Acton Campaign, Republicans Blast Ramaswamy for New Ad

A video featuring the estranged mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton was circulating  among right-wing influencers who support Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on social media Tuesday. In the video, filmed like a campaign-style ad, Donna Arthur calls Acton a “liar” and says she “needs help.” The video received immediate condemnation from Acton’s campaign along with some Republicans across Ohio and the country. 

Acton has alleged that Arthur’s husband sexually abused her when Acton was a child, and that Arthur took her husband’s side when the case went to court. 

The new video appeared on X without any information included about who paid for it. But the Acton campaign pointed the finger at Ramaswamy. As the day went on, eventually Ramaswamy’s campaign said it would spend $4 million to air the ad, according to Axios. 

“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,” Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, said in a statement released by her campaign. “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.”

Stearns has said that Acton protected him when they were children even as they both endured abuse and neglect, and lived in a tent.

Court records show that Cledith Arthur was arrested in 1978 for rape of a 12-year-old girl, the Columbus Dispatch reported. Arthur left Ohio before he was convicted, and Acton has said her mother fled with him. A warrant was issued for Cledith Arthur’s arrest in December 1981 and October 1987. He reportedly died in Pennsylvania in 2004. 

The Ramaswamy campaign spent most of Tuesday refusing to confirm whether it was directly responsible for the ad when contacted by reporters. But Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Connie Luck said Acton was a “serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth.”

Acton campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock responded to the Ramaswamy campaign’s statement: “The choice to use, and then stand by, Dr. Acton’s estranged and abusive mother who stayed married to her rapist stepfather until the day he died shows Ohioans exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is,” Bullock said. 

Criticism over the video with Arthur came from both sides of the aisle on Tuesday. “This is a dastardly ad,” conservative podcaster Meghan McCain said on social media. “It never should have been created. Shame on whatever consultant firm created this.”

Ohio’s Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik, a Republican appointee, agreed. “I don’t care what political party you belong to or which candidate you support. There are lines we shouldn’t cross, and this is one of them,” she wrote on X. “We can disagree on plenty of things without losing our sense of decency.”

Later Tuesday, the Acton campaign released a new ad featuring Stearns, who recounted the siblings’ childhood abuse. 

“I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse, because she knew she had to protect me from that, and that if she hadn't done that, who knows where I would have ended up?” Stearns says. “When she was 11 and 12 years old, and to think that that’s somehow a talking point. Shame on Vivek.”

Acton herself criticized Ramaswamy in an appearance on Spectrum News Tuesday afternoon.

“I won’t normalize somebody who has said my childhood is just something I’m complaining about,” Acton said. She pointed to a 2023 presidential debate where Ramaswamy made a comment about fellow Republican Nikki Haley’s daughter, calling it a “pattern” of Ramaswamy using an opponent’s family in a campaign attack.  

“The words our leaders use matters,” Acton said.