COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who became a household name in the state in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running for governor.
Acton, 58, a physician and public health expert who stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for months during his daily coronavirus briefings, said people still stop her in the grocery store or at a restaurant to share their struggles — and she doesn't want to look away.
“I feel like I have a bond with Ohioans and a connection,” she said in an Associated Press interview. “You don’t go through what we’ve been through — trying to save 11.7 million people the way we did — and not have some special connection.”
Acton filed paperwork and launched her campaign Tuesday. She plans to run as a Democrat, which places her at an immediate disadvantage in a state that has turned solidly red in recent years.
While she has said before that serving in DeWine’s cabinet taught her much about how the office operates, on Tuesday she said she believes that Ohio's Republican leaders — who control all three branches of state government — are spending too much time fighting the culture wars and they're taking the state in the wrong direction.
“It’s not OK with me that Ohioans don’t live as long as people do in other states," she said. "It’s not OK with me to watch what used to be a top education system, state-of-the-art education system, begin to fall year after year after year. It’s not OK with me that our GDP is like 45th and our biggest export is Ohioans, is young people.”
Acton's entry into the race comes as Republicans Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost already are positioning to run for the seat, which the 78-year-old DeWine must vacate next year due to term limits. But the landscape of the race is far from settled.
DeWine has yet to appoint a replacement to U.S. Sen. JD Vance, who will be inaugurated as Donald Trump's vice president Jan. 20. Though DeWine has long endorsed Husted as his favored successor, the lieutenant governor is now considered a leading contender as his pick for the Senate. That's after Husted and DeWine met with Trump and Vance last month at Mar-a-Lago, a trip first reported by WEWS-TV.
Giving Husted the job would create a political opening for Trump insider Vivek Ramaswamy to possibly make a gubernatorial run against Yost in the 2026 primary. Ramaswamy has said he would not seek the Senate opening — Ohio's third in as many years — right now, because he's busy heading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency effort with Elon Musk. DOGE is not an actual government department, but a private effort.
DeWine plucked Acton from Ohio State University, where she was an associate professor of public health, to lead the Ohio Department of Health in 2019. As the pandemic ramped up in early 2020, she was thrown into the state and national spotlight — becoming a beloved source of comfort to many viewers of the governor's daily news conferences.
For her service as health director, Acton earned the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in COVID Courage Award, the Columbus Foundation’s Spirit of Columbus Award and Ohio State’s highest alumni honor, the Alumni Medalist Award.
But her position as the face of the DeWine administration's aggressive stance against the virus also earned Acton many enemies, among them Statehouse Republicans and average Ohioans who opposed pandemic restrictions.
During the crisis, Acton used the health director's broad emergency powers to halt the state's 2020 presidential primary, to temporarily close gyms and fitness centers around the state, and to impose stay-at-home orders as the administration tried to prevent COVID’s spread. Husted also took part in the administration's COVID response, but not to the extent that Acton did.
After a grueling period of public exposure, angry demonstrations, lawsuits and personal attacks, Acton resigned her state job in June 2020. DeWine sent her off fondly, describing her as a hero in a white coat. She stayed on as his chief health adviser until that August.
She said Tuesday that she recognizes she has not held elective office, but she feels she has the skills necessary to do the job.
“We know that I’m a doctor. I’m not a politician,” she said. “But I am a leader, and I tend to think of myself as more of a public servant and a problem solver.”
After leaving government, Acton joined the Columbus Foundation as a grants director with the title “vice president for Human:Kind.” She left that post after about six months to explore a run for U.S. Senate, ultimately deciding against joining the 2022 contest won by Vance. She later took on a job as director of the city of Columbus' Project L.O.V.E., an initiative aimed at encouraging early vaccinations in children.
Acton said she has spent all that time supporting candidates and causes that she believes in and carefully considering whether to enter politics.
“My challenge to whoever else wants to run in this race is it's time to put something bigger than ourselves at the top here,” she said. “So many of us have values in Ohio that we all hold dear. We have got to put the real problems, the day-to-day problems we all face on the table and put that first.”
FILE - Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton gives an update on the state's preparedness and education efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
A U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance arrived in Pakistan for talks with Iranian officials aimed at shoring up a shaky ceasefire and paving the way for a permanent end to the fighting. It marks the first such meeting since the war began more than a month ago.
