The Third Name on Ohio's Governor Ballot: What Don Kissick Says Both Major Candidates Are Missing

Most Ohioans will walk into the voting booth on November 3 thinking the governor's race is a choice between two people: Democrat Dr. Amy Acton and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy. There is a third name on the ballot. This week on Purple Political Breakdown, I sat down with Libertarian nominee Don Kissick to hear his case.

I don't do these interviews because I expect a third-party candidate to win. I do them because voters deserve to know who is on their ballot and what each person would actually do with the office. Kissick put three issues on the table that neither major campaign has made central, and all three land on Ohio households directly. A note on sourcing: the positions below are Kissick's own, as he described them to me in the interview. Where I add outside context, I say so.

Data centers. For context, Ohio is one of the top states in the country for data center construction, and more are coming. Amazon alone projected about 200 billion dollars in capital spending this year, and the four biggest tech companies combined are near 650 billion. Kissick told me he wants a day-one moratorium on new projects until the state writes clear rules for where they can go, how communities are told, and who pays to decommission a site once its equipment is obsolete. His sharpest point was about nondisclosure agreements: in his words, no local official should sign one with a developer, because residents cannot weigh in on a deal they are not allowed to know about. You don't have to agree with a moratorium to agree that a township trustee should not be bound to silence on a project that will reshape the township.

Flock cameras. Automated license plate readers have spread across Ohio cities and suburbs. Kissick told me he would end public sector use of them. Under his approach, private businesses could keep cameras on their own property, but government would need a warrant to access that footage. This is an issue where libertarians, civil liberties progressives, and plenty of conservatives already overlap, and it rarely gets a direct answer from either major party's nominee.

Property taxes. The Ax Ohio Tax campaign missed the 2026 ballot and is aiming for 2027, so this fight is not going away. Kissick's answer, as he laid it out to me, is to eliminate the 5.75 percent state sales tax, let counties keep the sales tax they collect, and have the state write funding formulas so counties can support schools, townships, and cities that cross county lines. He says the gap would be covered by cutting discretionary state spending. That last claim is his, and it deserves scrutiny, since the state sales tax is one of Ohio's largest revenue sources. Still, it is a concrete proposal and voters can weigh it.

The ad. We also talked about the story that has dominated the race this month. Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed it produced and is spending 4 million dollars to air an ad featuring Acton's estranged mother calling her daughter a liar. Court records show Acton's stepfather was charged in 1978 with raping her. Ramaswamy argues voters deserve to hear from people who know Acton and points out that she has declined to debate him. Kissick told me he held a press conference calling on Ramaswamy to drop out. He was also critical of Acton for skipping debates, and said Ramaswamy has declined to debate him too.

Why this matters beyond November. One of Kissick's predictions stuck with me: he expects Republicans to keep their majorities in the General Assembly but possibly lose their supermajorities. Whether or not that happens, it points to something voters overlook. The governor signs or vetoes, but the Statehouse writes the tax law, approves the maps, and sets the rules on data centers and surveillance. If you only vote the top of the ticket, you are skipping the races that decide most of what touches your daily life.

Whoever you support, know every name on your ballot and what each one would do. That is what this show is for.

Listen to the full conversation with Don Kissick: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/should-vivek-ramaswamy-drop-out-libertarian-don-kissick/id1626987640?i=1000798344658

Purple Political Breakdown: political solutions without political bias.