State Rep. Gary Click, the former Fremont pastor who was investigated last year over allegations of child sexual abuse, publicly defended Amy Acton’s estranged mother Tuesday, suggesting the Democratic gubernatorial candidate lied about her childhood and describing the woman who stood by the man charged with raping Acton at age 12 as a caring parent.
When confronted with records documenting the 1978 rape charge against Acton’s stepfather, Click acknowledged that the alleged abuse was bad but questioned its relevance, accusing the journalist who presented the evidence of a “bait and switch.”
The remarks came just two weeks after TiffinOhio.net published police records detailing a separate investigation into allegations that Click himself had physically and sexually abused a child connected to his former church. Those allegations were denied by both Click and the person identified as the alleged victim. Fremont police closed the case, and state investigators declined to pursue it further.
Click, a three-term Republican representing Seneca and Sandusky counties, made his comments as prominent conservatives, including a senior official in Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration, condemned a political attack video featuring Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur.
Responding to journalist Darrel Rowland, who had shared the video and described its contents as “sad,” Click wrote Tuesday morning:
“Agreed. Why would Amy lie about her upbringing. I sure hope she gets the help she needs. Her mother seems to care deeply about her wellbeing.”
Arthur’s appearance in the video has drawn intense scrutiny because she has been estranged from Acton for nearly five decades. Police and court records confirm that Arthur’s husband, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and indicted in 1978 on a charge of raping Acton when she was 12. Donna Arthur supported her husband during the proceedings and remained married to him until his death in 2004.
That history was not disclosed in the video, which portrays Arthur as a concerned mother accusing her daughter of dishonesty and urging Ohioans not to elect her governor.
Click nevertheless accepted the mother’s central allegation that Acton had lied about her childhood and suggested that Acton needed help. His response also echoed Arthur’s own claim that her daughter needed help, a claim made without substantiating evidence in the attack video.
Click accused journalist of ‘bait and switch’ when confronted with rape case
Click’s defense of Arthur prompted a direct challenge from Rowland, who pointed the Republican lawmaker toward reporting documenting the criminal case against Acton’s stepfather.
“Records confirm her mom’s husband was charged with raping Acton when she was 12…and skipped town,” Rowland wrote.
Click responded by questioning what the rape case had to do with Acton’s account of living in a tent during childhood.
“What does that have to do with a tent .? Of course that is bad. That wasn’t part of the discussion. Nice bait and switch Darell. You should be her press secretary.”
In the follow-up post, Click acknowledged the seriousness of the abuse allegations but continued defending his position that Acton’s account of living in a tent was a separate issue.
Yet the rape proceedings were directly relevant to the credibility of the person Click had just praised. Donna Arthur’s relationship with her daughter ended following the allegations against her husband, whom she supported during the proceedings. The attack video relies on her status as Acton’s mother while omitting the circumstances of their estrangement.
Acton’s childhood homelessness and sexual abuse were also described together in a detailed 2019 interview with The Youngstown Vindicator, published years before she entered electoral politics. Acton described spending a winter living in a tent outside Youngstown amid poverty, neglect and abuse that ultimately led to her removal from her mother’s custody.
Her younger brother, Philip Stearns, has separately corroborated the family’s experience of living in a tent and described the neglect, hunger and abuse they endured.
The criminal records do not independently establish where Acton lived during every portion of her childhood. They do establish that one of the most serious events she described — criminal proceedings against her stepfather over allegations of sexual abuse — occurred.
Click offered no evidence that Acton fabricated the account of living in a tent. Instead, after being presented with the rape charge against the man his preferred messenger had defended, he accused Rowland of changing the subject.
Click himself was investigated over separate child sex abuse allegations
Click’s decision to defend Arthur carries additional significance in Sandusky County, where his own history involving allegations of child sexual abuse has recently returned to public attention.
As TiffinOhio.net reported October 6, the Fremont Police Department investigated Click in fall 2025 after receiving an abuse referral from the Oregon Department of Human Services.
The September 29, 2025, referral originated with an unidentified third-party report alleging that Click and the father of an 18-year-old had physically and sexually abused the person when they were a child. The report identified Click as the person’s former pastor at Fremont Baptist Temple, where he had served for 19 years.
