COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Former Ohio Health Director Amy Acton, who became a household name in the state in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, is running for governor.
Acton, 58, a physician and public health expert who stood alongside Republican Gov. Mike DeWine for months during his daily coronavirus briefings, said people still stop her in the grocery store or at a restaurant to share their struggles — and she doesn't want to look away.
“I feel like I have a bond with Ohioans and a connection,” she said in an Associated Press interview. “You don’t go through what we’ve been through — trying to save 11.7 million people the way we did — and not have some special connection.”
Acton filed paperwork and launched her campaign Tuesday. She plans to run as a Democrat, which places her at an immediate disadvantage in a state that has turned solidly red in recent years.
While she has said before that serving in DeWine’s cabinet taught her much about how the office operates, on Tuesday she said she believes that Ohio's Republican leaders — who control all three branches of state government — are spending too much time fighting the culture wars and they're taking the state in the wrong direction.
“It’s not OK with me that Ohioans don’t live as long as people do in other states," she said. "It’s not OK with me to watch what used to be a top education system, state-of-the-art education system, begin to fall year after year after year. It’s not OK with me that our GDP is like 45th and our biggest export is Ohioans, is young people.”
Acton's entry into the race comes as Republicans Lt. Gov. Jon Husted and Attorney General Dave Yost already are positioning to run for the seat, which the 78-year-old DeWine must vacate next year due to term limits. But the landscape of the race is far from settled.
DeWine has yet to appoint a replacement to U.S. Sen. JD Vance, who will be inaugurated as Donald Trump's vice president Jan. 20. Though DeWine has long endorsed Husted as his favored successor, the lieutenant governor is now considered a leading contender as his pick for the Senate. That's after Husted and DeWine met with Trump and Vance last month at Mar-a-Lago, a trip first reported by WEWS-TV.
Giving Husted the job would create a political opening for Trump insider Vivek Ramaswamy to possibly make a gubernatorial run against Yost in the 2026 primary. Ramaswamy has said he would not seek the Senate opening — Ohio's third in as many years — right now, because he's busy heading Trump's Department of Government Efficiency effort with Elon Musk. DOGE is not an actual government department, but a private effort.
DeWine plucked Acton from Ohio State University, where she was an associate professor of public health, to lead the Ohio Department of Health in 2019. As the pandemic ramped up in early 2020, she was thrown into the state and national spotlight — becoming a beloved source of comfort to many viewers of the governor's daily news conferences.
For her service as health director, Acton earned the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in COVID Courage Award, the Columbus Foundation’s Spirit of Columbus Award and Ohio State’s highest alumni honor, the Alumni Medalist Award.
But her position as the face of the DeWine administration's aggressive stance against the virus also earned Acton many enemies, among them Statehouse Republicans and average Ohioans who opposed pandemic restrictions.
During the crisis, Acton used the health director's broad emergency powers to halt the state's 2020 presidential primary, to temporarily close gyms and fitness centers around the state, and to impose stay-at-home orders as the administration tried to prevent COVID’s spread. Husted also took part in the administration's COVID response, but not to the extent that Acton did.
After a grueling period of public exposure, angry demonstrations, lawsuits and personal attacks, Acton resigned her state job in June 2020. DeWine sent her off fondly, describing her as a hero in a white coat. She stayed on as his chief health adviser until that August.
She said Tuesday that she recognizes she has not held elective office, but she feels she has the skills necessary to do the job.
“We know that I’m a doctor. I’m not a politician,” she said. “But I am a leader, and I tend to think of myself as more of a public servant and a problem solver.”
After leaving government, Acton joined the Columbus Foundation as a grants director with the title “vice president for Human:Kind.” She left that post after about six months to explore a run for U.S. Senate, ultimately deciding against joining the 2022 contest won by Vance. She later took on a job as director of the city of Columbus' Project L.O.V.E., an initiative aimed at encouraging early vaccinations in children.
Acton said she has spent all that time supporting candidates and causes that she believes in and carefully considering whether to enter politics.
“My challenge to whoever else wants to run in this race is it's time to put something bigger than ourselves at the top here,” she said. “So many of us have values in Ohio that we all hold dear. We have got to put the real problems, the day-to-day problems we all face on the table and put that first.”
FILE - Ohio Department of Health Director Dr. Amy Acton gives an update on the state's preparedness and education efforts to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Cleveland, Ohio, Feb. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File)
Fierce wildfires are raging in the Los Angeles area, fueled by powerful Santa Ana winds, sending residents fleeing from burning homes through flames, ferocious winds and towering clouds of smoke. Thousands of firefighters were battling at least three separate blazes on Wednesday, from the Pacific Coast inland to Pasadena.
Here's the latest:
“We pushed the system to the extreme,” said Janisse Quiñones, CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. “Four times the normal demand was seen for 15 hours straight, which lowered our water pressure.”
