A viral video featuring the estranged mother of Democratic candidate for governor Dr. Amy Acton has shaken Ohio’s race for governor. The clip, posted October 19 by an Ohio politics blogger, shows Donna Stearns Arthur telling Ohioans not to vote for her daughter and claiming Acton lied about her upbringing, drawing attention far beyond the blog where it first appeared.
Questions about who produced the video followed quickly. The clip carried no paid-for disclaimer, and according to Medium Buying and AdImpact it did not appear as a paid advertisement. An official with V-PAC, the main super PAC backing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, said the group did not make the video, leaving its origin unanswered in the responses offered so far.
Acton has been estranged from her mother since she was 12 years old in 1978. That was the year her stepfather, Cledith Arthur, faced a rape charge for abusing Acton when she was 12. That history, long separate from the day-to-day campaign, was pulled into the center of the governor’s race by the video and the reaction to it.
Speaking to WOSU on Tuesday, Acton addressed her mother’s appearance directly. “It’s awful to see her this way,” she said. Acton accused her opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, of taking advantage of a woman who is “clearly not well.” Her remarks were the campaign’s most direct public response to a video built around her own family.
Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, condemned the video in a statement from the campaign. Stearns said their mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died. His statement added a second family voice to Acton’s own response, and underscored how personal the dispute behind the video is compared with the policy arguments that usually dominate a statewide campaign.
The Ramaswamy campaign did not say whether it made the video. Spokesperson Connie Luck issued a statement that did not address whether the campaign produced it, saying people who know Acton are warning Ohioans. That response, like the super PAC’s denial, left unanswered the central question raised by the clip’s appearance: who put it before voters.
The fallout reached Ramaswamy in person on Tuesday evening, when he was heckled at a Columbus-area town hall by a man citing the video. Ramaswamy invited the man to ask a question at the end as he was escorted out. The same day, the Acton campaign released an ad featuring Stearns making similar points to those in the family’s statements.
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