According to police records obtained by TiffinOhio.net, the referral alleged that the person had been beaten, starved and sexually assaulted by their father and Click.
Fremont Det. Sgt. Matthew Ranazzi located and interviewed the person identified as the alleged victim. The person denied the allegations, said they had never reported abuse by either man to anyone in Oregon and told police they did not remember Click doing anything to them.
Detectives contacted Click on October 1. Click denied ever physically or sexually abusing anyone and told police he did not remember the person named in the referral, although they “might have been a member of his church.”
The Fremont investigation was closed after the person’s denial. The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, which reviewed the referral because Click was a sitting state lawmaker, declined further investigation on October 8.
The allegations against Click were not substantiated by investigators, and no criminal charges resulted from the inquiry.
When journalist D.J. Byrnes of The Rooster later confronted Click about the investigation, Click repeatedly rejected the allegations, describing himself as having a clean conscience, “squeaky clean” and “ivory clean.”
Click also disputed the characterization of the person’s connection to Fremont Baptist Temple.
“Attended is not a member,” Click told Byrnes. “There’s a lot of people that come and go. I do not know them.”
Click’s previous investigation and the criminal proceedings involving Acton’s stepfather are separate matters, with sharply different evidentiary records. The allegations involving Click were denied by the person identified as the alleged victim and were not substantiated. In Acton’s case, police and court records document an arrest, grand jury indictment and subsequent flight from prosecution.
The significance of Click’s own history is not that it proves wrongdoing. It is that he has personally experienced public scrutiny over allegations of child sexual abuse, forcefully rejected accusations against himself and objected to how journalists have characterized his relationship with the person named in the police report.
On Tuesday, however, he publicly accepted an estranged mother’s attack on another person’s childhood history without presenting evidence supporting her accusations.
Click quietly left Fremont Baptist Temple months before abuse referral
Click’s relationship with Fremont Baptist Temple has itself been the subject of extensive TiffinOhio.net reporting.
Click says he stepped down as lead pastor at the end of March 2025 after 19 years, assuming the honorary title of pastor emeritus. But the leadership change was not publicly announced through any channel TiffinOhio.net identified at the time, and the church’s website continued listing him as pastor for nearly another year.
It was not until February 2026 that TiffinOhio.net first reported Click’s departure from the pulpit.
Click disputed the characterization of his departure as quiet, declaring on social media, “Actually, it was very public. You just missed it.” He did not identify a contemporaneous announcement when challenged to do so.
An October 6 TiffinOhio.net investigation subsequently established the sequence: Click says he stopped leading the church in March 2025; Oregon child welfare officials forwarded allegations involving him to Fremont police six months later; the investigation became public in November; and the church continued presenting him as pastor until after TiffinOhio.net reported the departure in February 2026.
No evidence reviewed by TiffinOhio.net establishes that Click left Fremont Baptist Temple because of the allegations that surfaced six months later. Click has said the transition allowed him to expand his traveling ministry and political activities.
Click’s years as a pastor remain central to his public identity. He has frequently framed his legislative work in terms of Christian principles, parental rights, family values and protecting children.
His record involving other lawmakers accused of misconduct has also drawn scrutiny. TiffinOhio.net previously reported that Click continued cosponsoring legislation with Republican Rep. Rodney Creech, who had been investigated following allegations of sexual misconduct involving a minor family member. Creech denied sexual wrongdoing and was not charged. A special prosecutor nevertheless described aspects of his admitted conduct as concerning and suspicious.
Click and Creech continued their legislative collaboration, including on a measure promoted as protecting children. The prior reporting found no public statement from Click calling for Creech’s resignation or directly addressing the special prosecutor’s findings.
Those separate episodes provide relevant context for Click’s latest remarks: a former pastor and state lawmaker who has publicly emphasized child protection, confronted abuse allegations involving himself and maintained working relationships with an accused colleague is now defending an estranged mother’s accusations against a woman whose childhood rape allegations resulted in documented criminal proceedings.
