Vivek Ramaswamy is doing worse with Ohio's independent voters than any Republican nominee for governor in the state this century, according to CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten, as Democrat Amy Acton holds a narrow but steady lead two weeks before Election Day. Enten said on CNN on Monday that Ramaswamy's net rating among independents had fallen to minus 25 across the survey data he reviewed, the lowest mark he found for a GOP gubernatorial nominee in Ohio since 2000. The finding adds to a run of bad numbers for Ramaswamy, the biotech entrepreneur and 2024 presidential candidate who entered the race with President Donald Trump's endorsement in a state Trump carried three times by 8 to 11 points.
If Ramaswamy loses, Democrats will win the Ohio governor's office for the first time since 2006. It would also be among the starkest signs yet of how badly the midterm climate has turned for Republicans. Newsweek reached out to Ramaswamy and Acton's campaigns for comment Monday.
Ramaswamy led by about 4 points on average in 2025 polling, Enten told viewers. In his words, the race "has flipped from Ramaswamy over to Amy Acton, who's now up by 4 points in the polls." Independents account for most of the swing, by his account. Enten combined figures from several surveys and landed on a net rating of minus 25 for Ramaswamy with those voters.
"No one has ever been this low if you're a GOP gubernatorial nominee in Ohio. No one has been this low except for Vivek Ramaswamy," Enten said. "The worst this century!" Ken Blackwell, the 2006 Republican nominee, falls inside that stretch.
He lost to Democrat Ted Strickland by more than 20 points in the last Ohio governor's race Democrats won. Republicans have kept the office since, with John Kasich winning twice and Mike DeWine, now term-limited, winning in 2018 and 2022. Enten has hammered on Republican trouble with independents all cycle, and he usually ties it to prices.
On Sunday, he pointed to an ABC News/Washington Post poll that had President Donald Trump 52 points underwater on inflation. Most public surveys since late summer have Acton ahead, usually by a few points and often inside the margin of error. Bowling Green State University's latest poll with YouGov, which surveyed 1,000 likely voters from September 29 to October 9, showed Acton leading 50 percent to 44 percent.
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