The utility was pushing water from its source into the system, but demand was so high that it wasn’t enough to fill three, one-million-gallon tanks that help maintain pressure for the hydrants in the hills of Palisades.
One tank ran out at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday, one at 8:30 pm and the third at 3 a.m. on Wednesday.
Officials are urging residents across the region to conserve water so there’s enough for firefighters to use.
“We’re fighting a wildfire with urban water systems, and that is really challenging,” Quiñones said.
Only essential workers will be allowed in, according to an emergency notice from NASA.
The fire is “very close to the lab,” but there’s been no fire damage yet, the center’s director, Laurie Leshin, wrote in a post on the social platform X.
However, there has been some wind damage, wrote Leshin.
She added that hundreds of NASA employees at the lab have had to evacuate from their homes.
The research lab near Pasadena, California, is known for building and sending robotic spacecraft to Mars and the outer solar system.
The president had planned to travel from Los Angeles to Riverside County by plane on Tuesday to announce the creation of two new national monuments.
His trip was announced on Jan. 3 and he was already in the state when the fires broke out.
White House officials canceled the air traffic restrictions necessary for his travel and noted that he stayed put in his hotel Tuesday in order to minimize his impact on first responders and law enforcement.
He will head to Washington, D.C., later in the day.
The crowdfunding site also has a California Wildfire Relief Fund that will be distributed to people seeking help through GoFundMe fundraisers and nonprofits providing relief, the company said.
Melissa Levy, the executive director of Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center, said staff evacuated on Tuesday night and the synagogue’s Torah scrolls were taken to the home of a community member.
Levy said it appears the synagogue caught fire and buildings have burned.
“We are still assessing the situation and right now our primary focus is on our community members and their safety as many of them have also lost their homes,” Levy said in an email.
Classes were canceled on Wednesday due to the fires and strong winds, the university said on its website.
Officials have said about 30,000 residents are under evacuation orders. And more than 13,000 structures are under threat.
The evacuation orders affect areas including the Pacific Palisades neighborhood near the sea, areas north of Pasadena and part of the San Fernando Valley.
Other areas are under evacuation warnings that say people who need additional time to evacuate should get moving.
Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said two people were killed and many others hurt in the fires, which have destroyed more than 1,000 structures.
A spokesman for Vice President Kamala Harris says her neighborhood in Los Angeles was put under an evacuation order Tuesday night.
Ernesto Apreza said in a Wednesday post on the social platform X that no one was in the house at the time.
The smoke is thick and gray, and the headlights of vehicles in badly hit areas are glowing well after sunrise. There is the crackling of the flames and the rustling of palm trees in the strong wind, and the exclamations of emergency responders.
One firefighter stands on top of a truck and watches a home burn. There is a bin for recycling sitting outside the blazing home, abandoned.
Litter blows by. Every stray piece could become another flame.
Southern California Edison shut off power to nearly 120,000 customers in six Southern California counties over safety concerns due to high winds and the risk of wildfires.
Another 440,000 customers could face similar shutoffs depending on weather conditions, the utility said Wednesday on its website.
Pasadena Fire Chief Chad Augustin said much of the city of Pasadena is under evacuation orders as his department waits for winds to die down so he can get aircraft up to start dousing the flames from overhead.
Until that happens, it’s going to be difficult to get the blaze there under control, Augustin told KABC-TV, the ABC affiliate.
Fire departments from across California were sending in firefighters as crews in the Los Angeles area were stretched to their limit, he said.
He said there had been no loss of life and thanked public safety officers for “pulling people out from burning buildings” overnight.
Pasadena, where the Eaton fire is burning, and neighboring Glendale canceled classes Wednesday.
Los Angeles Unified School District also closed several elementary schools in the evacuation area of the fire burning in Pacific Palisades.
Palisades Charter High School, which burned in the fire, was not back in session yet.
Fire crews assigned to the Eaton fire burning in Pasadena are working to keep the blaze north of the 210 Freeway, east of Angeles Crest Highway, west of Santa Anita Avenue and south of Mount Wilson, according to an incident action plan developed for Wednesday operations.
The fire rapidly grew to more than 3.13 square miles (8.11 square kilometers) overnight amid dangerous fire weather conditions caused by strong winds and low levels of relative humidity.
More than 180,000 customers were without power in southern California, with the vast majority of them in Los Angeles County, according to PowerOutage.us, which tracks outages nationwide.
Statewide, over 320,000 customers were without power on Wednesday morning.
It’s only the third time in 30 years that has happened in January, said David Acuña, a battalion chief for Cal Fire. Such a team, of officials from various agencies, is only assembled during major, complex events.
“This is a rare event” to have incidents like this in January, Acuña said, adding that wildfires are so common during other months that fire officials no longer talk about “fire seasons.”
“We now talk about ‘fire years,’” said Acuña. “We had wildfires pop up in December and now we have these in early January.”
Palisades fire: West of Los Angeles, by the sea. It has burned about 4.5 square miles (11.6 square kilometers).
