A one-minute video styled like a campaign ad went up Monday night in Ohio's race for governor. In it, Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Democratic nominee Dr. Amy Acton, calls her daughter a liar and tells Ohioans not to vote for her. "She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true," Arthur says. Acton has said she was abused from about age 3 to 12 and once spent a winter in a campground tent. In 1978, police arrested Arthur's husband for raping a 12-year-old girl. That year, Acton and her brother were removed from their mother's custody. The video carries no "paid for by" line, and nobody has claimed it. The campaign of Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy won't say whether it was involved. Ohioans vote on November 3.

Using Her Abuse Is Despicable (Acton, Her Brother, Rep. Greg Landsman)

Acton's side says Ramaswamy used an unwell, elderly woman to try to turn Acton's childhood abuse into a talking point.

No one should get to call her abuse a complaint. "I won't normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I'm complaining about," Acton told Spectrum News. In an interview with WOSU, she said seeing her mother this way was "awful." She said Ramaswamy "has taken advantage of someone who's clearly not well, who is older."

The man who abused Acton stayed married to her mother. Philip Stearns, Acton's brother, said in a campaign statement that "our birth mother stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died." He said Ramaswamy tried to turn the abuse Acton suffered at 12 into "a political talking point." He called Ramaswamy "a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants." Acton campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock said, "This isn't just disturbing; it's disqualifying."

This is as low as politics gets. Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) called it "one of the most despicable things I've ever seen in politics." Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senate nominee, called it "disgusting" and said Republican Senator Jon Husted should condemn it. Husted's campaign didn't immediately respond.

Even Some Republicans Say It Went Too Far (Meghan McCain, Dan Hauser)

A few people on the right say the video crossed a line, no matter who made it.

Whoever made this should be ashamed. Commentator Meghan McCain called the video "dastardly." "Shame on whatever consultant firm created this," she wrote.

The accusations were too serious to share. The Associated Press reported that Dan Hauser, a strategist for Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), deleted his retweet of the video. He did it after he realized the "very serious accusations" involved.

Voters Should Hear From Her Mother (Ramaswamy's Campaign, Ken Blackwell, Dinesh D'Souza)

Ramaswamy's allies say Acton's own mother is warning voters, and voters should listen.

You can't trust what she says about her own past. Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Connie Luck called Acton "a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth." Luck said the people who know Acton best "are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her," and "Ohioans deserve to know that." She also said, "We don't know what happened between Amy and her mother."

This isn't the first time her mother has denied it. In 2020, Arthur told the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue that the family was never homeless or unfed. She said they lived in four homes, not 18.

Her own mother is a witness worth hearing. Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell shared the video. "Ohio cannot afford a governor who rewrites her own history when it suits her," he said. Commentator Dinesh D'Souza wrote, "when you've lost mom, it's pretty safe to say you've lost the election." Donald Trump Jr., the president's son, told Ohioans to watch it and "think about what it means."

Her Childhood Isn't Off-Limits (Laura Loomer)

The hardest-line defenders say anyone running for office has to take hits like this.

Politics is supposed to be rough. Far-right activist Laura Loomer wrote on X, "I am on the side of Amy's mother." "You want to be in politics, you better be able to take the heat. I don't care about Amy Acton's childhood," she wrote. She also went after Republicans who condemned the video.

Ramaswamy Is Behind It (Acton, Her Campaign)

No one has signed the video, and Acton's side blames Ramaswamy.

It's not the first time Ramaswamy has gone after her abuse. In an April video, Ramaswamy said Acton had no vision "other than to complain about what someone else did to her." "This is a lifelong pattern with my opponent," Acton said Tuesday. Her campaign blames Ramaswamy's camp for the new video.

Nobody has put their name on the video. It has no disclaimer saying who paid for it. Straight Arrow News reports that Ohio law generally requires one on political messages, including social posts. As of Tuesday morning, it didn't show up as a paid ad on AdImpact, which tracks political ad spending. An official with V-PAC, the main super PAC backing Ramaswamy, said the group didn't make the video. D.J. Byrnes, the Ohio blogger who first posted it, told CNN that a voter saw the video during a poll and recorded it. Straight Arrow News reported that Byrnes said the video came from Ramaswamy's campaign. He hasn't shown any evidence of that.

Where This Lands

Acton says Ramaswamy took advantage of a mother who is "clearly not well," and her campaign calls the video disqualifying. McCain condemned it, and Hauser, a Republican strategist, deleted his retweet. Luck says the people who know Acton best are warning voters, and Blackwell says Acton rewrites her own history. Loomer says she doesn't care about Acton's childhood. Acton's campaign blames Ramaswamy, and his campaign won't say whether it made the video. Ohioans vote on November 3.

Sources