Amy Acton opens up about her painful childhood after an attack ad featuring her estranged mother

Amy Acton was talking school budgets, local hospitals and generational farming at a farm event in northwest Ohio when she called on an attendee and asked her if there was anything she wanted to share.

Karen Lortz didn’t want to talk about those issues.

“My heart goes out to you,” Lortz said. “May I give you a hug?”

Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton spoke to CNN’s Lauren Fox as backlash grows against her opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign put out a controversial ad featuring her estranged mother.

The interaction was just a sliver of the outpouring Acton said she’s received in recent days since a political ad from her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, surfaced featuring her estranged mother calling her a liar . It has drawn even more attention to one of the most competitive governor’s races in the country, in which Acton is battling Ramaswamy to become the state’s first elected female governor and first Democratic governor elected in two decades.

Acton’s mother lost custody of her and her brother when Acton was 12 years old. Her stepfather was indicted by a grand jury on charges of sexually abusing her.

“It’s hard. It is the big elephant in the room, isn’t it?” Acton said Wednesday after Lortz raised the video. “My brother and I had a mom who struggled, and we experienced a lot of neglect and abuse.”

The ad has sent shockwaves through the state and once again directed focus back to Acton’s childhood, which she has talked about openly in the gubernatorial race and during her time as the state’s health director.

“The reason I talk about my childhood when I do is just one, I started to realize it might give other people hope that you can, you know, get out of circumstances. I remember people looking the other way and systems not working, but I also remember more the people who didn’t look the other way,” she said.

Acton’s campaign for governor has come under the spotlight in recent days because of the ad. But for months, the battle between her and Ramaswamy to lead the seventh-largest state has been one of the nastier contests under the national radar.

She spent a lot of time during Wednesday’s event referencing her relationships with prominent Republicans in the state – and trying to turn down the temperature.

“Everyone is exhausted. It’s been a long decade,” Acton told voters. “We’ve got folks voting Trump three times showing up … MAGA moms showing up at my stuff, and they are hurting. And moms who don’t love vaccines but love their kids, and they are showing up. And we’ve got to heal this thing that has been broken, and what I would say is the words our leaders use matter,” she said.

Many Ohioans first got to know Acton, a Youngstown native, as the director of the Ohio Department of Health when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.

Appointed by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, Acton joined him at his daily coronavirus briefings, becoming a familiar, reassuring presence in the early weeks of the pandemic. But the role also put her at the center of a slew of controversial decisions, such as closing businesses and requiring people to stay at home. She resigned in June 2020.

Acton considered running for the state’s open Senate seat in 2022 but decided against it. A Democratic strategist working with her at the time, Jeff Rusnak, said he nonetheless saw how she had developed a special connection with Ohio voters from the pandemic.

“Every time I was with her, somebody would come up to her and say, ‘Can I hug you?’” Rusnak said. “People would break down in tears – men, women, Democrat, Republican, independent.”

Republicans have sought to make that period a political liability for her, calling her “the Anthony Fauci of Ohio.”

“She destroyed people’s lives during Covid,” Sen. Bernie Moreno told CNN on Sunday at a local Republican event. Moreno noted that, under her guidance, Ohio was the first state to shut down schools during the pandemic.

Acton has generally stood by her pandemic record. And while DeWine has endorsed Ramaswamy, he has said Acton should not be blamed for pandemic-related decisions he approved.

Erik Polyak, the executive director of 314 Action, a science-focused political group that has long backed Acton, said some may have mistakenly assumed from the outset of the race that her tenure would be a political obstacle.

“But we’ve seen from the very first polls we’ve done in this race … her leadership in Covid is not a negative,” Polyak said. “Obviously that was a very difficult time for many Americans … but Ohioans remember she was the leader who led with compassion and care.”

Even before the ad featuring Acton’s mom, the race had become filled with brutal attack ads targeting her.

A super PAC supporting Ramaswamy ran ads highlighting how police responded to her home in 2019 for a “domestic dispute,” according to a police report obtained by NBC News . Acton has said the ads exaggerate her actions that night.

“Amy Acton: Drinking. Drugs. Disaster. Disqualified,” one ad from the super PAC says.

Acton’s campaign cited the tenor of the race in an early September statement revealing that she would not debate Ramaswamy.

“Dr. Acton’s focus is on talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family,” Acton campaign manager Phil Stein said.

Ramaswamy has since hounded her as scared of Ohio voters – and pointed out that he also has been on the receiving end of harsh ads. In one Acton ad , a man who says his wife had Alzheimer’s accuses Ramaswamy of promoting an Alzheimer’s drug that did not work.

“Mr. Ramaswamy, you don’t give a damn about anybody,” the man says.

Ramaswamy and his supporters have cited the Democratic attacks on him to justify the ad with Acton’s mom. In defending the ad Tuesday, Ramaswamy said Acton has been “spreading some defamatory, disparaging lies about me and my family that does deserve to be scrutinized.”

For Acton’s supporters, Ramaswamy’s latest ad vindicates her decision to skip debates.

“He doesn’t deserve it,” Rusnak said, “and he just proved it – point-blank.”

CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.

