Pepper earned Yale undergraduate and law degrees; formerly served on Cincinnati City Council; and was a Hamilton County commissioner. In 2010, Pepper was Democrats’ nominee for state auditor, but was bested by Republican David Yost, 50% to 45%. In 2014, Pepper challenged the re-election of then-Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, a Cedarville Republican who’s now governor. Pepper drew 39% of the statewide vote to DeWine’s 62%.
Acton, a Youngstown native, was appointed state Health director by DeWine, whom term-limits prevent from seeking a third-consecutive term.
Acton earned her undergraduate degree at Youngstown State and medical degree at Northeast Ohio Medical University.
McColley, age 41, earned an Ohio State business degree and a University of Toledo law degree. As Senate president, he leads that chamber’s Republicans, who have a 24-9 majority.
(In 1976, Ohio voters ended lieutenant governors’ presidency of the state Senate, instead, in effect, designating the Senate’s majority leader, now, McColley, as Senate presidents, adding to majority leaders’ clout. Meanwhile, lieutenant governors do whatever their running mates assign them to do.)
McColley was one of only six state Senate Republican to vote “no” in 2019 on scandal-soaked Ohio House Bill 6, aimed at bailing out FirstEnergy Corp.’s cash-bleeding nuclear power plants at ratepayers’ expense.
Statehouse scheming to win passage of HB 6, which DeWine signed in mid-2019, eventually earned then-House Speaker Larry Householder, now age 66, a Perry County Republican, a 20-year sentence in federal prison.
But earlier in 2019, the Senate – its Republicans, including McColley, and its Democrats – had confirmed DeWine’s appointment of the late Samuel Randazzo as Public Utilities Commission of Ohio chair. Randazzo committed suicide after being charged with corruption in connection with the HB 6 affair.
McColley brings to Ramaswamy’s ticket a running-mate from small-town, Republican salt-of-the-earth Ohio to balance also-Ohio-born Ramaswamy’s background. Although he’s a self-made tech tycoon; valedictorian at Cincinnati’s boys’ Jesuit high school, St. Xavier; and earned two Ivy League degrees; Ramaswamy has an unusual (for Ohio) name.
Given that Ramaswamy is an all-but-announced contender for 2028’s Republican presidential nomination, McColley, as lieutenant governor, could succeed Ramaswamy as governor in 2029. That said, only two lieutenant governors in 100 years have succeeded to Ohio’s governorship,
In 1957, then-Lt. Gov. John W. Brown, a Medina Republican, served for 11 days as governor after Democrat Frank J. Lausche left Columbus for the U.S. Senate. And for 15 days in 1998-99, Lt. Gov. Nancy Putnam Hollister, a Marietta Republican, served as governor after Republican George V. Voinovich also left for the Senate.
(Ohioans had elected Republican Bob Taft in November 1998 to serve the full, four-year gubernatorial term beginning Jan. 11, 1999. Taft, then of Cincinnati, now lives in Greene County’s Spring Valley.)
For all practical purposes, Ohio’s November fight-card is taking shape: Acton-Pepper vs. Ramaswamy-McColley, the most diverse gubernatorial tickets in Statehouse history; and a brass-knuckled campaign between appointed GOP Sen. Jon Husted, of Upper Arlington, a UD grad, and Democratic ex-Sen. Sherrod Brown, of Bexley.
Whatever else 2026 may be in Ohio, it won’t be dull.
Thomas Suddes is a former legislative reporter with The Plain Dealer in Cleveland and writes from Ohio University. You can reach him attsuddes@gmail.com.