Governor and Lieutenant Governor
Amy Acton and David Pepper (D) vs. Vivek Ramaswamy and Rob McColley (R).
The race
In Ohio the governor and lieutenant governor run together and appear as one line on your ballot. You cast one vote for the pair.
Every current statewide executive officeholder is term-limited, so all five offices — governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor and treasurer — are open seats this year, as they last were in 2018. Three of today’s officeholders are running for a different one of those offices.
Why it matters
A governor’s veto stands unless both the Ohio House and the Ohio Senate vote to override it by a three-fifths supermajority — 60 of 99 House members and 20 of 33 senators. If either chamber falls short of that, the veto holds. If you want an effective check on legislation in Columbus, the governor’s race matters, and so do those six House seats and five Senate seats.
Sources for this page
Last checked: September 2026
Joint ticket, single vote. Ohio Constitution, Article III, Section 1a (governor and lieutenant governor are elected jointly, with each voter casting a single vote for both offices).
Candidates. Ohio Secretary of State, statewide candidate announcement; example county certified general-election list (Wood County, certified August 26, 2026). Your own sample ballot is at VoteOhio.gov.
Term limits and open offices. Ohio Constitution, Article XVII, Section 8 (two successive terms for these offices). Mahoning Matters, overview of 2026 statewide races (all current statewide executive officeholders term-limited; LaRose, Faber and Sprague seeking other offices). 2018 Ohio elections (all five offices open that year).
Veto override. Ohio Constitution, Article II, Section 16 (three-fifths of the members elected to each chamber). See also The math on six seats.