在俄亥俄州西北部的一个农场活动上，艾米·阿克顿正在谈论学校预算、当地医院和世代农业，这时她叫来一位与会者，问她是否有什么想分享的。

凯伦·洛茨不想谈论这些问题。

“我非常同情你，”洛茨说。“我可以抱抱你吗？”

俄亥俄州民主党州长候选人艾米·阿克顿接受了 CNN 记者劳伦·福克斯的采访，此前她的对手维韦克·拉马斯瓦米因竞选团队发布了一则引发争议的广告而遭到强烈反对，该广告中出现了她疏远的母亲。

艾克顿表示，自从她的共和党对手维韦克·拉马斯瓦米发布一则政治广告后，她收到了大量声援，而这仅仅是其中的一小部分。这则广告中出现了她疏远的母亲，母亲在广告中称她为骗子。此事让这场全美竞争最激烈的州长竞选之一更加引人注目。艾克顿正与拉马斯瓦米角逐，力争成为该州首位民选女州长，也是近二十年来首位当选的民主党州长。

阿克顿12岁时，她的母亲失去了她和她弟弟的监护权。她的继父因涉嫌性侵她而被大陪审团起诉。

“这很难。这就像房间里的大象，人人都避而不谈，不是吗？”洛茨周三提起这段视频后，阿克顿说道。“我和我哥哥的母亲生活拮据，我们遭受了很多忽视和虐待。”

这则广告在全州引起了轩然大波，再次将人们的注意力引向了阿克顿的童年，她在州长竞选期间以及担任该州卫生局长期间都曾公开谈论过这段经历。

“我之所以会谈起我的童年，原因只有一个，那就是我开始意识到这或许能给其他人带来希望，让他们知道，人是可以摆脱困境的。我记得当时人们视而不见，制度也失灵了，但我更记得那些没有视而不见的人，”她说。

近几日，由于这则广告，阿克顿的州长竞选活动备受关注。但几个月来，她与拉马斯瓦米之间争夺这个第七大州领导权的斗争，一直是全国范围内最激烈的选战之一。

在周三的活动中，她花了大量时间提及她与该州一些知名共和党人的关系，并试图缓和紧张气氛。

“每个人都筋疲力尽。这十年太漫长了，”阿克顿对选民们说。“我们看到有人三次投票给特朗普……‘让美国再次伟大’的妈妈们也来参加我的活动，她们很痛苦。还有一些妈妈，她们虽然不赞成疫苗，但爱自己的孩子，她们也来了。我们必须弥合这道裂痕，而我想说的是，我们领导人的言辞至关重要，”她说。

许多俄亥俄州人第一次认识阿克顿（Acton）——这位扬斯敦本地人——是在新冠疫情爆发时，当时他担任俄亥俄州卫生部部长。

由共和党州长迈克·德瓦恩任命的阿克顿，曾与他一同出席每日新冠疫情简报会，在疫情初期，她以亲切而令人安心的形象出现在公众视野。但这一角色也让她身处一系列争议性决策的中心，例如关闭企业和要求民众居家隔离。她于2020年6月辞职。

阿克顿曾考虑竞选2022年俄亥俄州空缺的参议员席位，但最终放弃了这一想法。当时与她合作的民主党策略师杰夫·鲁斯纳克表示，尽管如此，他仍然看到阿克顿在疫情期间与俄亥俄州选民建立了特殊的联系。

“每次我和她在一起，都会有人走过来问她：‘我可以抱抱你吗？’”鲁斯纳克说。“人们都会忍不住哭出来——男人、女人、民主党人、共和党人、独立人士。”

共和党人一直试图将那段时期变成她的政治包袱，称她为“俄亥俄州的安东尼·福奇”。

“她在新冠疫情期间毁了人们的生活，”参议员伯尼·莫雷诺周日在当地共和党的一次活动上告诉CNN。莫雷诺指出，在她的领导下，俄亥俄州是疫情期间第一个关闭学校的州。

阿克顿总体上坚持她应对疫情的政策。虽然德瓦恩支持拉马斯瓦米，但他表示，不应将他批准的与疫情相关的决策归咎于阿克顿。

长期支持阿克顿的科学政治团体 314 Action 的执行董事埃里克·波利亚克表示，有些人可能从一开始就错误地认为，阿克顿的任期会成为政治障碍。

“但我们从本次竞选的首批民调中就可以看出……她在新冠疫情期间的领导力并非负面因素，”波利亚克说。“显然，那段时期对许多美国人来说非常艰难……但俄亥俄州人民记得，她是一位充满同情心和关怀的领导者。”

甚至在艾克顿母亲出演的广告播出之前，这场竞选就已经充斥着针对她的残酷攻击性广告。

据NBC新闻获得的一份警方报告显示，一个支持拉马斯瓦米的超级政治行动委员会投放广告，着重强调警方在2019年因一起“家庭纠纷”出警到她家的情况。阿克顿表示，这些广告夸大了她当晚的行为。

“艾米·阿克顿：酗酒、吸毒、灾难、被取消资格，”超级政治行动委员会的一则广告写道。

阿克顿的竞选团队在9月初的一份声明中表示，鉴于竞选的基调，她不会与拉马斯瓦米进行辩论。

“阿克顿博士的重点是与俄亥俄州民众对话，而不是为散布关于她和她家人的毫无根据的谎言的骗子提供平台，”阿克顿的竞选经理菲尔·斯坦说道。

此后，拉马斯瓦米一直纠缠她，指责她害怕俄亥俄州的选民，并指出他自己也曾遭受过猛烈的广告攻击。在阿克顿的一则广告中，一位自称妻子患有阿尔茨海默病的男子指责拉马斯瓦米推广一种无效的阿尔茨海默病药物。

“拉马斯瓦米先生，你根本不在乎任何人，”那人说道。

拉马斯瓦米及其支持者援引民主党对他的攻击来为与阿克顿母亲合作的广告辩护。周二，拉马斯瓦米在为该广告辩护时表示，阿克顿一直在“散布一些诽谤我和我家人的谎言，这些谎言理应受到审查”。

对于阿克顿的支持者来说，拉马斯瓦米的最新广告证明了她不参加辩论的决定是正确的。

“他不配得到这个，”鲁斯纳克说，“他刚刚就用行动证明了这一点——毫不含糊。”

CNN的摩根·里默对本报道亦有贡献。