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Dem Victim of MAGA’s Vilest Attack Ad Speaks Out

Ohio’s Democratic gubernatorial hopeful spoke about her opponent’s shock campaign ad in an interview with CNN.

The Democrat targeted by a sick campaign ad from her MAGA opponent has spoken out against her Republican rival in a solemn CNN interview.

Amy Acton is running in Ohio’s gubernatorial race against Trump-endorsed Vivek Ramaswamy. Marist’s latest survey has Acton ahead by 50 percent to 43 percent among likely voters on Nov. 3.

On Tuesday, Ramaswamy’s campaign targeted Acton in a 60-second ad that featured her estranged mother, Donna Arthur, who claimed her daughter is a “liar” over claims of childhood sexual abuse.

“She says she grew up living in a tent—none of that is true. She’s lied her entire life,” Arthur said. “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.”

Acton, 60, told The Vindicator in 2019 that she was sexually abused between the ages 9 to 12.

Acton’s stepfather was charged with rape in 1978 after her biological father filed a report to the police, The New York Times reported, citing The Vindicator report and documents from the Acton campaign. A grand jury indicted him, and he pleaded not guilty. Then he skipped town before trial, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. He died in 2004. Acton took the stand against him. Her mother backed her husband instead. The two women haven’t been in touch since.

The Acton campaign responded quickly on Tuesday, releasing a 30-second ad featuring Acton’s brother, Phil Stearns, who condemned Ramaswamy.

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Acton also responded on Facebook, alleging that her childhood was marked by years of harrowing sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather.

“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I was sexually abused by her husband, while my birth mother did nothing to protect me,” she wrote.

Ramaswamy, according to Axios, confirmed the advertisement came from his campaign and is spending $4 million to air it.

In an interview that aired on Wednesday on Anderson Cooper 360, Acton, appearing solemn, told CNN’s Lauren Fox she wouldn’t let Ramaswamy’s antics push her off course.

“I’m not stunned in the era we live in,” Acton, 60, told Fox.

“What has also been remarkable to see, Lauren, is how many people are outraged by this. Because so many people have experienced some sort of trauma or abuse in their lives.”

“And so I’m much more focused on a message that reaches them than on the antics of an out-of-touch billionaire who would be a danger to my state,” she added.

The outrage Acton described isn’t limited to her own party. Fox told Anderson Cooper the ad “is also reverberating in Republican circles,” adding that a source told her Ohio Republicans are “deeply upset” with the video.

“One of the people that I talked to told me that one of the candidates who is running in this race, running in Ohio, actually asked Ramaswamy not to air this ad,” Fox said.

It demonstrates “some of the concern that might exist about what this could do to other candidates who are running in this very critical battleground state,” Fox said.

Republicans who have spoken out against the ad include Sen. Jon Husted, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose and Nikki Haley. Husted, who is in a tight re-election fight, and LaRose, who is running for state auditor, both said they wouldn’t have run it.

However, Ramaswamy, 41, isn’t backing down, and neither are other MAGA figures.

Vice President JD Vance doubled down during a Wednesday swing through Ohio, his home state. He told a rally crowd that Ramaswamy “had the audacity to run a TV commercial, which calls it out like it is and calls Amy Acton a liar.”

“I have to admit that I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” he said.

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The Ramaswamy campaign did not immediately respond to the Daily Beast’s request for comment on Acton’s remarks.

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