COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — The campaign for Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Dr. Amy Acton has condemned a political ad spreading online that features Acton’s estranged mother calling Acton “a liar” and urging Ohioans not to support her.
“My name is Donna Arthur and I’m Amy Acton’s mother,” the one-minute video begins.
“I love my daughter, but when I saw her lying about her opponent, it’s not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem,” Arthur continues. “She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life.”
Arthur says her daughter “needs help.”
The video ends with Arthur stating, “Don’t vote for people who lie. Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself. It will only get worse,”
The video was posted by independent investigative journalist Walter Curt on X on Monday night.
It’s since spread across social media, along with being published on conservative news outlets, including Blaze Media and the Daily Wire, and it’s been shared by President Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr.
ABC 6 is working to confirm who produced the ad, when, and plans to broadcast it.
The video does not include a disclaimer about its source nor financing, and it doesn’t directly name Acton’s Republican challenger, Vivek Ramaswamy.
Acton’s campaign slammed the ad featuring her “abusive and estranged mother” with a written statement from her brother, Philip Stearns, Tuesday morning.
“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,” said Philip Stearns, Dr. Acton’s brother. “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. 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.”
A spokeswoman from the Ramaswamy campaign responded Tuesday afternoon with a lengthy statement:
“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.“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.”Amy Acton has serious questions to answer about her statements during COVID, her attacks on Vivek, and her failure to disclose her own multiple police reports for domestic incidents to the governor, including one instance where police had to stop her from driving a car after she had been drinking and using prescription drugs. Everyone who knows her best — her former boss, her former state colleagues, her fellow physicians, and now her own mother — are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her. Ohioans deserve to know that.“Vivek has accepted debate invitations from CNN and WLWT because he believes Ohioans deserve to hear directly from the people asking to lead their state. He stands ready to defend his record against Amy Acton’s defamatory lies. If Amy disagrees with these criticisms, she should stand before the people of Ohio, answer the questions, and let voters decide for themselves. The fact that she won’t, and Vivek will, should tell you everything about who’s really lying.”
Acton has repeatedly spoken publicly about her challenges growing up.
“Public school saved my life as a kid,” she told ABC 6 at a campaign stop last Thursday. “I would not be here as someone who grew up in tough circumstances, homeless, to be able to be a physician was a big milestone, let alone be in the last days of running for governor of Ohio.”
Acton’s campaign website also refers to her “difficult childhood.”
“She overcame periods of abuse, hunger, and neglect, and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of winter,” the site states.
Late Tuesday afternoon, Acton’s camp released a new ad called “Abuse,” in which Acton’s brother speaks about the abuse the siblings allegedly suffered when they were children.
The latest polling shows Acton ahead in Ohio’s gubernatorial race with Election Day two weeks away.
A Marist Poll released Monday gave Acton a seven-point lead over Ramaswamy, while RealClearPolitics called the race a toss-up, giving Acton an average lead of 3.7 points across multiple polls.