TOLEDO — An alleged attack on Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton remained under investigation Monday but the aftermath of the weekend incident made one thing clear: Acton’s closer-than-expected race against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio has become extraordinarily toxic.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol said troopers on Acton’s protective detail “intercepted” 38-year-old Patrick M. Havas as he forced his way toward Acton in a local Democratic Party tent at the Canfield Fair, which bills itself as Ohio’s largest county fair. Authorities said he was carrying two pistols and a Taser.
Acton was unharmed, but the alleged assailant knocked over multiple fairgoers in the tent, witnesses and authorities said. Havas was transported to the Mahoning County Jail, where he was booked and charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of assault.
The Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office on Monday said it was seeking cellphone footage of the incident. The sheriff’s office did not respond to requests for updated information on Monday. The Ohio State Highway Patrol, which is conducting an investigation into the incident with the sheriff’s office, did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Acton, known statewide for directing the state’s early response to the covid-19 pandemic alongside Ohio’s Republican governor Mike DeWine, is locked in a high-profile race with Ramaswamy, the billionaire entrepreneur.
As news of the incident began to spread, right-wing influencers, led by provocateur Laura Loomer, were already claiming on social media that it had been a hoax.
The event at the fair unfolded as the country is gripped by spasms of violence against political leaders of both parties, including President Donald Trump, who has survived three known assassination plots dating back to his 2024 presidential campaign.
Prominent politicians of both parties denounced the incident. Among them was DeWine, in whose administration Acton served as Health Department director. DeWine spoke with her by phone after the incident.
“Violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable,” DeWine said in a statement.
As health director under DeWine, Acton had both admirers and detractors. One of the most controversial orders she carried out in the early days of the pandemic closed down mass gatherings — including fairs and festivals.
Ramaswamy unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination against Trump in 2024 and then worked in his administration helping Elon Musk lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) efforts to upend the federal government. He left that post to run for governor, winning an early endorsement from Trump that cleared the way for him to win the GOP primary.
Though Ohio was considered a quintessential swing state as recently as a decade ago, no Democrat has been elected its governor in two decades, and no party nominee has won statewide since Sen. Sherrod Brown in 2018. Brown lost reelection in 2024 and is running this year against Sen. Jon Husted (R) to get his old job back.
The contests for governor and senator, which recent polling indicates are toss-ups, have put Ohio in the national spotlight. Spending on political ads is expected to top three-quarters of a billion dollars, the highest statewide total ever.
Ramaswamy’s campaign issued a statementSunday condemning political threats and violence, but it noted only “a security incident” at the fair, where he had also campaigned earlier in the day, and did not mention Acton by name.
In an appearance here Monday, he said he was “very grateful that Dr. Acton and her family are doing well. That’s the most important thing, and we’re truly happy and relieved to hear that.”
But when asked whether he discounted Loomer’s contention that it was a hoax, Ramaswamy said: “I have no idea what, any online commentaries you’re talking about. I read the sheriff’s statement last night, and I take the sheriff’s statement at his word.”
Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene, who has endorsed Ramaswamy, downplayed the seriousness of the incident. When asked by a New York Times reporter about the suspect’s intent in pushing toward Acton, Greene said: “I think it was to ask her a couple of questions. He was just, you know, pretty aggressive about it.”
Witnesses told The Washington Post they did not hear the man say anything as he approached Acton.
In his stump speech, Ramaswamy regularly brands Acton a socialist, a label she rejects. “I’m running against a woman who would be, God forbid, the first socialist governor this state has ever seen in our history,” he said Sunday in an appearance at the Great Geauga County Fair in Burton.
One ad run by the Ramaswamy campaign featured a Republican activist blaming Acton for isolating her late mother during the pandemic. A records-check by the Cincinnati Enquirerfound the mother lived in Kentucky and died weeks after Ohio ended its stay-at-home order.
His rhetoric has taken darker turns. In an address last month to the Buckeye Firearms Association Patriot Fest in Hilliard, Ohio, he said: “The Second Amendment was made for times such as these, was made for generations like the one that I live in today. Socialism is back in America with a vengeance.”
On Monday, Ramaswamy noted that in declining to debate him, Acton’s campaign issued “a pretty caustic statement.” It called Ramaswamy “a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family.”
Repeating his call for debates, Ramaswamy said, “I’m not going to take that personally. I want to start with a fresh slate and say again, ‘let’s try this again.’”
The post With Ohio’s governorship up for grabs, a toxic race turns violent appeared first on Washington Post.
