AP file photo, 2022 Former U.S. Rep. and candidate for U.S. Senate Tim Ryan gives his concession speech to Republican candidate JD Vance at an election night event in Boardman. Ryan has opted not to run for governor next year.

Democrat Tim Ryan, a former 20-year Mahoning Valley congressman, will not run for governor — essentially setting up next year’s race between two candidates who’ve never held public office.

In a prepared statement Friday, Ryan said: “After careful consideration, much prayer and reflection, and after long conversations with my family, my closest friends and advisers, I’ve made the decision not to run for governor in 2026.”

The decision came a couple of weeks after Dennis Willard, Ryan’s spokesman, said that Ryan “has asked his team to prepare to launch a campaign.”

Willard recently added that the preparations included “everything we would need to stand up a campaign from identifying key personnel to manage, raise money, communications and everything in between. Tim told us the people of Ohio deserve bold leadership and someone who will fight for them so be ready to go.”

With Ryan out of the race, the lone declared Democrat for governor is Dr. Amy Acton, who rose to prominence during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic as the state’s health director. She declared for the seat in January and is almost certainly going to be the party’s nominee in next year’s election. She’s never run for elected office before.

Since her announcement, Action, a Youngstown native, has received more than 200 endorsements.

Ryan’s decision stops what would have been a potentially costly and divided Democratic primary.

On the Republican side, the clear frontrunner is Vivek Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur who has received many endorsements, including the Ohio Republican Party and President Donald Trump, as well as numerous statewide and national Republican officeholders and 10 labor unions.

Ramaswamy announced his candidacy in February, though it was widely believed to be inevitable a few months earlier.

In his first bid for elected office, Ramaswamy dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in January of that year after a fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses and endorsed Trump.

In response to Ryan’s announcement, Connie Luck, Ramaswamy’s spokeswoman, said: “While the Democrats have spent months fighting to secure their shrinking base, Vivek has been talking to voters of all political persuasions to build an unprecedented coalition of support that includes conservative leaders and farmers to truckers and labor unions — and we’re just getting started.”

Luck’s statement didn’t mention Ryan.

After Ryan’s announcement, Acton issued what her campaign called a “statement on Ohio’s governor’s race” — and like the Ramaswamy campaign statement — it didn’t address the former congressman’s decision.

In the statement, Acton said: “No matter what corner of the state I’m in, it’s clear Ohioans are struggling with rising costs. Whether it’s health care, child care, gas or groceries, there’s too much money going out and not enough coming in. And while the special interests that run our state are doing just fine, they’ve made a mess for the rest of us and I will not allow a billionaire Washington insider like Vivek Ramaswamy take us down an even worse path. I’m running for governor because it’s time for a change. Together, we can lower costs, give Ohioans a little breathing room and build the Ohio we all deserve.”

Ryan had talked of running for governor for several months, saying in December 2024 that he was considering it.

Ryan’s potential bid for governor essentially ended when it looked like Sherrod Brown, a former three-term senator and the most-recognizable name in Ohio Democratic politics, was seriously considering the position. Instead, Brown chose in August to run for the Senate.

Brown’s decision “renewed and heightened Tim Ryan’s interest in running for governor,” Willard said in mid-August.

After that, Ryan put himself on a self-imposed Sept. 30 deadline to decide. But on that date, Willard said Ryan was “going to take a few additional days to make his decision.”

Those “few additional days” ended up being 52, with signs pointing to Ryan running until Friday’s announcement.

Ryan has made a significant amount of money since losing the 2022 Senate race by 6.1% to Republican J.D. Vance by advocating for the national gas industry and cryptocurrency. Before the 2022 Senate bid, Ryan represented most of Mahoning and Trumbull counties — as well as Portage and Summit — for two decades.

Brown has not endorsed Acton for governor though he is close to her, and his wife, Connie Schultz, is among those publicly supporting her.

There is friction between Brown and Ryan, which includes the latter’s advocacy for cryptocurrency, an industry that spent $40 million in last year’s Senate race against Brown to help Republican Bernie Moreno, who won that election.