In my last email, we walked through Scenario One. Vivek Ramaswamy wins November 3 and Republicans keep the legislature. Today is Scenario Two: Amy Acton wins, but Republicans still control the Ohio House and Senate.

I want to game this one out with you the same way. We are not telling people how to vote, we’re simply looking at the people, the laws, the votes, and what frequently happens when politicians are under pressure.

Start with Amy Acton.

Her campaign openly states she supports statewide gun registration and Red Flag gun confiscation laws. The August 30 Plain Dealer report also said her campaign supported DeWine’s STRONG Ohio proposal, which OGO’s army exclusively shut down.

OGO has given Amy Acton the biggest F we could find, and she’s earned every bit of it.

Those are not small policy squabbles, and the governor’s office is not some figurehead position.

The good news is, she cannot announce a Red Flag law at a press conference one day and make it Ohio law the next.

The Republican-controlled House (which nobody believes is in danger of flipping this cycle) and Senate (it is impossible for Democrats to flip the Ohio Senate this cycle) would still have to pass it.

But she could demand a bill, have one of her communist friends in the legislature introduce it, negotiate with lawmakers, apply political pressure, and veto bills she doesn’t want.

And if Ohio suffers another major shooting, like we did in 2019? That is precisely when her power and that pressure would matter most.

We’ve seen this happen before.

Remember Parkland in 2018? John Kasich was our RINO governor, and he immediately pushed for a Red Flag proposal and got turncoat Republican Rep. Mike Henne to introduce the bill for him (HB585).

On the Senate side, so did NRA & BFA-endorsed Senators John Eklund, Stephanie Kunze and Peggy Lehner. Fake “Republicans,” all of them.

Then came the Dayton shooting in August of 2019.

Mike DeWine, another so-called “Republican” governor, called for a huge gun-control omnibus bill, and the STRONG Ohio he and Jon Husted rolled out was a vicious attack on gun owners.

Many of you were there and involved with OGO’s massive moves to submarine these Republican-sponsored gun-control bills.

My point here is that, while we all successfully blocked these proposals, they were Republican-driven attacks on you and me.

So in this scenario, you and I cannot assume that a Republican House and Senate automatically stop everything Acton wants.

The fact is, it might take only a few Republican votes joining the hate-America Democrats to pass a particular bill, and it would all boil down to the margins after the November elections and what the bill actually does.

After all, after every crisis there is always a Rumpelstiltskin, looking to spin the blood of the innocent dead into political gold for their gun-control agenda, which is labeled as “reasonable compromise” every single time.

There is another very dangerous possibility here, too: Legislators who trade votes.

One member wants a budget item. Another might have a pet project bill they want signed by the governor. And of course you always have a governor who, in this scenario, has the rest of her priorities that she wants passed.

This happens all the time in legislative Statehouse politics, and I like to call it the disgusting horse trade where legislators hock themselves out politically to get the legislation they want passed.

Now, the other side of the equation.

For years, Republicans in Columbus have acted like they have forever to get around to gun bills.

They don’t. They never did.

The Freedom to Carry Act, the Second Amendment Protection Act, the Ohio Self-Defense Act — all three of these bills have been blocked and killed under flaccid “Republican” leadership. And when Jennifer Gross tried to advance Freedom to Carry through an amendment to HB 667, these corrupt politicians voted against it, 75 to 21.

Could a Democratic governor change that calculation for Republican leaders? Absolutely.

Let me unpack that a little, because this is actually some good news, and I’ve seen it happen in other states quite successfully.

With a common political enemy in a Democrat governor, a Republican legislature might start moving pro-gun bills because now there is a Democratic governor to confront.

They quite literally might start passing gun bills, slapping them on her desk, force her to sign it or veto it, and then turn those into massive campaign talking points for taking out that governor in the 2030 elections.

In other words, Republicans might start ACTING like Republicans.

I’ve seen it with my own eyes before in Missouri, West Virginia, Kentucky and Maine, for example.

But don’t mistake that for a guarantee. The same legislators could keep sitting on bills. They could lose the votes. And if Acton vetoes a bill, passing it once is not enough.

In Ohio, overriding a veto takes three-fifths in each chamber. That is 60 votes in the 99-member House and 20 in the 33-member Senate, assuming every seat is filled. A simple Republican majority does not meet that test.

Look at the states around us.

In Kentucky, the Republican legislature passed HB 153 in 2023, limiting state and local enforcement of federal gun control. Democratic Governor Andy Beshear let it become law without signing it. He did not veto that particular bill, so there was no override.

In North Carolina, legislators overrode Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s veto of a pistol purchase-permit repeal in 2023.

Then look at 2025. Democratic Governor Josh Stein vetoed the permitless-carry bill, SB 50. The Senate voted to override. But that alone did not make the veto disappear. The House also had to override it.

In Missouri, Democrat Governor Jay Nixon vetoed Stand-Your-Ground law in 2016, and the elections that November the Republican gubernatorial candidate made gun rights a statewide referendum on Democrats and totally destroyed them up and down the ballot.

See the difference? Sometimes the legislature has the votes and follows through. Sometimes the governor stops the bill. Party control by itself does not tell you the answer.

So what could the next four years look like?

1	Maybe Republican leaders block Acton’s gun-control proposals, but they’re the same Republicans who are currently blocking gun rights bills. Nothing much moves.
2	Maybe they finally start passing pro-gun bills and putting them on her desk. Then we find out whether they have the votes to override her.
3	Maybe an ugly event puts enormous pressure on both parties, and a few Republicans join Democrats behind a gun-control bill. You and I both know from experience that that isn’t an imaginary scenario.
4	Or maybe all three things happen at different points over four years.

My point is, I can’t sit here and predict which one will happen, I’m telling you what the political gun rights board looks like.

And you and I cannot take comfort in the idea that Republican control of the legislature solves everything, because it hasn’t even gotten the bills already sitting in committee to the governor’s desk.

If Acton wins, the governor would have real power, legislators would face real choices, and our gun rights would be on the line.

Some legislators will stand their ground for gun owners. Some might horse-trade our freedoms for their own benefit, and some might simply do nothing.

Here at Ohio Gun Owners, we judge politicians by what they do, because that’s all that counts.

That’s Scenario Two. That’s the exercise.

Before you vote, take a look at our 2026 ballot guide and see what the candidates have put on the record.

SEE THE 2026 BALLOT GUIDE

Buckle up,

Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Ohio Gun Owners