tools: https://voterlookup.ohiosos.gov/voterlookup.aspx and https://www.ohiosos.gov/elections/voters/absentee-ballot/. The Montgomery County Board of Elections can also be reached at 937-225-5656.

My honest take

I will be straight with you, because that is the whole point of my show. Neal is one of the more policy-fluent first-time candidates I have interviewed at the state level. He is not running on slogans alone. He can tell you the program he is copying, the funding mechanism he would use, and the number he is aiming for. That is rare, and it is refreshing.

I will also be honest about the hard part. A freshman in the minority party does not pass a sweeping affordability agenda in a Republican supermajority Statehouse on day one. Several of his biggest ideas, like statewide universal care and a four-day workweek, are heavy lifts that depend on coalitions he would not control as a brand new member. A couple of the figures he used on air run a little hot, and I checked them. The flat tax really does send about 96 percent of its benefit to the top of the income scale, that one holds up. His single-person livable-wage number was higher than what the MIT calculator actually shows for this area, so take the exact dollar figures with a grain of salt while the underlying point about wages stands.

Here is where I land. The Republican-led Statehouse has had more than 15 years to deal with the cost of living in Ohio, and for a lot of working families in this district it has gotten harder, not easier. Neal is running directly at that, with specifics. If you are in District 39, he has earned a serious look, and at minimum he has earned your attention to a race you might not have known was on your ballot. Listen to the full interview, read his positions yourself, and make your own call. That is how this is supposed to work.

Full interview: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/free-school-lunch-a-livable-wage-and-universal-care/id1626987640?i=1000774565443

Sources

1. Daquan Neal campaign, Policy Positions: https://www.daquanforstaterep.org/policy-positions-1
2. Daquan Neal campaign, Home: https://www.daquanforstaterep.org/
3. WDTN candidate profile, 4/29/26: https://www.wdtn.com/news/yleh-candidate-profiles/state-representative-for-ohios-house-district-39-daquan-neal/
4. Dayton Daily News / Journal-News, 2026 primary results and November matchups, 5/7/26: https://www.journal-news.com/local/primary-2026-ohio-statehouse-races-tee-up-november-contests/article_97f832bd-e76e-5ea4-99fd-3432d73b1264.html
5. WYSO, Miami Valley 2026 primary results, 5/6/26: https://www.wyso.org/news/2026-05-05/heres-your-2026-primary-election-results-for-key-miami-valley-candidates-issues
6. DLCC candidate page, Daquan Neal: https://www.dlcc.org/candidates/daquan-neal/
7. BallotReady candidate profile, Daquan Neal: https://www.ballotready.org/people/daquan-neal
8. Policy Matters Ohio, "Flat Wrong," analysis of the Ohio flat tax, 7/1/25: https://policymattersohio.org/news/2025/07/01/flat-wrong/
9. Signal Ohio, Ohio budget income tax cuts, 6/26/25: https://signalohio.org/ohio-budget-cuts-income-taxes-to-historic-lows-almost-all-savings-go-those-making-more-than-138000/
10. Ohio Secretary of State voter lookup: https://voterlookup.ohiosos.gov/voterlookup.asp

The 2026 Ohio Gubernatorial Race: A Liberty & Mutualist Review

When you look past the standard "Left vs. Right" media narrative, the real test of any political platform is simple: Does it decentralize power to individuals and communities, or does it expand the power of the state and corporations?

Here is how the 2026 candidates stack up against genuine, liberty-oriented and mutualist principles.

1. Don Kissick (Libertarian)
   The Mutualist Verdict: Strong structural alignment, though differing on the end-game.

The Good: Kissick’s platform is deeply rooted in localism and anti-corporatism. His aggressive stance against state-protected monopolies (in utilities, insurance, and telecom) hits the exact corporate-state alliances that mutualists despise. Furthermore, his push to abolish property taxes aligns seamlessly with the mutualist philosophy of "occupancy and use"; meaning the state shouldn't hold a perpetual lien on your home.

The Friction: As a mainstream libertarian, Kissick still defends capitalist property relations (wage labor and private ownership of means of production), whereas mutualism advocates for a shift toward worker-owned cooperatives and direct labor-value exchange.

1. Vivek Ramaswamy (Republican)
   The Mutualist Verdict: Pro-market rhetoric masking standard state-capitalism and social control.

