Ohio’s bitter governor’s race got even uglier Tuesday when an attack video 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 statement by Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, appeared to have been put together for a potential campaign ad and began circulating on social media Monday night. It included no disclosure of who produced or financed it, nor has it been broadcast digitally or on the airwaves.
But its explosive nature invoked a searing childhood trauma for Acton, now 60, and caused a political firestorm.
“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.
Ramaswamy’s campaign — which has been narrowly trailing Acton’s in recent polling — did not address inquiries from The Washington Post regarding whether it had anything to do with the creation or dissemination of the video. There was no answer to several calls placed 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 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.”
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.
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