Fuentes to Ohio: ‘Vote Amy Acton for Governor’ — A Protest Vote Against Vivek
With early voting underway, the America First host tells his 1.3 million followers to back the Democrat over Ramaswamy. “I am not a Democrat,” he has said. “It is a protest vote.”
Nick Fuentes has picked his side in Ohio, and it isn’t the Republican.
“Early voting has begun in Ohio. VOTE AMY ACTON FOR GOVERNOR,” Fuentes posted on X on Oct. 8, two days after in-person early voting opened. The post drew roughly 2 million views. The next night he followed up: “I BELIEVE THAT SHE WILL WIN.”
The endorsement of Democrat Amy Acton over Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy was not a sudden turn. Fuentes declared the race his priority last December, saying on a livestream, “We have to deny Vivek Ramaswamy the governorship,” according to reporting cited by the Cincinnati Exchange. By May he told viewers they would have to “hold our noses” and vote Democrat.
Fuentes has been explicit that this is leverage, not a conversion. “It is a protest vote,” he said on a May 6 broadcast, according to the Lorain Daily. “I am not a Democrat. I am not a leftist. I am not even liberal.” His argument: Republican leaders should face consequences for nominating candidates his movement rejects, and a four-year Democratic governor is a price worth paying to stop Ramaswamy from building a political career in Ohio.
Vanity Fair, in an Oct. 29 profile, described Ohio as “one of the rare contests that Fuentes has directly commented on.” The magazine reported that Fuentes has told followers to withhold their votes from the GOP, estimating his bloc could be about 3% of the general-election vote — what he calls “the veto.”
Ramaswamy is also contending with a separate, unverified controversy: leaked data allegedly tying his email to a Fling.com profile.
Nothing in the public record shows Acton sought or welcomed Fuentes’s support, and no campaign statement responding to the October posts has been found. Ohio votes Nov. 3. Whether Fuentes can actually swing it is the test: a close Acton win would let him claim the veto works.
