Vivek Ramaswamy (left) speaking at Ohio State on April 22, and Amy Acton (right) at Senator Bill DeMora’s tailgate on Sep. 19. Credit: Faith Schneider | Managing Editor of Design (left), courtesy of Gracie Vaughn (right).
Ohio Governor candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Amy Acton have differing views when it comes to higher education, with Ramaswamy proposing the consolidation of public universities and Acton opposing his ideas and emphasizing access to public education.?
Student leaders in Ohio State Republicans and College Democrats said higher education is an important topic in the 2026 election, but disagree on which candidate will leave a better impact on higher education policies.?
Ramaswamy is the Republican candidate running to be Ohio’s 71st governor.
“Look at the number of universities in our state. I love universities in Ohio,” Ramaswamy said in a video posted on Threads in March 2026. “I want us to have the best universities. We have too many of them. They need to be consolidated.”?
After receiving bipartisan backlash, Ramaswamy later clarified that instead of shutting down individual universities in Ohio, he wants to close individual programs within universities.?
“I personally think it’s reasonable to examine whether Ohio is spending money on programs that duplicate what another institution is already providing,” Hunter Willmitch, Chairman of Ohio State Republicans and fifth-year in political science and public management, leadership and policy said.
Willmitch said the government needs to look at the individual programs and see if the programs are producing the best possible outcome when determining if they need to be consolidated.?
Josie Speakman, a fourth-year in political science and President of College Democrats, said Ramaswamy has shown no interest in being an Ohioan or understanding Ohio’s public universities.?
“You have a candidate who has said multiple times he’d like to consolidate our universities, that he doesn’t see a need for some of them. He’s attacked our public school teachers. He’s attacked their unions,” Speakman said. “He’s never received a public education. He’s never had to rely on the public education system because he’s always just had money to buy his way around it.”
Ramaswamy attended St. Xavier High School, Harvard University and Yale Law School according to reporting from Ohio Capital Journal.
Acton, the Democratic Party candidate, attended Liberty High School in Youngstown, went to Youngstown State University and attended medical school at Northeast Ohio Medical University, the article stated.?
“I am committed to protecting Ohio’s public colleges, universities, community colleges and technical training programs – unlike Ramaswamy who wants to shut them down,” Acton said in a post on X.
On her campaign page, Acton said she wants to restore public school funding and provide high quality education to every kid in Ohio.?
Acton was also a professor at Ohio State in the college of public health from 2012-2016. Speakman said this helps Acton understand student needs.?
“[Acton] deeply, deeply cares about Ohioans,” Speakman said. “I think she always says that she wants to make sure that every Ohioan feels seen, and I think she’s done so far a really fantastic job of that.”
With Ramaswamy’s video on consolidating universities – as well as the enactment of Senate Bill 1 in 2025 – higher education is playing a big role in this year’s election, Speakman said.
“The quality of our education is dwindling in front of our eyes,” Speakman said.
Speakman said that SB1 has been detrimental to many students’ education.?
“We have seen the quality of our education start to deteriorate because of the Republicans and the legislature’s policies that have at their root anti-intellectual policies, drastic attacks on public education, on our public educators” Speakman said.?
SB1 ended Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) in higher education in Ohio. Willmitch said this was a great decision and that DEI has no place in the classroom.
“I think that DEI tends to be bad for higher education,” Willmitch said. “It should be higher education letting you form your own opinions, not letting somebody basically tell you how you should think.”?
Willmitch said the removal of DEI protects freedom of speech and allows students to be more open in expressing their beliefs.?
Speakman said that through a period of time with largely Republican control in Ohio, Republican candidates have nothing to show for it.?
“This is personally the most excited I’ve been about a gubernatorial race probably ever,” Speakman said. “We have a real chance to flip the governor’s mansion blue this November.”?
The election for governor will take place in the 2026 Ohio general elections on Nov. 3, 2026.
