Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton delivered a personal rebuke of Republican rival Vivek Ramaswamy at a Cleveland rally headlined by former President Barack Obama on Saturday, accusing her opponent of exploiting her traumatic childhood through a campaign advertisement featuring her estranged mother.
The former president was in Cleveland on Saturday to campaign for Democratic candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm election. Acton and Ramaswamy are running to succeed term-limited Republican Governor Mike DeWine.
“My opponent has chosen to exploit intentionally my childhood...just to save his struggling campaign,” Acton said at the rally. “But it’s not going to work.”
Acton, Ohio’s former state health director, described at the rally experiencing abuse, neglect and housing instability as a child and said those experiences helped drive her career in medicine and public service.
“As a young child, my brother and I experienced a lot of child abuse and neglect,” she said. “We moved countless times as kids and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of winter.”
Acton accused Ramaswamy of using that history against her politically, while arguing that her experiences were ultimately a story of resilience.
“I know that I am not the only one in this room who saw a thing or two in their childhood,” she said. “But our stories, Ohio stories, it’s one of resilience, of grit, of grace and, yes, of hope.”
She also discussed experiencing sexual abuse and recalled periods in which she did not know where her next meal would come from.
Acton later said that her opponent is "not just out of touch, you are out for yourself,” adding that “you are a danger to my state.”
She also accused Ramaswamy of sinking to a new low by using the family dispute in the campaign, before portraying kindness and compassion as strengths rather than vulnerabilities.
“My opponent keeps mistaking kindness for weakness,” she said. “Kindness isn’t weakness. It’s a fierce, fierce commitment to justice.”
What to Know About Ramaswamy's Ad
The 60-second advertisement features Acton’s estranged birth mother, Donna Arthur, disputing her daughter’s account of her upbringing.
Arthur calls Acton a “liar,” says she has “a serious problem” and tells viewers her daughter “needs help.” She also disputes Acton’s account of having lived in a tent as a child.
Acton and Arthur have been estranged for decades. According to police and court records obtained by the Associated Press, Arthur lost custody of her children after her husband, Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged with raping Acton when she was 12.
He pleaded not guilty, and the case did not go to trial after he left the area while free on bond.
Court-record-based reporting and Acton's brother Philip Stearns have supported key elements of Acton’s account of an unstable childhood marked by abuse, neglect and periods of homelessness.
The ad initially circulated online without a sponsorship disclosure identifying its source. The AP reported that such a disclosure would be required for the advertisement to air on television.
“Ohioans are struggling with rising costs and need a governor who can help them. Vivek wants the election to focus on how to solve these problems, but unfortunately Amy Acton has repeatedly resorted to lying about Vivek and his family, lying about her own record, and then hiding from debates and hiding from voters by barring cameras at her own events," Ramaswamy's campaign said in the statement issued earlier this week.
Bipartisan Backlash Over Campaign Ad
The bitter dispute has introduced an intensely personal element into the closing stretch of Ohio’s gubernatorial race and has prompted criticism of Ramaswamy from prominent members of his own party.
Ramaswamy’s campaign has committed $4 million to promote the advertisement on television and online ahead of Election Day. His campaign has said Acton’s mother was not paid to appear in the spot.
The advertisement has generated bipartisan criticism. By Friday, all five living former full-term Ohio governors, including three Republicans and two Democrats, had spoken out against it.
Republican former Governor Bob Taft said the advertisement “really exceeds the bounds of human decency,” while DeWine urged Ramaswamy to stop airing it.
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Trump and Vance Defend Ramaswamy
Others have defended Ramaswamy, including Vice President JD Vance, who praised him for having the “audacity” to run an advertisement calling Acton a liar.
President Donald Trump also addressed the ad when asked by reporters Friday, saying, “It’s a mother speaking badly against Amy Acton, and to me it’s very easy,” he said. “If it were my mother speaking badly about me, you’d be making it the number one story in the news.”
When a reporter pressed Trump on Acton saying her mother stood by her stepfather despite abuse allegations, Trump responded, “You don’t know that. You don’t know anything.”
“Her mother went on television and said that the daughter, who is running for governor of Ohio, is a liar and a bad person,” he said. “That’s all I know.”
The president said the press is “embarrassing themselves” by trying to make a “horrible situation” for Democrats look better, saying that he believes Acton’s mother appeared "lucid" and "very smart," and felt an “obligation” to tell Ohio voters “that her daughter is a liar.”
Candidates Clash Over Motives
Ramaswamy, meanwhile, has rejected criticism that the advertisement improperly invokes Acton’s childhood abuse.
“The irony is they’re lying about an ad that is about lying,” he said Friday. “They’re changing the subject because they don’t want to answer for their own failures.”
“Our ad had nothing, nothing to do with childhood abuse, sexual abuse. We condemn that as forcibly as anyone. Our ad was about a consistent track record of Amy Acton telling lies, including during this campaign,” he said.
Newsweek reached out to both campaigns by email Saturday for further comment.
In a recent statement emailed to Newsweek by the Acton campaign, Stearns said, “It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother's husband into a political talking point.”
“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," he said. "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.”
Ramaswamy's campaign recently told Newsweek in an emailed statement in part, “We don't know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke out 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."
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Anthony Murray and Steve Mollman.