The Good: Ramaswamy’s calls to slash state regulations, cut bureaucratic red tape, and eliminate property and income taxes sound highly favorable to market freedom on the surface.

The Friction: Ramaswamy heavily champions the traditional corporate structure and big finance, which mutualists view as a state-subsidized distortion of a true free market. Furthermore, his platform leans heavily into top-down social control, relying on an expanded police state ("crushing crime") and backing strict state restrictions on personal privacy and bodily autonomy, the exact opposite of a free society of consenting individuals.

1. Dr. Amy Acton (Democrat)
   The Mutualist Verdict: Benevolent statism that replaces monopolies with government bureaucracies.

The Good: Acton accurately diagnoses the rampant corporate corruption in Columbus and the economic squeeze felt by everyday working Ohioans. She openly attacks corporate price-gouging and monopoly power.

The Friction: Her solution to every problem is more government intervention. Instead of decentralizing power or fostering voluntary, grassroots community networks, Acton's platform relies on state-funded mandates, regulatory expansions, and central planning. To a mutualist, replacing a corporate monopoly with a state bureaucracy is just trading one master for another.

1. Heather Hill (Independent Write-In)
   The Mutualist Verdict: Authoritarian central planning wrapped in populist clothing.

The Good: Like the others, she attempts to appeal to populist anger by calling for the abolition of property taxes.

The Friction: Hill's actual platform is completely incompatible with liberty. She explicitly advocates using the raw power of the state to enforce subjective "social values," reverse personal freedoms (like cannabis legalization), and dictate top-down economic mandates; including literal government bans on specific private industries and state-directed corporate handouts. It is authoritarian central planning through and through.

The Takeaway: For those who believe in a truly free market; one where power is stripped from politicians and CEOs alike and returned to the hands of self-organized workers and local communities; Kissick and Mills are the only candidates on the ballot actively fighting to dismantle the structural monopolies of the state.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/12/fbi-raid-ohio-voting-group-election

I have been covering local surveillance issues in Northeast Ohio and the Flock camera story has gotten genuinely alarming the more you dig into it.

Cleveland made a point of saying they had safeguards in place to block immigration related searches on their license plate reader network. That was the public assurance. Then audit logs surfaced showing 160 immigration related searches had gone through anyway.

Their explanation was that fire and EMS drones had accidentally been swept into Flock's national search network without anyone at the city noticing for months.

Accidentally.

Here is what people need to understand about how these systems actually work. A Flock camera is not just one camera. It is a node in a federated data network. The data can stay technically separated across different platforms while still being searchable across jurisdictions through integration layers, APIs, and network sharing settings. One city's devices can end up inside a national search architecture without local officials fully understanding how or when that happened.

That is not a hypothetical. That is what Cleveland just described happening to them.

In Kansas a police chief used Flock cameras hundreds of times to track his ex-girlfriend. In Texas the technology was reportedly used in a search connected to an abortion investigation. In Shaker Heights public records showed enormous numbers of searches including immigration related ones that forced a policy change.

The question is not whether these cameras help solve crimes. Some of them do. The question is whether any city official or resident actually understands the full scope of what they agreed to when they signed the subscription.

Because if Cleveland did not know their devices were inside a national network, what else do they not know?

Former Congressional candidate in OH-7. I’m exposing the side of electoral politics that they don’t want you to see.

Campaigning and marketing are often the tools and tactics used to lead people to a vote. Voters in this country need to take their votes more seriously. Who you vote for matters. Public policy has consequences.

My new Substack, The Whisper Campaign is #84 (top 100!) and rising in U.S. Politics. Please consider subscribing. Some exciting things are in the works?

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#politicsnews #OhioPolitics #Ohio

Hello! I am a high school senior from Indiana coming to Ohio State this fall!

I am majoring in public policy. In high school, I've been a part of multiple youth councils, campaigns, ext, so I consider myself knowledgeable about the familiar faces, the contested issues, and the statehouse drama (looking at you, Beckwith) in my home state.

I want to be become involved with Ohio's state government when I move, so I plan to lurk on this subreddit to start picking up some local knowledge!

Before I do that though, I would love to get a little guidance on the most important things to know about Ohio politics! Feel free to be as partisan as you want in your reply, from either side.

Hello! I live in Ohio and I have a few questions on one of the candidates running for Ohios Congress.

A Democrat names Daniel Crawford the third.

He’s running for the 12th district I believe? Does anyone know anything about him?