Ohio governor’s race roiled by new viral video featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother

Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The Ohio governor’s race is being roiled by a new video in which the estranged mother of the Democratic nominee, Amy Acton, urges people not to vote for her.

The video – which was shared widely on social media, including by the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. – harks back to a painful chapter in Acton’s life. She has said she has not seen her mother since she was about 12 years old, when a man her mother married abused her and faced criminal charges.

It drew strong condemnations from Acton’s brother and Ohio Democrats, while the campaign of her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, said Ohioans “deserve to know” what Acton’s mother says about her. The campaign did not say whether it was involved with the ad.

“She’s lied her entire life,” Donna Arthur says in the minute-long spot. “My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn’t doing that.”

The video was first published on Monday night by an Ohio political blogger, D.J. Byrnes, who is known as “The Rooster.” Byrnes told CNN he obtained the video from a voter who saw it as part of a polling call and recorded it.

On Tuesday morning, Acton’s campaign released a statement from her brother, Philip Stearns, denouncing the video and linking it to Ramaswamy.

“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.”

The video did not have the standard disclaimer that political ads carry saying who paid for or authorized them, nor did it show up Tuesday morning as a paid ad in the race on AdImpact, the political ad-tracking service.

Ramaswamy’s campaign issued a statement on Tuesday afternoon that did not address whether it was responsible for the ad. However, the statement from Ramaswamy spokesperson Connie Luck suggested voters should consider the message from Acton’s mother and repeated her attack, asserting that “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.”

The statement went on to argue that people who know Acton well — including “her own mother” — “are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her.”

“Ohioans deserve to know that,” Luck said.

CNN has attempted to contact Arthur.

Acton herself weighed in during an interview with WOSU Public Media .

“It’s awful to see her this way, and it’s even more incredible to see that my opponent (Ramaswamy) has taken advantage of someone who’s clearly not well, who is older, and this is totally in line with who he is,” Acton said.

Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Ohio, said on X that the video was “disgusting” and that his opponent, GOP Sen. Jon Husted, should condemn it. The Democratic Governors Association said in a statement that the video was part of a “relentless smear campaign” that Ramaswamy has waged against Acton.

Acton and Ramaswamy are locked in one of the most competitive governor’s races in the country, vying to replace term-limited Republican Mike DeWine. The ads in the race have been especially nasty, fueling a controversial decision by Acton to decline to debate Ramaswamy.

Acton, the former Ohio public health director, has spoken before about her estrangement from her mother and hardscrabble childhood. In a 2019 interview with the Youngstown Vindicator , she said her mother married a man when she was between ages 9 and 12 who abused her and who faced criminal charges. The family was living in a tent at a campground outside Youngstown at the time.

“I was lucky that it got bad enough, because it got me out of there,” Acton told the Vindicator.

She said the last time she saw her mother was at the courthouse when she tried to give her a kiss and Acton rejected her.

CNN’s Lauren Fox contributed to this report.

Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images

俄亥俄州州长竞选因一段新视频而陷入混乱，视频中民主党候选人艾米·阿克顿的疏远母亲敦促人们不要投票给她。

这段视频在社交媒体上广泛传播，包括总统的长子小唐纳德·特朗普也转发了该视频。视频内容触及了阿克顿人生中一段痛苦的往事。她说，自从大约12岁起，她就再也没见过母亲。当时，她母亲嫁给了一个男人，这个男人虐待了她，并面临刑事指控。

这则广告遭到了阿克顿的哥哥和俄亥俄州民主党人的强烈谴责，而她的共和党对手维韦克·拉马斯瓦米的竞选团队则表示，俄亥俄州民众“有权知道”阿克顿的母亲对她有何评价。该竞选团队并未透露是否参与了这则广告的制作。

“她一辈子都在撒谎，”唐娜·阿瑟在这段一分钟的短片中说道。“我的女儿需要帮助，如果她自己都需要帮助，又怎么能帮助你们呢？人是可以改变的，但首先他们必须说真话，而我的女儿至今仍然没有做到这一点。”

这段视频最初由俄亥俄州政治博主DJ Byrnes于周一晚间发布，他被称为“公鸡”。Byrnes告诉CNN，他从一位选民那里获得了这段视频，这位选民在接到投票电话时看到了这段视频并录了下来。

周二上午，阿克顿的竞选团队发布了她哥哥菲利普·斯特恩斯的一份声明，谴责该视频并将其与拉马斯瓦米联系起来。

“维韦克·拉马斯瓦米竟然卑鄙到试图将艾米12岁时遭受我们生母丈夫的性侵事件变成政治谈资，这并不令人意外，”斯特恩斯说。“在他被捕、艾米和我被带离他们的监护后，我们的生母仍然与艾米的强奸犯保持婚姻关系，直到他去世。”

该视频没有像政治广告那样附带标准的免责声明，说明是谁支付或授权的，而且周二早上也没有出现在政治广告追踪服务 AdImpact 的付费广告列表中。

拉马斯瓦米的竞选团队周二下午发表声明，但并未提及是否与该广告有关。不过，拉马斯瓦米的发言人康妮·拉克在声明中暗示选民应该考虑阿克顿母亲的言论，并重申了她之前的攻击，声称“我们知道艾米·阿克顿是个惯于编造谎言的人，她在真相方面存在严重的问题，公众在决定信任谁担任州长之前需要了解这一点。”

声明还指出，熟悉艾克顿的人——包括“她自己的母亲”——“都在明确警告俄亥俄州选民不要投票给她”。

“俄亥俄州人民有权知道这一点，”拉克说道。

CNN已尝试联系亚瑟。

阿克顿本人在接受 WOSU 公共媒体采访时也发表了看法。

“看到她这样真是太糟糕了，更令人难以置信的是，我的对手（拉马斯瓦米）竟然利用一个明显身体不好、年纪大的人，这完全符合他的为人，”阿克顿说。

俄亥俄州民主党参议员候选人谢罗德·布朗在X电视台表示，这段视频“令人作呕”，并呼吁他的对手、共和党参议员乔恩·赫斯特予以谴责。民主党州长协会在一份声明中称，这段视频是拉马斯瓦米对阿克顿发起的“持续不断的抹黑运动”的一部分。

阿克顿和拉马斯瓦米正在角逐全国竞争最激烈的州长选举之一，争夺接替任期届满的共和党州长迈克·德瓦恩的职位。这场竞选的广告尤其恶毒，导致阿克顿做出了一个颇具争议的决定：拒绝与拉马斯瓦米进行辩论。

曾任俄亥俄州公共卫生局局长的阿克顿此前曾谈及她与母亲关系疏远以及艰辛的童年。在2019年接受《扬斯敦先驱报》采访时，她表示，在她9岁到12岁之间，母亲嫁给了一个虐待她并面临刑事指控的男人。当时，一家人住在扬斯敦郊外一个露营地的帐篷里。

“我很幸运，情况变得足够糟糕，因为这让我得以脱身，”阿克顿告诉《先驱报》。

她说，她最后一次见到母亲是在法院，当时她想亲吻母亲，但阿克顿拒绝了她。

CNN的劳伦·福克斯对本报道亦有贡献。