The 2026 gubernatorial race in Ohio has taken a bitter and deeply personal turn following the emergence of an attack ad featuring Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Democratic candidate Amy Acton. The commercial, which surfaced on social media platforms on Monday night, lacks the legally required disclosure indicating who paid for and authorized the spot and has not appeared on television or cable broadcasts.
In the video, Arthur calls her daughter a liar and defends Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy. “It’s not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy was a serious problem. She is a liar; she lies about her past,” Arthur says in the footage.
The commercial immediately provoked furious pushback from Acton’s campaign and her brother, Philip Stearns, who denounced the ad and the Ramaswamy campaign. Stearns issued a harsh statement attacking the Republican candidate for injecting childhood trauma into the political arena.
“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. He noted that after their stepfather, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and charged, he and Acton were removed from the household and went to live with their father.
“Our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died,” Stearns added. “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.”
Acton, who gained public prominence serving as Ohio’s public health commissioner under Republican Governor Mike DeWine during the COVID-19 pandemic, has previously spoken publicly about surviving abuse by her now-deceased stepfather. Court records provided by her campaign indicate that Cledith Arthur was charged in 1978 with raping Acton when she was between 10 and 12 years old. He entered a plea of not guilty.
According to court files and interviews Acton gave to the Youngstown Vindicator in 2019, Donna and Cledith Arthur were released on bond and subsequently left Ohio without facing trial. Warrants for Cledith Arthur’s arrest were issued at least twice over the following years, and the couple ultimately lived in Pennsylvania until Cledith Arthur’s death in 2004. Acton recounted that the last time she saw her mother was at the courthouse after the charges were filed, stating that when she went to give her mother a kiss, Arthur turned her cheek away. Her campaign confirmed that she has not seen her mother since that day.
Acton’s background has also included well-documented struggles with childhood poverty and homelessness, with campaign records showing the family spent a year living in a tent. Acton previously stated that her living situation stabilized after moving in with her father.
Connie Luck, a spokesperson for Ramaswamy, declined to answer whether the campaign funded the ad. However, Luck issued a statement on Tuesday defending the broader line of attack against the Democratic candidate. “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,” Luck said.
The state Republican Party did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the advertisement. The controversy comes as Acton has maintained a lead in recent polling over the past month. In addition to the new ad, supporters of Ramaswamy have raised other personal matters from Acton’s past, including a 2019 incident where local police were called to her home during a reported domestic dispute.
