Democratic Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother went to court to support the man her 12-year-old daughter accused of rape, then left town with him. Decades later, she has resurfaced in a pro-Vivek Ramaswamy political attack video accusing that same daughter of lying about her childhood and urging Ohioans not to elect her governor.
Now Acton’s younger brother is fighting back, accusing Ramaswamy of exploiting his sister’s childhood sexual abuse in a desperate attempt to damage her campaign just two weeks before Election Day.
Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, issued a blistering statement Tuesday, October 20, after video circulated of their estranged mother, Donna Arthur, attacking Acton’s character and disputing her accounts of childhood abuse, poverty and homelessness.
“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,” Stearns said.
“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 went further in his condemnation of the Republican gubernatorial nominee.
“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.”
The family’s history predates the current election by decades and was publicly described in a 2019 Youngstown Vindicator interview with Acton. Her mother subsequently acknowledged in a separate 2020 interview that she supported her husband during the proceedings involving her daughter’s rape accusation, borrowed money to hire an attorney and left town with him.
Arthur has denied that her husband sexually abused Acton. But her own account confirms that she sided with him during the allegations that ultimately separated her from both children. According to Stearns, she remained married to him until his death.
A mother who stood by her husband, not her children
The history behind Acton’s estrangement from her mother was extensively detailed on August 31, 2019, when then-Youngstown Vindicator editor Todd Franko published an interview with Acton, who was serving as Ohio’s health director under Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
Acton described growing up amid poverty, neglect and instability in the Youngstown area, moving approximately 18 times during her first 12 years. She recalled living in a basement with bare walls, a sump pump, boxes and a bed. Her childhood was repeatedly disrupted by her mother’s relationships with different men, including an episode in which she and her younger brother, then approximately 8 and 5 years old, were placed alone on a bus from Nebraska to Ohio to live with relatives.
Her circumstances deteriorated further when her mother married a man Acton said had previously faced accusations of molestation. Acton told The Vindicator that the man sexually abused her between the ages of 9 and 12, eventually leading authorities to intervene.
During that period, Acton said, the family spent a winter living in a tent at a campground outside Youngstown. The Vindicator’s account was published more than seven years before the 2026 governor’s election.
“I was lucky that it got bad enough, because it got me out of there,” Acton told Franko.
Acton and her younger brother eventually went to live with their father and relatives, escaping the conditions she described in her mother’s household. Acton recalled that although money remained tight, they finally had stability, safety and enough food.
But one of the most consequential details in her account concerned her mother’s conduct after the allegations of sexual abuse emerged.
Acton described seeing her mother at the courthouse during the proceedings involving Arthur’s husband and attempting to give her a kiss.
“In the courthouse after they were charged, I went to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away. That was the last time I ever saw her.”
The Vindicator reported that Arthur and her husband subsequently left town while out on bond. Acton said she had neither seen nor heard from her mother since that courthouse encounter.
The precise criminal case history remains unresolved in the available published accounts. The Vindicator reported that charges had been filed, while a separate 2020 report by Operation Rescue said its search of Mahoning County court records found no criminal charges against Arthur or her husband. The underlying case records and final disposition have not been independently verified.
Whatever the ultimate outcome of those proceedings, Arthur’s own statements confirm that she supported her husband during her daughter’s accusations and left town with him.
In a June 3, 2020, interview with Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion advocacy organization that was attacking Acton’s leadership of Ohio’s health department, Arthur disputed her daughter’s account of being sexually abused and suggested that Acton’s biological father had influenced the allegations.
But the same interview acknowledged that Arthur went to court to support her husband, identified as Bud, when Acton accused him of rape. According to Operation Rescue’s account of the interview, Arthur borrowed $10,000 from her father, hired an attorney and moved away with her husband on the attorney’s advice while Acton and her brother remained in their father’s custody.
Arthur also disputed Acton’s description of their last courthouse encounter, maintaining that she had called to her daughter and that Acton turned away instead. Both accounts agree that the courthouse encounter was the last time mother and daughter saw one another.
Stearns’ statement Tuesday adds that Arthur remained married to Bud until he died.
That history is conspicuously absent from the political video now being circulated against Acton. The woman presented to Ohio voters as a mother exposing dishonesty in her daughter’s life is the same woman who, by her own admission, supported the husband her daughter accused of rape and left town with him after the accusations emerged.
Estranged mother reappears to attack daughter in governor’s race
The roughly one-minute video, which surfaced Monday night and circulated widely Tuesday, features Arthur speaking directly to the camera and accusing her daughter of dishonesty. The recording was published by Ohio political journalist D.J. Byrnes of The Rooster before spreading through conservative social media accounts.
Arthur introduces herself by describing her previous work with programs addressing sexual abuse, before launching into an attack on Acton’s credibility.
“My name is Donna Arthur, and I’m Amy Acton’s mother. I worked at Children and Family Service Association, building one of the first two sexual abuse programs in America.”
She then disputes her daughter’s description of growing up in poverty, specifically targeting Acton’s account of living in a tent during childhood.
