The mother of the Democrat running for Ohio governor appears in a campaign ad, telling Ohioans not to vote for her daughter. But the candidate, Dr. Amy Acton, said she has been estranged from her mother since she was 12 years old.
Acton's biological mother, Donna Stearns Arthur, says in a new trending clip of an unaired ad that Acton lied about her past upbringings, including homelessness, neglect and abuse, telling voters in Ohio, "she can't help you if she needs help herself." The clip was posted by an Ohio politics blogger Oct. 19 and does not appear to be on television, according to Columbus-based ad tracker Medium Buying.
According to Acton's campaign and records reviewed by USA TODAY, Acton has been estranged from her mother since 1978,
when her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, faced a rape charge for for sexually abusing 12-year-old Acton.
"It's awful to see her this way, and it's even more incredible to see that my opponent [Ramaswamy] has taken advantage of someone who's clearly not well, who is older, and this is totally in line with who he is," Acton said about Arthur in an Oct. 20 interview with WOSU, an Ohio PBS station.
Acton's younger brother, Philip Stearns, also condemned the ad, saying in a statement provided by the Acton campaign that, “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 12 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," Stearns said of Arthur. "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."
It is unclear who cut the video, and in her interview with WOSU, Acton accused her opponent's campaign of being behind it. A campaign spokesperson for Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy did not say whether they cut the ad not whether it would air on television.
"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," Ramaswamy campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck said in a statement.
The ad was shared by Republican operatives on social media, including Donald Trump Jr. who wrote: "YIkes! Ohio watch this and think about what it means."
Records obtained by USA TODAY corroborate Stearns' account that Cledith Arthur was charged with rape in 1978, for which he pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury but "willfully vacated his last known address" before his conviction, according to the records. An Austintown Police Department detective submitted a 1976 record which says Arthur "did engage in sexual conduct with Amy Stearns, not the spouse of the offender, when the other person is less than thirteen years of age."
Acton campaign adviser Justin Barasky also posted court records on X, saying, "Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad is disgusting—there is no lie, no scam, and no shameful act too low for him."
This new ad is the second time that her mother has accused Acton of lying. Arthur detailed concerns about Acton's backstory to an anti-abortion group in 2020, while Acton was serving as state health director.
In a campaign video Oct. 8, her brother verified Acton's account of their upbringing.
"I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it," Stearns said. "She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that, and if she hadn't done that, who knows where I would have ended up."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amy Acton rips 'awful' ad showing estranged mother speaking out against her
