Ex-Congressman Ryan mulls run for Ohio governor

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Republican Party leadership is already solidly behind Vivek Ramaswamy for the 2026 race for Ohio governor, but Democrats in the state remain in flux.

Dr. Amy Acton is the only declared Democratic candidate, but former Sen. Sherrod Brown is said to be considering a run, as is former Youngstown-area Congressman Tim Ryan.

Ryan said he is still undecided, but in his first television interview about the race and his decision-making, he sat down with NBC4’s Colleen Marshall.

Ryan is not yet a candidate, but he certainly sounds like one. He said Ohio Democrats must rebrand and must bring new ideas and people to the forefront, pointing to voter support for Democratic ideas, like the state’s recreational marijuana initiative and women’s choice votes that got overwhelming support. However, Democrats themselves have not been winning statewide races.

“So I think, on many of the issues, the people of Ohio are aligned with Democrats, but then you put the D by the name and say, ‘Oh, this person is going to go work with Chuck Schumer,’ then the whole dialog changes at that point, so I think we need a complete rebrand,” Ryan said.

“We need something like what happened with Bill Clinton in ‘92 where he came in, he took on some of the extremists in the party, got the message back to welfare reform, economics, working class people, went into rural areas, and we won,” Ryan continued. “And then, you know, that was some of the large, just, economic growth we've ever had in the country. Rich people made money. Poor people moved up the economic ladder. That's what you can get with a balanced economic policy. That's not Democratic socialism and not kind of crony capitalism. We got to get back to that, because that, to me, that's why I'm a Democrat and I think a lot of people feel like the Democratic Party left them, you know?”

Ryan also addressed diversity, equity, and inclusion policies that have come under attack in the current Trump administration.

“Well, we got to appreciate diversity, but it can't drive the entire argument,” he said. “Because, you know, Black people need jobs, gay people need jobs. Women need jobs. Everybody needs a good-paying job, so let's start talking about in the country, what's going to lift everybody up, and that unifying principle is economics, but everyone should have an opportunity to participate in economic growth, and I think that's ultimately been the problem.”

Ryan said the country did free trade, globalization, and automation, but even when the country generated trillions of dollars in wealth, money was not reinvested in places like Youngstown, Steubenville, and Portsmouth. He said a new round of tax breaks is coming for the wealthy, but most Americans are being left behind.

He said he will make a decision about the governor’s race sometime this summer.