Ramaswamy Wins Ohio GOP Gov. Primary; Trump-Backed Challengers Sweep Indiana State Senate Races

Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy won the Republican primary for governor of Ohio on Tuesday, setting up what is expected to be a competitive general election contest this fall against Democratic nominee Amy Acton, a former state health director who ran unopposed in her party’s primary.

Ramaswamy, who gained national prominence during the 2024 Republican presidential primary before withdrawing and endorsing President Donald Trump, now returns to his home state as the GOP standard-bearer in the governor’s race. Early polls show the race between Ramaswamy and Acton to be closely contested.

Ohio Democrats, buoyed by competitive polling in both the governor’s and Senate races, are expressing cautious optimism about their prospects in a state that has trended Republican in recent cycles. “It just feels like Ohio is back,” said state Democratic Party Chair Kathleen Clyde. It has been twenty years since Ohio last elected a Democrat as governor.

In Indiana, President Trump’s aggressive intervention in the state’s Republican primary elections yielded sweeping results Tuesday, as Trump-backed challengers defeated five of the seven incumbent state senators he had targeted for ouster. The incumbents had drawn the president’s ire last December when they voted to block a redrawn congressional map he had championed, which was designed to deliver two additional House seats to Republicans ahead of the fall midterm elections.

Trump-endorsed challengers Blake Fiechter, Tracey Powell, Michelle Davis, Brian Schmutzler, and Trevor De Vries each defeated their incumbent opponents. Fiechter’s victory was particularly notable, as he unseated state Sen. Travis Holdman, a member of the Republican Senate leadership. One Trump-backed challenger lost, with incumbent Greg Goode successfully defending his seat — the only senator among the seven to have held public listening sessions with constituents on the redistricting question before casting his vote against the map.

Roughly $12 million was spent on advertising across the seven Indiana contests, the bulk of it by Trump-allied outside groups opposing the incumbents, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. The results represent a significant display of the president’s continued hold over the Republican base, as GOP voters largely sided with his push to reshape the state party in his image.

The Indiana races drew an additional subplot, as former Vice President Mike Pence broke publicly with Trump by endorsing incumbent state Sen. Jim Buck in the District 21 contest. Buck went on to lose to Trump-backed challenger Tracey Powell.

In Ohio’s Senate primary, former Sen. Sherrod Brown won the Democratic nomination, setting up a general election rematch of sorts against Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to the seat after Vance became vice president. Brown, a three-term senator who lost his seat in 2024, is seeking a political comeback in what early polls suggest could be a closely fought race.