Records confirm Acton’s stepfather was arrested, indicted and fled prosecution
The documentary record of Acton’s childhood abuse allegations became clearer Tuesday when National Review and the Associated Press reported obtaining historical police and court documents.
National Review reported that Cledith Arthur, Donna Arthur’s husband, was charged with sexually abusing Acton when she was 12. The evidence included a sworn statement from Acton’s biological father, and Acton herself was called as a witness.
The Associated Press independently obtained police and court records showing that Arthur was arrested in July 1978, pleaded not guilty and was indicted by a grand jury that September.
According to the Ohio Public Media Statehouse News Bureau, authorities issued a warrant for Cledith Arthur’s arrest on October 26, 1978, after he failed to appear in court. Attempts to locate him continued in subsequent years.
The available records do not establish a conviction or the final disposition of the case, but they confirm that Acton’s childhood allegations led to criminal charges, an indictment and an outstanding warrant.
The Statehouse News Bureau also reported that Donna Arthur married Cledith Arthur in 1975, after he had been indicted for incest in an earlier case, and remained married to him until his death in Pennsylvania in 2004.
Donna Arthur acknowledged supporting her husband during the proceedings in a 2020 interview with the anti-abortion organization Operation Rescue. She denied that her husband abused Acton and disputed her daughter’s childhood account, but acknowledged leaving town with him while the children remained in their father’s care.
The history makes Click’s portrayal of Arthur as a concerned mother particularly consequential. Her relationship with Acton did not end over an ordinary family disagreement. It ended amid criminal proceedings accusing Arthur’s husband of raping her daughter, proceedings during which Arthur supported her husband rather than Acton.
Other Republicans condemn the video Click defended
Click’s response also placed him at odds with prominent members of his own party and conservative commentators who condemned the attack.
Ohio Department of Development Director Lydia Mihalik, a former Findlay mayor serving in Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration, said the video crossed a line regardless of political affiliation.
“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. We can disagree on plenty of things without losing our sense of decency.”
Mihalik shared criticism from Meghan McCain, the conservative commentator and daughter of the late Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, who called the video a “dastardly ad” that should never have been produced.
Conservative columnist Tim Carney warned that the attack could damage Ramaswamy’s campaign, writing, “This ad could sink Vivek.” Republican strategist Liz Mair and commentator Mary Katharine Ham likewise questioned the political judgment behind using Acton’s estranged mother to discredit her.
National Review’s Kathryn Jean Lopez condemned the attack as despicable and amoral, arguing that it should become a political disaster.
Click, by contrast, praised the mother featured in the video, suggested Acton lied about her childhood and maintained his position after being confronted with the criminal case.
The video has circulated widely through conservative accounts supporting Ramaswamy, although its producer and funding source remain unidentified. Ramaswamy’s campaign has not established that it commissioned the recording. Its spokeswoman, Connie Luck, continued questioning Acton’s honesty Tuesday rather than disavowing the attack.
Acton’s brother defends her as Click faces reelection
Acton’s younger brother, Philip Stearns, responded Tuesday with a statement condemning the use of their estranged mother in the governor’s race.
“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 described Ramaswamy as a “pathetic excuse for a man,” accusing him of exploiting his sister’s childhood trauma for political purposes.
The controversy now has a direct connection to northwest Ohio’s legislative election. Click, a three-term Republican from Vickery, faces Democratic challenger Aaron Jones in Ohio House District 88, which encompasses Seneca and Sandusky counties, on November 3.
Click’s Tuesday remarks were not an anonymous political attack or an allegation attributed to someone else. They were statements he published under his own name, followed by a second response after a journalist confronted him with the documented rape charge against Acton’s stepfather.
The records establish that Donna Arthur supported the husband charged with raping her daughter, that she remained married to him until his death, and that Acton’s account of the resulting family separation was publicly documented years before she entered politics.
They also establish that Click’s own abuse investigation was closed after the person identified as the alleged victim denied the accusations, and that Click himself denied wrongdoing.
Against that record, Click chose to describe Arthur as a mother who appeared to care deeply about Acton’s well-being. When presented with the rape case that preceded the family’s estrangement, he did not withdraw that characterization. He accused the journalist who raised it of a “bait and switch.”
