A new television ad from a super PAC backing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy builds its case against Democrat Amy Acton on a premise that is false: that Acton, rather than Gov. Mike DeWine, decided to shut down Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of the ad’s central claims do not hold up against the public record, and a third puts a position in Acton’s mouth she has never taken.
The 30-second spot, paid for by V-PAC: Victors Not Victims — the super PAC formed by Ramaswamy’s allies — brands Acton “the liberal who shut down Ohio” and warns that “it gets worse from here.” Here is what the record shows.
Claim: Acton “shut down Ohio, closing your child’s school and your friend’s business”
False as framed. Acton was DeWine’s appointed director of the Ohio Department of Health from February 2019 to June 2020 and signed the orders that closed schools and businesses — but she did so under emergency authority the governor granted her, and DeWine has repeatedly said the decisions were his. “The decisions that were made during COVID, they were my decisions, so no one should blame someone else if they don’t like it. The buck stops with me,” DeWine told NBC4 in December. DeWine, a Republican, has since endorsed Ramaswamy. Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, disputes DeWine’s account and calls Acton the “central architect” of the restrictions, but the governor who held the authority has said the calls were his alone.
Claim: Acton runs “on a radical far-left platform”
A characterization the record undercuts. Acton, a Democrat, was DeWine’s final cabinet appointment, and the Republican governor praised her without reservation when she resigned in 2020. “No one that I’ve ever met has more passion for helping people, has more passion for public health than Dr. Amy Acton,” DeWine said at the time. “She’s always put the health of Ohioans first.” Acton’s campaign platform centers on school funding, lowering health care and prescription costs, and a working-families tax cut.
Claim: Acton says illegal immigrants “have the right to be here”
Unsupported, and contradicted by her own words. The ad cites no statement, and Acton’s on-record position is the opposite. Asked in January about immigration enforcement, Acton told Ideastream Public Media: “If people are here as criminals, if people are here illegally, we need to enforce the laws of this country and the laws of the state of Ohio. But we need to do that lawfully.”
Claim: Acton “wants woke DEI racial preferences for hiring at Ohio colleges and universities”
Unsupported. The ad points to no Acton statement, and there is no record of her calling for racial hiring preferences at Ohio’s public universities. Ramaswamy, by contrast, has a documented higher-education position: he has proposed closing or consolidating public universities he considers “subpar,” naming the University of Akron, Kent State and Cleveland State, to help pay for an income-tax cut.
Who is paying for the ad
V-PAC is a federal super PAC, which can raise and spend unlimited sums but cannot coordinate with a candidate’s campaign. It reported raising about $18.6 million tied to the 2026 cycle, with its largest contributions coming from out of state: $10 million from Pennsylvania-area investor Jeff Yass and $5 million from New York financier Ross Stevens. The PAC also accepted $275,000 in late 2025 from IT Serve Alliance, a group that has backed expanding foreign-worker visa programs, then refunded it after conservative backlash. Ramaswamy himself drew bipartisan criticism in December 2024 when he argued American culture “has venerated mediocrity over excellence” while defending tech companies that hire foreign-born engineers.
The campaign’s response
Acton campaign manager Philip Stein said in a statement: “Vivek Ramaswamy has spent his campaign calling Ohioans lazy and backing tax scams that benefit billionaires while raising our costs and bankrupting our schools; no wonder his billionaire friends are coming to his aid. This is just another desperate attempt to salvage his struggling campaign. Ohioans know the truth- Vivek Ramaswamy is only out for himself.”
Acton and Ramaswamy advanced from the May 5 primary and meet in the general election on Nov. 3, 2026.
