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COLUMBUS, Ohio — <\/span>Dr. Amy Acton, a Democrat running unopposed in her party’s primary for Ohio governor, faces some steep challenges in the coming general election.<\/p>\n She is trying to be the first Democrat in 20 years to win the office in a state that has become dominated by Republicans. Her presumed opponent, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a>, has national name recognition and a personal fortune that he is plowing into his campaign.<\/p>\n But Acton’s most formidable obstacle may be a ghost from her recent past: the COVID-19 pandemic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Acton, a physician, was Ohio’s public health director when the coronavirus hit the United States in early 2020, causing a wave of deaths, anxiety and social disruption. As the government took aggressive action to combat it, Acton became a household name throughout Ohio.<\/p>\n Six years later, the orders Acton signed at the urging of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine<\/a> to battle the virus \u2014 closing schools, shuttering businesses, restricting sporting events and suspending voting<\/a> in the 2020 primary \u2014 are drawing fresh attention as she runs for the state\u2019s top office<\/a> and have become a central line of criticism from Republicans.<\/p>\n During campaign rallies, Ramaswamy has accused Acton of spreading dangerous \u201cCOVID ideology.\u201d Her campaign said it does not think voters will buy it.<\/p>\n \u201cDr. Acton is proud of the work she did alongside Governor DeWine to put public health over politics, save lives and keep Ohioans safe,\u201d her campaign spokesperson, Addie Bullock, said in a statement. \u201cIt is unfortunate that Vivek Ramaswamy wants to play politics on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n Wearing a white medical coat, Acton was a fixture at daily COVID-19 briefings with DeWine that were highly anticipated events watched in households across the state. Day after day, she calmly explained the virus\u2019 trajectory<\/a>, the grim march of hospitalizations and deaths, and reassuringly provided tips on how Ohioans should handle themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cOhio, don the mask, don your cape,\u201d Acton said at the time, asking ordinary people to act like superheroes.<\/p>\n In Ohio and elsewhere, the social trauma from the pandemic has yet to fully heal. It has changed how millions of people in the United States view vaccines, how deeply government should interfere in daily life and even whether people can trust government health officers.<\/p>\n The below-the-surface skepticism, which continues even as concerns over contracting the virus have faded, has emerged as an unusual storyline in the race for governor.<\/p>\n Ramaswamy, the front-running Republican, is airing ads capitalizing on lingering anger over the election order<\/a> that Acton issued for DeWine. At Republican events around the state, mention of Acton\u2019s name elicits loud boos.<\/p>\n \u201cAre we choosing freedom or are we choosing Fauci?\u201d asked Zac Haines, a Republican campaigning for the state Senate, in a reference to former national infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci as the candidate warmed up a recent Ramaswamy fundraising crowd. \u201cAre we choosing liberty or are we choosing lockdowns?\u201d<\/p>\n At Democratic events, Acton carries the air of the cult hero who, back in 2020, inspired a Dr. Amy Acton Fan Club with its own yard signs, a bobblehead doll and a proposal to honor her with a state holiday.<\/p>\n Campaigning this year, she seems to tread cautiously when discussing her time as Ohio’s health chief, sometimes avoiding use of the words COVID-19 or coronavirus.<\/p>\n \u201cI had the honor and the privilege, the privilege, of serving in a very tough moment,\u201d she told a Democratic crowd in southwest Ohio in March. \u201cI’m proud of Ohioans, because together we flattened that curve, we saved a lot of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Ohio ranked 22nd among the states in its per capita death rate from the virus during the pandemic’s first year, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/p>\n Acton, who left the job<\/a> halfway through 2020, does not dwell on what happened after the government imposed restrictions: the mutiny against DeWine<\/a> over business closures and health mandates, the legislation by Republicans to limit the governor’s powers and the protesters, some of them armed, outside her house.<\/p>\n At a recent States Forum symposium in Columbus, where people from across the political spectrum were brought together to try to find common ground within the \u201c Make America Healthy Again” movement<\/a>, Acton said she had worked for or advised five different governors.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I’ll work with anyone who wants to solve a problem rather than make one,\u201d she said, \u201cwhich is what Ohioans are longing for.\u201d<\/p>\n While he has endorsed Ramaswamy, DeWine denounced the campaign’s ad against Acton for suspending the 2020 primary.<\/p>\n \u201cI told her to issue the health order,\u201d he said. \u201cThe decision was mine.\u201d<\/p>\n Ramaswamy and another prominent Republican running in this year\u2019s midterm elections have their own ties to Ohio’s pandemic response.<\/p>\n As CEO of Roivant Sciences, the biotechnology research company he founded in 2014, Ramaswamy \u201cworked with the lieutenant governor as an adviser on COVID-19\u201d during 2020, he wrote in a 2021 op-ed<\/a>. The lieutenant governor at the time, Republican Jon Husted, is now a U.S. senator running for reelection and was a regular participant alongside Acton and DeWine in Ohio\u2019s daily virus briefings.<\/p>\n A Roivant subsidiary, Genevant Sciences, also played a \u201cfundamental role,\u201d according to a March press release<\/a>. The statement announced a $2.2 billion settlement with Moderna over its unauthorized use of Genevant\u2019s and Arbutus Biopharma\u2019s patents in its COVID vaccines.<\/p>\n During the pandemic, Ramaswamy, whose wife is a physician, supported vaccines. He received one himself and advocated mask-wearing, although he said he never supported governments mandating either.<\/p>\n One of Ramaswamy\u2019s companies, Datavant, even pushed for a national COVID registry that would be used to allow the small segment of the population that was gradually gaining natural COVID-19 immunity to \u201cget back to normal life\u201d while the rest would continue to be \u201csegregated.\u201d <\/p>\n