Ohio Democrats’ path to the governor’s office runs through rural areas that had turned against them

MARIETTA, Ohio (AP) — Speaking to a small gathering of supporters as the Ohio River flowed behind her, Dr. Amy Acton announced she was backing a three-year moratorium on permitting new injection wells for fracking in rural Washington County.

It’s an issue that is top of mind for voters worried that their groundwater here is being polluted by the industry’s waste. Acton, the Democratic candidate for governor, is tapping into the angst as part of her appeal to conservative areas that she hopes will be part of a victory in the Republican-leaning state.

“This is not a partisan issue, that we need to protect our water,” she told a crowd of about two dozen gathered at a riverfront gazebo, adding that cleanup costs could be well over $1 billion. “We will all pay for this mistake. So that’s why we must act now.”

She got some help during the recent appearance, Acton’s fourth to the Appalachian county that hasn’t backed Democrats in years. She was joined by Susan Vessels, a prominent local Republican who had decided to forgo her own party’s nominee for governor, tech billionaire and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Vessels, president of the city council in Marietta, praised Acton for her willingness to listen to local residents’ concerns about the risks posed by fracking.

“It is a pro-drinking water position, and it should be easy for any leader to support,” Vessels said.

Ramaswamy has been a strong supporter of developing American energy sources, including through fracking: “Unlock American energy. Drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear,” he said during a 2024 presidential debate. More recently in Marietta, he said he wants an economic boom that protects Ohio’s natural resources and “the water quality of our communities.”

Vessels said she and others concerned about the impacts of the injection wells have been frustrated in their attempts to get lawmakers to listen.

“The fact that we have yet to receive any response from our Republican state representatives and our state senators tells me that we have a political problem and not just a scientific one,” she said.

Both major candidates for governor are pursuing a rural strategy

Acton has been campaigning throughout Ohio, with a focus on areas that have been voting Republican, especially since President Donald Trump emerged on the political stage. It’s a nod to the reality of Democrats trying to win a statewide race in Ohio, a former swing state where Republicans dominate the Legislature, hold all statewide offices and elected two Republicans for the U.S. Senate.

The last time a Democrat won the governor’s race in Ohio was 2006.

Both Acton and Ramaswamy know that victory on Nov. 3 depends on winning in rural places like Marietta, the seat of a county where local leaders see recent swings toward Republicans appearing to be softening.

As they vie to succeed term-limited Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, each is trying to appeal to those voters against a backdrop of dissatisfaction over rising gas, grocery and healthcare costs, the war in Iran and AI data centers. Surveys show rural Americans are deeply distressed about the state of the economy.

Acton, the state’s health director during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, marched in Marietta’s Fourth of July parade marking the nation’s 250th anniversary. Ramaswamy, who has been endorsed by Trump, hosted a veterans’ town hall there on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Voters are frustrated, and it’s not just with one political party,” Ramaswamy campaign manager Jonathan Ewing said. “They’re frustrated by an insider system that they see as working for one connected class of people and not for them.” He said “Vivek’s from outside that system. He can’t be bought, and that resonates with people.”

Ramaswamy, who has landed endorsements from farming groups and the National Rifle Association, also made a stop at Schafer Leather, a thriving downtown business where customers can buy cowboy boots, wallets, belts or a Gun Tote’n Mama handbag. Staff members say they’re fully in the GOP nominee’s corner, despite concerns over the soaring price of gas since Trump launched the Iran war.

Sherry Bailey, the store’s 62-year-old sales clerk, said her core values align best with the GOP.

“I believe in the Lord and the family and being free Americans,” she said.

Democrats target voters who believe they’re being ignored

That sort of party loyalty has only seemed to grow in Ohio during the Trump era, as he has won increasing shares of the vote in counties such as Washington, where he got 71% support in 2024.

But Ohio Democrats aren’t letting that discourage them. The party has a strategy to rebuild trust among voters outside the cities and suburbs, from Appalachia to western Ohio farm country.

They say rural areas such as Marietta, where residents are now represented by Republican majorities from their county commissions to the statehouse to Congress, are growing weary of one-party rule.

A statewide listening tour involving hundreds of voters across parties last year led Democrats to believe that people in three distinct groups can be persuaded, said Chris Gibbs, chair of the Ohio Democrats Rural Caucus. They identified disaffected Democrats, engaged but undecided independents and legacy Republicans, who he defined as those “disgusted with how they’ve seen their party go into the MAGAsphere.”

Democrats say new tariffs imposed under Trump, war-related increases in gas and fertilizer prices and Medicaid cuts to rural hospitals have particularly upset rural voters.

Among the converts is independent Scott Oancea. As he awaited his turn at the pool table at Marietta Moose Lodge 1823 on a recent afternoon, the 64-year-old retired graphic designer said he voted once for Trump but will be supporting Democrats up and down the ticket this year.

“I would vote as much as I can against Trump, to neutralize him,” he said. “I’m shocked by what’s happening. It’s an insane situation. He wants to tear down buildings that have been there for 50 years. Nobody else has ever even thought of doing that — they have better things to do.”

He said his decision will include supporting Acton.

Seeing issues that unify voters across party lines

Acton has not only taken on Republican policies that she says have driven up costs and made life more difficult for average Ohioans. She’s also taken positions that appeal more to middle-of-the road voters than the progressive ones who dominated some of the party’s primaries in other states this year.

She has said she does not support transgender athletes competing in female sports and said local law enforcement agencies should cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

As she tries to widen her appeal in the state, Acton has toured rural hospitals, where she has spoken to patients, nurses and administrators about access to healthcare and the state’s alarming number of maternity care deserts. She has spent time on family farms, where she has heard farmers’ appeals to preserve soil and water conservation districts, mental health programming through extension districts and youth programs such as 4-H.

“We’ve seen the scene repeat everywhere I go,” she said during a tour of a soybean farm in July. “I go places that Dems haven’t been in a while and we’re seeing tons of Republicans cross over, and independents, too.”

Acton said most of the issues important to Ohioans don’t fall along party lines. Many people she meets say they are exhausted by today’s politics.

Vessels said she’s watched firsthand as party differences have begun to fade for many voters over the last year and a half. She cited the opposition she’s expressed to a controversial data center deal struck by local leaders and to locating injection wells near Marietta’s municipal drinking water aquifer — positions that have alienated her from some local party leaders but not residents.

“I go to the grocery store and people, Democrat and Republican alike, say thank you for working on this,” she said. “I think we have a lot more in common than we don’t.”