Democrat Amy Acton in Ohio pushes back against unattributed ad featuring her estranged mother

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor who has made no secret of a difficult childhood that included homelessness and sexual abuse, pushed back forcefully Tuesday against an unattributed ad circulating online in which her long-estranged mother calls her “a liar” and insinuates she has mental health issues.

The ad began circulating overnight, just two weeks before Election Day. Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, is in a tight race with Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate who has benefited from spending on his behalf that has exceeded $120 million.

The online ad, which first surfaced in a post by an Ohio political blogger, spread quickly across social media platforms. It does not include the “paid for” tag that is legally required to air on TV so viewers can know who produced and paid for it. D.J. Brynes, who blogs as “The Rooster,” told CNN he got the video from a voter who viewed it as part of a poll and recorded it.

It was not clear if Acton’s mother was paid for the one-minute spot. Her last known telephone number has been disconnected.

Acton suggested Ramaswamy was behind the ad.

“I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I’m complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse,” she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.

She said Ramaswamy was accused of similar personal attacks during his run for the GOP presidential nomination: “This is a lifelong pattern with my opponent.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign issued a statement that did not address if he was responsible for the ad or knew who produced it. In the statement, campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck said Acton “has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of.”

In a statement released by Acton’s campaign, her brother, Philip Stearns, said the two were removed from their mother Donna Arthur’s custody as children after their stepfather, Arthur’s husband, was indicted for raping Acton as a child. Acton has not seen Arthur, whose last known address was in Pennsylvania, since they were in a courtroom together in 1978.

Later Tuesday, the Acton campaign released a response ad featuring Stearns, who recalls his older sister taking “the worst” of the abuse they faced as children in order to protect him and disparages Ramaswamy and his allies for exploiting the situation.

According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton’s biological father reported his alleged conduct to authorities. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978.

Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury that September, but failed to show at a court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died.

High-profile Republicans who back Ramaswamy — including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer — elevated the video in online posts.

But other Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the ad. Meghan McCain called it “dastardly” and Dan Hauser, a strategist for Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his retweet of the ad once he realized “the very serious accusations that caused their issues.”

The Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, described the spot as “disgusting” and said everyone — including his opponent, Sen. Jon Husted — should be willing to condemn it. A spokesperson for Husted’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Acton’s mother does not mention Ramaswamy’s name in the ad, but she suggests that Acton has misrepresented her opponent and the time her family was homeless and living in a tent when she was a child — an experience Stearns corroborates.

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Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.