Ohio governor’s race in uproar over ad featuring Democrat’s estranged mother

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/10/20/ohio-governors-race-uproar-over-video-featuring-democrats-estranged-mother/

Ohio’s bitter governor’s race got even uglier Tuesday when an attack ad surfaced featuring Democratic nominee Amy Acton’s long-estranged mother calling her daughter “a liar,” prompting Acton’s brother to accuse Acton’s Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, of turning childhood rape “into a political talking point.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign, in a statement from spokeswoman Connie Luck, echoed the claims in the video: “We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother, who first spoke 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.”

Meanwhile, Acton’s campaign provided extensive documentation, from court records and contemporary reports in local media, that corroborated her account that she and her brother were removed from their mother’s home after her second husband, Cledith Arthur, was arrested and indicted in 1978 and charged with rape of “Amy Stearns being less than thirteen (13) years of age.”