A new Wedgewood Polls survey of Ohio voters shows Democrats holding slim leads in two of the state's highest-profile 2026 races, with former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown ahead of Republican Sen. Jon Husted 48 percent to 44 percent in the Senate contest.
In the gubernatorial race, Democrat Amy Acton—who served as Ohio's state health director—leads Republican Vivek Ramaswamy 47 percent to 46 percent, a margin within the poll's margin of error and effectively a tied race.
The survey results cut against at least one other recent measurement. A separate poll found Husted with a narrow lead over Brown, 50 percent to 47 percent, and had the governor's race locked at 47 percent apiece—underscoring how unsettled both contests remain heading into the fall.
Age is the defining fault line in both races. Brown leads Husted by 22 points among likely voters under 50, while Husted holds an eight-point advantage among likely voters 50 and older, according to the AARP-commissioned survey. Ramaswamy runs against that pattern in the governor's race, leading by 10 points among voters 50 and up—a margin that has kept the gubernatorial contest competitive despite Acton's statewide name recognition from the pandemic.
Brown is one of the Democratic Party's most recognized figures in Ohio. He held the state's Senate seat for 18 years before losing his 2024 reelection bid to Republican Bernie Moreno, making his 2026 comeback attempt one of the more closely watched Senate races in the country. A win would return Democrats a seat they lost just two years ago.
Husted, Ohio's current U.S. senator, won his seat in 2024 after serving as the state's lieutenant governor under Gov. Mike DeWine. His path to a full term depends heavily on running up margins among older voters while limiting Brown's advantage with younger Ohioans—a demographic gap that, if it holds, gives Democrats a structural opening as younger voter turnout rises.
Acton built her public profile as Ohio's health director during the COVID-19 pandemic, a role that made her a prominent figure in the state but also a political target for Republicans who opposed the administration's public health orders. She has never held elected office. Her narrow lead in the Wedgewood survey reflects a competitive environment for a first-time candidate running in a state that has trended Republican in recent presidential cycles.
Ramaswamy ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 before exiting the race and endorsing President Trump. He subsequently co-led the Department of Government Efficiency before stepping away to pursue the Ohio governorship. His decision to enter state politics rather than seek a federal appointment set up the current primary outcome and the general election matchup with Acton.
Ohio has voted for the Republican presidential candidate in four consecutive elections. Trump carried the state by eight points in 2024. That baseline makes both Democratic leads in the Wedgewood survey notable, though statewide polling in Ohio has historically shown tighter margins in down-ballot races than in presidential contests.
The conflicting poll results—one showing Democrats ahead, another showing Husted leading and the governor's race tied—reflect a genuine measurement problem in a state where voter composition and turnout assumptions vary widely between survey firms. Neither race has a clear front-runner at this stage of the cycle.
Both contests will draw national money. Senate races in swing-adjacent states routinely attract eight-figure outside spending in the final months. Brown's 2024 loss to Moreno came despite Brown outspending his opponent; a second race against a Republican incumbent gives national Democrats another expensive test of whether candidate quality can overcome the state's presidential lean.
Primary dates and the final ballot compositions are set. The general election matchups—Brown versus Husted, Acton versus Ramaswamy—are locked in, and both races are now moving into the resource-intensive phase of voter contact, advertising and ground organization that will shape November's outcome.