“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. 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 goes on to suggest that Acton needs help and is unfit to lead the state.
“My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself,” she says. “People can change, but first they have to tell the truth. And my daughter still isn’t doing that.”
She concludes by urging voters to reject her daughter.
“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 combines Arthur’s remarks with black-and-white photographs of Acton, an image of a tent in the woods and footage of the Democratic nominee speaking publicly. Messages displayed throughout include “LIES ARE BEING TOLD,” “DON’T VOTE FOR AMY ACTON” and “IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE.”
The recording does not explain why Arthur and Acton have been estranged for decades, acknowledge the sexual abuse allegations against Arthur’s husband or mention her decision to support him during the proceedings.
Nor does the video provide independent evidence disproving Acton’s account of having lived in a tent. That account was already part of her publicly reported biography in 2019, years before she launched her campaign for governor.
Acton’s campaign and Stearns have accused Ramaswamy of involvement in the attack. The video has been promoted by conservative accounts supporting his candidacy, but the original producer and funding source have not been independently established, and there is no verified evidence identifying a direct role by Ramaswamy’s campaign in producing or paying for this particular recording.
The same mother attacked Acton’s childhood account in 2020
Arthur’s accusations against her daughter are not new. She made substantially similar claims in June 2020, during a period when Acton faced intense criticism from conservative activists over Ohio’s COVID-19 public health restrictions.
Operation Rescue’s 2020 article challenged Acton’s childhood biography and personal history, relying heavily on statements from Arthur, who denied that the family had experienced homelessness or food insecurity and disputed Acton’s account of moving approximately 18 times.
Arthur maintained that the family had lived in far fewer homes and that her children had always been fed and housed. She also denied that Bud sexually abused her daughter.
The organization used Arthur’s allegations as part of a broader attack on Acton’s fitness to serve as health director, criticizing her handling of abortion clinic licensing and pandemic restrictions.
In other words, the estranged mother’s accusations were already being used by conservative activists against Acton six years before the current governor’s race. The new video brings those allegations directly into the 2026 election, with Arthur herself urging voters to defeat her daughter.
What has not changed is the underlying family history. Arthur acknowledges standing by her husband in the face of her daughter’s rape accusation. Acton says the abuse and intervention by authorities led to her removal from the household. And her younger brother, who experienced the family’s separation alongside her, is now publicly defending her account.
Latest attack follows earlier efforts targeting Acton’s abuse history
The video also follows previous attacks by Ramaswamy and his political allies involving Acton’s childhood trauma and mental health history.
In April, Acton’s campaign condemned remarks by Ramaswamy concerning her experiences as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, accusing him of shaming survivors and demanding an apology.
In July, TiffinOhio.net reported that V-PAC, the billionaire-funded super PAC supporting Ramaswamy, had returned to Ohio television with an advertisement attacking Acton’s fitness to serve as governor using information from her 1994 medical licensure application.
The application disclosed that Acton had sought treatment related to emotional or mental health issues, addiction or alcohol problems, using a broadly worded question that did not separately identify which category applied. Acton’s campaign said the disclosure concerned therapy she received after surviving childhood sexual abuse.
The super PAC’s advertisement used that disclosure to suggest Acton was unfit to practice medicine or serve as governor. TiffinOhio.net’s examination found that the ad also misleadingly characterized her medical licensing evaluations.
“Vivek Ramaswamy is once again spreading lies about Dr. Acton and shaming her for being a survivor of childhood sexual assault,” Acton campaign manager Philip Stein said at the time.
Now, rather than focusing on medical records, pandemic policy or Acton’s qualifications, the latest attack uses her estranged mother to challenge the truthfulness of her childhood experiences themselves.
The controversy arrives amid a fiercely contested governor’s race in which Ramaswamy and allied Republican groups have deployed an enormous financial advantage. An Axios report Tuesday said Ramaswamy and allied groups had spent or reserved more than $97 million in television and radio advertising as of the previous week.
Despite that spending, a Bowling Green State University/YouGov poll released Friday showed Acton leading Ramaswamy 50% to 44%, a margin within the poll’s margin of error.
Stearns’ statement makes clear that Acton’s family views the latest attack as an exploitation of her childhood sexual abuse, not merely another dispute over campaign messaging. His defense directly challenges the credibility of the mother now being presented to voters as an authority on Acton’s past.
Acton, who became widely known for leading Ohio’s early pandemic response, has spoken openly about how childhood poverty, abuse and neglect influenced her decision to pursue medicine and public service. She was telling that story publicly long before entering electoral politics.
Her mother’s competing account has now become a political weapon in the final two weeks of the governor’s race. But the video urging Ohioans not to trust Acton leaves out the years of estrangement, the allegations against Arthur’s husband and Arthur’s own admission that she stood by him during the proceedings.
The identity of whoever arranged, produced and originally financed the video’s distribution remains unresolved. What is documented is that Arthur is once again publicly attacking the daughter she has not seen since childhood, while the son who lived through the same family separation has come forward to defend his sister and condemn the use of their family’s history in the election.