The ceasefire brokered by Pakistan still faces hurdles in the talks beginning Saturday, as Israel and Hezbollah militants have been trading fire along the border of southern Lebanon and Iran has set conditions before negotiations can begin.
The Iranian delegation arrived early Saturday in Islamabad, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, who said on X that discussions will only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon the release of blocked Iranian assets.
Hours earlier, President Donald Trump wished Vance good luck. “We’ll find out what’s going on. They’re militarily defeated.”
In Islamabad, the streets of a normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of the talks.
Here is the latest:
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital which received the casualties said the Israeli airstrike hit a security point in the urban refugee camp of Bureij around in the predawn hours Saturday.
The deaths were the latest among Palestinians in the territory since a ceasefire deal last October that aimed to halt a more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
While the heaviest fighting has subsided, Israeli forces have carried out repeated airstrikes and frequently fire on Palestinians near military-held zones, killing more than 730 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials.
The health ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. But it does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
Militants have carried out shooting attacks on troops, and Israel says its strikes are in response to that and other violations. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ceasefire.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir and Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi on Saturday received the U.S. delegation lead by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.
The ministry said in a statement that Dar commended the U.S. commitment to achieving lasting regional and global peace and stability.
He expressed hope that the parties would engage constructively and reiterated Pakistan’s desire to continue facilitating efforts toward a lasting and durable resolution to the conflict.
The Lebanese National News Agency reported multiple Israeli strikes early Saturday in southern Lebanon, killing at least three people.
The three were killed when an airstrike hit and destroyed a residential building in Maifadoun town in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, according to the agency.
Hezbollah, meanwhile, said it fired a barrage of rockets that targeted a military facility in northern Israel.
Vance arrived in Islamabad at the head of a delegation that includes President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.
The Iranian delegation, led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, was already in Islamabad.
Before departing for Pakistan, Vance warned Iran not to “play” the U.S. Hours later, Qalibaf said discussions would only take place if there is an Israeli ceasefire in Lebanon and the release of blocked Iranian assets.
The Iranian delegation is scheduled to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif at noon Saturday, according to the Tasnim news agency, which is close to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Iran’s negotiating team, chaired by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and includes Foreign Minister Abbas Arghchi, met late Friday with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir.
The meetings come ahead of high-stakes talks between Iran and the U.S. in Islamabad which aim at reaching a permanent end of the war in the Middle East.
Pakistan’s government has set up a state-of-the-art media center to facilitate Pakistani and foreign journalists covering the talks between the United States and Iran, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said.
Tarar told reporters the facility at the Jinnah Convention Center offers high-speed internet and a range of free services to support media coverage. Shuttle services have been arranged to transport journalists between the media center and a hotel in the city’s main shopping mall.
Pakistan has announced visa-on-arrival for journalists and official delegations traveling from the United States and Iran for the talks, which have been dubbed the “Islamabad talks.”
Inside the media center, rows of workstations equipped with laptops and charging points allow reporters to file stories. Large screens broadcast major domestic and international television channels. The facility also has designated areas for live stand-ups, press briefings and interviews.
The streets of Pakistan’s normally bustling capital were deserted Saturday as security forces sealed roads ahead of talks between high-level officials from Iran and the U.S. to end their nearly six-week war. Pakistani authorities urged Islamabad residents to stay inside, leading the city to look like it was under curfew.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance is leading the American delegation, which was expected to arrive before noon.
Iranian negotiators, headed by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, arrived late Friday.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif the conflict was entering a “difficult phase” as the sides try to shift from a temporary pause in fighting to a more lasting settlement. He said they were at a “make-or-break” moment.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance disembarks from Air Force Two after arriving for talks with Iranian officials in Islamabad, Pakistan, Saturday, April 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
People residing in an underground shelter pack up their belongings as they prepare to leave after the announcement of a two-week ceasefire agreement between Iran and the US, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Men inspect the damage to their home destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Lebanese civil defense worker looks upward near the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Displaced families extend their hands while waiting for donated food beside the tents they use as shelters after fleeing Israeli bombardment in southern Lebanon, in Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A Lebanese civil defense worker, right, stands with a resident at the site of a building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in central Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
