A new campaign ad in which the estranged mother of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton argues that her daughter should not be elected as the Buckeye State’s next governor has added a new level of controversy to what was already one of the most closely watched races of the midterms.
Acton, a Democrat, is running to replace outgoing Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. She’s facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, a billionaire who ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2024.
In the ad, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter a “liar” and urges Ohioans not to support her.
“Don’t let her become your governor,” she says. “If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself. It will only get worse.”
As the ad began to spread across social media, Acton’s brother released a statement in which he accused Arthur of siding with their stepfather after he was charged with sexually abusing Acton when she was a child, and criticized Ramaswamy for attempting to use that abuse as a “political talking point.”
Ramaswamy defended the ad on Tuesday, telling reporters that Acton’s account of her past “does deserve to be scrutinized.” His campaign confirmed to the Enquirer that it will spend $4 million to air the ad across the state.
The ongoing controversy over the ad, which has been widely condemned by Democrats and sparked pushback from some Republicans, has put a new spotlight on the race for Ohio’s top elected office.
Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, an incumbent Republican locked in a tight reelection race, released a statement saying he personally “would not have run” the ad. Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, himself a former senator from Ohio, said Republicans who disapprove of the ad should “stop whining” and remember that politics is a “tough business” during a campaign stop in Cincinnati on Wednesday.
Once a key swing state, Ohio has steadily become redder in recent decades. Four years ago, DeWine won reelection by more than 25 percentage points. But polls suggest that Acton has a chance to break the GOP’s long run of control over the Ohio Statehouse.
Here’s what you need to know about who she is, how her past informs what she stands for today and what the polls say about her chances of winning.
Who is Amy Acton?
Acton has been open about the “difficult” childhood she endured growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, in the 1970s. On her campaign website, she says she overcame “periods of abuse, hunger, and neglect, and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of winter.”
In 2019, she publicly discussed for the first time that she had been sexually assaulted by her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, between the ages of 9 and 12. After Acton’s biological father reported the abuse in 1978, Arthur was arrested and charged with rape, according to contemporary news reports and court documents obtained by the Associated Press. Acton’s mother sided with her stepfather, disputing the allegations of abuse. The couple left the state before Arthur could face trial and allegedly remained together until his death in 2004.
Both Acton and her mother say they have not seen or spoken to each other since a court hearing in which Acton testified against her stepfather nearly 50 years ago.
“In the courthouse after they were charged, I went to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away. That was the last time I ever saw her,” Acton told the now-shuttered newspaper the Vindicator in 2019.
Acton found more stability after moving in with her father and became a standout student in high school. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University and a medical degree from the Northeast Ohio School of Medicine, working various jobs to pay her way through college. She completed residencies in pediatrics and preventive medicine before becoming a professor at Ohio State University, where she taught classes on maternal and child health. She also directed a community organization called Project L.O.V.E. to promote preventive health care among Columbus-area children.
In 2019, DeWine tapped her to become director of the Ohio Department of Health. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year later, she advised DeWine to take swift action to control the spread of the virus. Under her guidance, Ohio became the first state in the nation to shut down all public schools. Acton also gained national attention thanks to the daily public briefings she gave throughout the early stages of the pandemic. In May 2020, an opinion piece in the New York Times called her “The Leader We Wish We All Had.”
Acton resigned a month later amid pressure from the Republican-led state legislature to sign orders rolling back COVID restrictions, moves she would later say “there was no science for.” She briefly remained part of DeWine’s administration as a public health adviser before leaving to resume working in the nonprofit sector.
She announced her plans to run for governor in early 2025 and cruised through the Democratic primary in May.
Acton was married to her first husband, with whom she had three children, for nearly 20 years before they divorced in 2008. She married her current husband in 2010 and became stepmother to his three children.
What does Acton stand for?
As a Democrat running in a conservative-leaning state, Acton fits firmly into the moderate wing of her party. Her policy platform focuses heavily on affordability, including proposals to lower the cost of health care, combat fraud, cut high energy bills and crack down on corporations that take advantage of workers and consumers.
In July, she drew criticism from some progressive Democrats for saying that she supported barring transgender children from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. Soon afterward, she added language to her website pledging to protect Ohio’s LGBTQ community, without directly contradicting her previously stated stance on transgender athletes’ participation in sports. Acton has also spoken in favor of Ohio’s voter ID requirements, a position that puts her at odds with many Democrats who view such laws as a voter suppression tactic by Republicans.
Acton has also called for an increase in funding for police departments, more money for public schools and heavy investment in Ohio’s rural and farming communities.
What are her chances?
Polling in the Ohio governor’s race has fluctuated significantly as Election Day has grown closer. In the aggregate, the polls suggest that Acton has steadily widened her lead over Ramaswamy over the past several weeks. At the same time, two polls released in October show Ramaswamy ahead. The Cook Political Report and the Center for Politics, two of the country’s top nonpartisan forecasters, list the race as a toss-up.
No polls of the race have been conducted since the ad featuring Acton’s mother became public, so it’s too early to gauge what impact — if any — the controversy might have on voters’ views of the two candidates.
