Legal documents obtained by NR provide evidence that Acton faced sexual abuse as a child while in her mother’s custody.
The mother of Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton cut an ad Monday in which she accuses her daughter of lying about her childhood and encourages voters not to make her their next governor, but legal documents obtained by National Review provide evidence that Acton faced sexual abuse as a child while in her mother’s custody.
Donna Arthur, Acton’s estranged mother, says in the ad that life in Ohio “will only get worse” with Acton in the governor’s mansion, and she disputes parts of Acton’s personal history. But Acton has long maintained — even before becoming a political candidate — that she grew up in an unstable home when she lived with her mother following her parents’ divorce, even spending a winter in a tent in a campground outside of Youngstown and enduring sexual abuse by one of her mother’s male partners. Court records confirm many key parts of Acton’s account of her life.
“She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life,” Acton’s mother says in the ad.
BOMBSHELL:
Ohio Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s own mother urges voters not to vote for her daughter.
“My name is Donna Arthur and I’m Amy Acton’s mother. I worked at Children and Family Service Association, building one of the first two sexual abuse programs in… pic.twitter.com/NP7nURpOmn
— Walter Curt (@wcdispatch) October 20, 2026
While Donna Arthur was married to Cledith Arthur in 1978 when Acton was 12 years old, Cledith Arthur was charged with having sexual contact with her, documents show. Evidence against him included a sworn statement from Acton’s biological father, and Acton herself was called to testify as a witness. Following his indictment by a grand jury, Cledith Arthur skipped town.
Donna Arthur also has her own criminal history, including pleading guilty to theft by deception while living in Pennsylvania in the 1990s and being accused of animal abuse as recently as 2021.
Following the ad’s release Acton, who is locked in a tight race with Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy, put out a statement from her brother confirming the candidates’s side of the story.
“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,” Philip Stearns, the brother, said in a press release from the campaign. “This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core – a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
It’s unclear who is responsible for producing the ad. Versions of the video circulating online do not have a disclaimer saying who paid for it, which is typically required of political communications. Asked by NR, Acton’s campaign could not point to evidence that Ramaswamy or an affiliated PAC made the ad. Ramaswamy’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did V-PAC, the super PAC supporting his election.
Acton has long spoken publicly about her difficult childhood. She did so for more than half a decade before becoming a political candidate. Following her appointment by Governor Mike DeWine as head of the state’s health department in 2019, the Vindicator a local publication in Youngstown, Ohio, recounted a turbulent upbringing in a profile. After Acton’s parents divorced when she was three years old, she and her younger brother lived in 18 different homes over the ensuing nine years.
From the time Acton was nine until she turned 12, a boyfriend who would eventually marry Donna Arthur lived with the family, according to the profile, which does not name the man. During that time, he abused Acton, which led to criminal charges. By that time, the family had fallen into poverty and was living in a tent in a campground outside Youngstown. That was enough for her mother to lose custody of Acton, who would move in with her father.
Acton said in 2019 that the last time she saw Donna Arthur was when authorities brought charges against her and Acton’s stepfather. “In the courthouse after they were charged, I went to give her a kiss, and she just turned her cheek away,” she told The Vindicator at the time. “That was the last time I ever saw her.”
In 2020, Acton entered the national spotlight when she managed Ohio’s Covid response. She spoke to TIME during the pandemic and once again recounted her difficult childhood, including 18 homes, one of them a tent, and the abuse she faced.
After she began her run for governor, her first campaign ad opened with her recounting living in a tent when she was 12.