Ohio governor race erupts after attack video features Acton's estranged mother

The video and how it spread

A video of about 60 seconds featuring Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Democratic nominee Amy Acton, began circulating on social media on Monday night, 19 October. In the clip, Arthur says of her daughter:

“Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar.”

The video appears to have been made for a possible campaign advertisement, but it carries no disclosure of who produced or financed it. Conservatives shared it widely, Republicans praised it and Democrats called it a new low in a race that was already bitter. Arthur also disputes her daughter's account of growing up in a tent and urges voters not to make her governor. Ramaswamy's campaign has not said whether it created or spread the video, and its spokeswoman, Connie Luck, issued a statement backing the mother's claims while calling Acton a "serial fabulist" who has problems with the truth.

Acton's account and the 1978 case

Acton has described a difficult childhood on the campaign trail and in a 2019 interview with The Vindicator of Youngstown, in which she said she had been sexually abused between the ages of 9 and 12 and had described periods of homelessness and living in a tent. In 1978, after her biological father reported the abuse to police, her stepfather was arrested, and a grand jury indicted him on rape charges; he pleaded not guilty. Acton's campaign has supplied court records and contemporary local media reports that it says back up her account that she and her brother were taken from their mother's home when she was 12. Much of that paperwork predates online listings, and the court clerk's office could not produce copies quickly on Tuesday, 20 October. Investigators lost track of the stepfather after he moved, even though several warrants had been issued to bring him in.

The mother's version and the 2020 remarks

Arthur has told a different story. In 2020 she came forward to a conservative website to say her daughter's accounts of homelessness were exaggerated, and she said Acton had testified against her husband in court while she herself stood by him. According to 20 Minuten, Arthur now claims that Acton's biological father abused her while she was pregnant and that the allegations against her husband formed part of a custody dispute. Acton's brother says their mother remained married to the stepfather after his arrest until he died.

The family's response and the race

Philip Stearns, Acton's brother, condemned the video in a statement released by her campaign and accused Ramaswamy of turning abuse into a political talking point. In the statement, he said:

“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 also called Ramaswamy's move "a despicable low". Acton directed the Ohio Department of Health from 2019 to 2020, overseeing the state's early response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Polling has shown Ramaswamy narrowly trailing her, and his campaign has not answered direct questions about whether it made or spread the video.