Voters in the Republican-dominated state of Ohio elected a Democrat to the governor’s seat for the first time in two decades in one of this year’s most publicized and hotly contested races.

Dr. Amy Acton, who previously served in the administration of the incumbent Republican governor, Mike DeWine, defeated the Republican nominee, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, in the Nov. 3 election.

Her victory comes with historic firsts. Acton, 60, is the first woman elected as governor in the Buckeye State. Acton will also be the first Jewish governor of Ohio.

And she is the first Democrat elected to the position since Gov. Ted Strickland won in 2006; he left office in 2011, and Republicans had kept control since then.

Acton, however, did not make any of those distinctions central to her campaign. Instead, she focused largely on affordability, a popular line of attack for Democrats during this election cycle.

If Ramaswamy had won, he would have become the first non-white and the first Indian American to serve as governor in Ohio. He also would have been the first Hindu governor in U.S. history, according to Religion News Service.

The outcome follows a record-breaking early-voting turnout in Ohio. During early voting, Ohioans cast more than 1.73 million ballots—a total that “crushed the 2022 early voting record for a gubernatorial election,” Secretary of State Frank LaRose said in a news release.

Both candidates had touted personal stories of working hard to succeed.

The race pitted Acton—who grew up impoverished in Youngstown, Ohio, and went on to become a doctor—against Ramaswamy, a Cincinnati native who is the son of immigrants from India and a self-made billionaire.

At polls near the state capital of Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, voters told The Epoch Times why they supported each candidate, and several said they expected the race to be close.

Columbus voter Matthew Jackson, who came to greet Ramaswamy when the candidate arrived at an Upper Arlington polling site to cast his ballot, said he expected the governor’s contest to go “down to the wire.” He also said a lesser-known, third-party candidate, libertarian Donald Kissick, added to the uncertainty by potentially drawing votes from either Ramaswamy or Acton and swaying the race’s outcome.

A second voter, Russ Childers, was handing out flyers on behalf of the Democratic Party’s candidate slate. He said he sometimes votes for independent candidates but supported Acton, because he viewed her as “a sensible person who is not an extremist at all.”

Neither held prior elected office before seeking the governorship, although Ramaswamy made an unsuccessful bid to become the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

Acton’s refusal to debate Ramaswamy became an issue in the race, along with her prior performance as the Ohio health director during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. She resigned in mid-2020, ending a 16-month tenure.

During her run for governor, Acton defended her track record. “Amy put partisanship aside to serve the people of Ohio,” her website says, asserting that “her steady leadership and voice for common sense not only saved countless lives but also helped Ohio’s economy and schools open earlier than other states.”

While DeWine praised her, many Ohioans including Ramaswamy remained critical of Acton for pandemic restrictions they viewed as too harsh.

Negative campaign ads in the race drew criticism from DeWine for both candidates.

An Acton ad alleged Ramaswamy hired his mother for a nefarious purpose, a claim he called “slanderous.”

A Ramaswamy ad that used Acton’s estranged mother as a spokeswoman against her daughter drew widespread outrage that caused some Republicans to worry that it could cost him the governorship. It was not immediately clear what measurable effect, if any, the controversy may have had on the race.

In the months leading up to the election, Acton and Ramaswamy had been locked in a neck-and-neck contest, polling consistently showed.

In the final stretch leading to the Nov. 3 election, former President Barack Obama rallied with Acton and other Democrats in Cleveland, drawing about 10,000 people. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance rallied for Ramaswamy and other fellow Republicans during multiple visits to Ohio, while also blitzing more than a dozen other states.