Eaton fire: Altadena area, north of Pasadena. It has burned about 1.6 square miles (4 square kilometers).
Hurst fire: In the San Fernando Valley. It has burned about 500 acres (202 hectares).
Woodley fire: In the San Fernando Valley. It has burned about 75 acres (30 hectares).
All four fires are currently at 0% containment.
Wildfires that ripped through the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles forced many Hollywood stars, including Mark Hamill, Mandy Moore and James Woods, to evacuate their homes.
California firefighters are battling wind-whipped wildfires that are tearing across the area, destroying homes and straining resources as the fires burned uncontained early Wednesday.
The Pacific Palisades neighborhood is a hillside area along the coast dotted with celebrity residences and memorialized by the Beach Boys in their 1960s hit “Surfin’ USA.”
Flames jumped the famous Sunset Boulevard and burned parts of the Palisades Charter High School, which has been featured in many Hollywood productions including the 1976 horror movie “Carrie,” the 2003 remake of “Freaky Friday” and the TV series “Teen Wolf.”
▶ Read more about the stars whose homes are threatened by the fires
As the sun rose Wednesday the devastation was stunning with morning news crews showing home after home engulfed in flames, some collapsing live on camera.
Roads were strewn with power lines, some flickering with fire.
The sun is rising behind a wall of smoke in the Pacific Palisades that looks as black as night. Here’s what witnesses have been saying.
“We looked across and the fire had jumped from one side of the road to the other side of the road,” Kelsey Trainor said. “People were getting out of the cars with their dogs and babies and bags, they were crying and screaming.”
“As soon as I opened my door, it was like right there,” Sheriece Wallace said. “The first thing I did was look at the trees to see where the wind was blowing. Because it hit me. It blew me back.”
“It is crazy, it’s everywhere, in all the nooks and crannies of the Palisades. One home’s safe, the other one’s up in flames,” Will Adams said.
Cal Fire says a “go bag” should include:
— A map with at least two evacuation routes
— Necessary prescriptions or medical items like eyeglasses
— Extra car keys, cash or credit cards
— A basic first-aid kit
— A flashlight and battery-powered radio with extra batteries
— Copies of important documents like passports or birth certificates.
It should also include a three-day supply of non-perishable food and water per person, as well as food and water for any pets. N95 masks can help filter out many of the particles in wildfire smoke, and an extra cellphone battery or charger can also be helpful.
“Plan like you’re going on a trip for seven days. Have clothes, toilet paper, toothbrush, soap, a towel in there,” said Jesse Torres, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said.
Evacuating a wildfire area can be scary, but experts say people can significantly improve their own safety with a little preparation and common sense.
Creating a wildfire action plan, packing a “go bag” and maintaining basic situational awareness during evacuations can make a big difference when escaping a disaster, Jesse Torres, a battalion chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire, said.
But the most important tip? Don’t wait around for an evacuation order, Torres said.
“The biggest thing is to get out early, before the notifications come out. It’s so important to avoid the congestion,” he said.
The morning sky is lightening, and soon the scope of the devastation will be more clear. Some hillsides are glowing from the scattered fires.
Generally, it starts in June or July and runs through October, according to the Western Fire Chiefs Association.
However, January wildfires are not unprecedented — there was one in 2022 and 10 in 2021, according to CalFire.
Recent data shows the season is beginning earlier and ending later due to rising temperatures and decreased rainfall tied to climate change. That means rains that usually end fire season are often delayed and fires can burn through the winter months as a result, the association says.
The National Weather Service is receiving reports of winds up to 80 mph (129 kph) this morning. They could top 100 mph (160 kph) in mountains and foothills and include areas that haven’t seen substantial rain in months.
Red flag warnings are highlighting extremely critical fire weather conditions. Those include exceptionally dry relative humidity levels, according to Peter Mullinax, a meteorologist with the weather service.
He says the winds are expected to continue into Thursday, too, “providing very little in terms of any relief.”
Sunrise is in a little over an hour.
Overnight, the images were stark: The skeleton of a Christmas tree was framed in a blazing window in the Pacific Palisades.
Opulent homes collapsed in a whirlwind of flaming embers.
The tops of palm trees whipped against the glowing red sky.
Vast clouds of smoke dwarfed the water dumped by helicopters attempting to calm the flames.
The Palisades Fire burns a residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
People flee from the advancing Palisades Fire, by car and on foot, in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Etienne Laurent)
A car travels down East Mendocino Street as a wildfire burns in the hills near Eaton Canyon, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
Water is dropped on the advancing Palisades Fire by helicopter in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Residents of a senior center are evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A resident of a senior center is evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
A resident of a senior center is evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
Residents of a senior center are evacuated as the Eaton Fire approaches Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025, in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
The Eaton Fire burns vehicles and structures Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025 in Altadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
The Palisades Fire burns a Christmas tree inside a residence in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, Tuesday, Jan. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
