Acton’s mother was convicted of theft, animal cruelty: What to know

A GOP campaign ad featuring the estranged mother of Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton (D) received blowback this week after it was revealed Acton’s mother stood by her husband after he was charged with sexually abusing Acton as a child.

Court records show that the mother, Donna Arthur, has faced legal troubles of her own, with convictions related to theft and animal cruelty, according to public legal filings Acton’s campaign has shared with The Hill.

In April 2021, Arthur was charged in Pennsylvania with neglecting animals after a judge found she kept several cats in a “locked and filthy vehicle” with an internal temperature of 120 degrees. 

Upon appeal, a higher court vacated her sentence and conviction in 2023 after it determined the trial court made an error when it failed to assess Arthur’s right to counsel. 

Previously, Arthur pleaded guilty in a 1995 case in which she was charged with passing bad checks and theft by deception or false impression. She was found guilty on similar charges a year later and sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison, although it’s unclear how much of this sentence she served. 

GOP gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign has claimed credit for and defended the controversial ad featuring Arthur, in which she calls her daughter a “liar” and urges Ohioans to vote against her in the November election. 

Acton previously disclosed during a 2019 interview with The Vindicator that she had experienced abuse, neglect and a period of homelessness while living with her mother after her parents’ divorce. 

Acton told the outlet she was also sexually abused by Arthur’s husband, who was indicted on rape charges in 1978. The Democrat said the last time she saw her mother was at the courthouse when her stepfather was arrested, saying Arthur “turned her cheek away” when she tried to give her a kiss. 

The candidate’s brother, Philip Stearns, criticized Ramaswamy for the video in a campaign ad released Tuesday afternoon. 

“Shame on Vivek,” Stearns said. “It’s the contempt he has for Amy. It’s the contempt he has for Ohio. He’s not fit to lead.” 

President Trump and Vice President Vance defended Ramaswamy from criticism about the ad this week, while Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) and his predecessor John Kasich (R) have called on Ramaswamy to take down the ad.

After NBC News reporter Monica Alba pressed the president outside the White House on Friday about the allegations of sexual assault made against Acton’s stepfather, Trump told her to be “quiet” and praised Arthur as a “smart person.”

“This has nothing to do with the stepfather or anything else,” the president said. “This has to do with the fact that a woman got out, the mother of a person running for governor … said that she’s a liar, her daughter’s a liar.”

Trump added he believed Arthur’s comments were “very much fair game.”

The Hill has reached out to the Ramaswamy campaign about the new revelations about Arthur’s legal troubles.