Ohio’s bitter governor’s race got even uglier Tuesday when an attack ad surfaced featuring Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s long-estranged mother calling her daughter “a liar,” prompting Acton’s brother to accuse Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, of turning childhood rape “into a political talking point.”
The 60-second video by Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, initially circulated on social media Monday night. It included no disclosure of who produced or financed it, and the Ramaswamy campaign early Tuesday did not acknowledge responsibility.
But late Tuesday, Ramaswamy’s campaign confirmed that it produced the ad and would spend $4 million to air it in the state. The campaign appeared unmoved by decades-old court documents disseminated by Acton’s campaign indicating Acton, 60, had been the victim of childhood trauma.
“Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar,” Arthur said in the video. “She’s lied her entire life. My daughter needs help.” She did not directly mention the alleged sexual abuse but accused Acton of fabricating the hardships she endured as a child.
There was no answer to several calls placed by The Washington Post to a number listed to Arthur.
Ramaswamy’s campaign, in a statement from spokeswoman Connie Luck, echoed the claims in the video: “We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke about Amy in 2020, but we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor.”
Meanwhile, Acton’s campaign provided extensive documentation, from court records and contemporary reports in local media, that corroborated her account that she and her brother were removed from their mother’s home after her second husband, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and indicted in 1978 and charged with rape of “Amy Stearns being less than thirteen (13) years of age.”
The arrest came after Acton’s biological father, Gerald Stearns, made a report to police.
Law enforcement lost track of Cledith Arthur after he moved, though there were multiple warrants issued to bring him in.
Many of the records are too old to be listed online, and the court clerk’s office could not quickly provide copies on Tuesday.
According to both Acton and her mother, they have not been in contact since she and her brother were removed from the Arthurs’ home. In the courtroom after her stepfather was charged, Acton approached her mother “to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away. That was the last time I ever saw her,” Acton told the Vindicator, a Youngstown newspaper, in 2019.
“After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died,” Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said in a statement issued by Acton’s campaign. “This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
The Acton campaign on Tuesday released an ad featuring Philip Stearns recalling a difficult childhood in which his sister took on the role of his protector in an abuse-filled home.
“If she hadn’t done that, who knows where I would have ended up,” he said. “Shame on Vivek.”
This was not the first time Ramaswamy has been accused of twisting facts and planting rumors about Acton, whom he and a cohort of conservative influencers have suggested is a public drunk and mentally unstable. In a visit to Ohio earlier this month, Vice President JD Vance referred to Acton as “a crazy person,” and added: “I did promise Amy that I would meet her at a bar later. I understand she is into that sort of thing. So I’m going to try to get to know her a little bit better.”
A Ramaswamy ad over the summer featured a Republican activist, Linda Caudill, who claimed that her mother died alone in a nursing home during the pandemic, when Acton was director of Ohio’s health department, leading the covid response with Republican Gov. Mike DeWine. “It traumatized her. She didn’t know why her family couldn’t come visit her,” Caudill said in the ad. “Amy Acton is to blame for this. It happened to a lot of families, and it shouldn’t have happened. I will never forgive Amy Acton for what she did to my family.”
Subsequent reporting by the Columbus Dispatch revealed Caudill’s mother lived and died in Kentucky, not Ohio, and also that her death occurred two months after Ohio’s stay-at-home order and travel restrictions were lifted.
Acton is leading within the margin of error in polls, but her campaign has been swamped on the airwaves by spending from Ramaswamy, a wealthy biotech entrepreneur, and his allies. According to the tracking firm AdImpact, Ramaswamy and his allies have aired close to $140 million in advertising, more than three times what Acton and hers have.
Natalie Allison contributed to this report.
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