COLUMBUS, Ohio — Campaign ads are flooding the airwaves as the election gets closer, which is leading viewers and readers to reach out to request help in verifying which are fact, fiction or somewhere in the middle.
“You know Amy Acton as the COVID lockdown doctor,” one pro-Vivek Ramaswamy ad says, before criticizing her tenure.
Republicans are airing ads that accuse Democrat Dr. Amy Acton, Ohio’s former COVID-era health director, of shutting down the state.
“One of America’s strictest lockdowns,” another ad states.
WATCH: As political ads ramp up ahead of the November election, we're fact-checking the ads
But Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said that isn't the whole story.
"The buck stops with the governor," DeWine said Wednesday. "I made those decisions, and that just happens to be the truth."
While the governor continues to defend Acton's work during the pandemic, GOP strategist Terry Casey points out that Acton was DeWine’s primary advisor, and he based his decisions on her insight.
"Legally under Ohio law, it was her signature on an order that would close things down," Casey said.
After Acton stepped down in mid-2020, Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff took over in 2021. Tuesday, I asked him what he would have done.
"Would you have supported a stay-at-home order?" I asked.
As he started to answer, the governor interrupted with a laugh.
"We could go back and debate every moment of the pandemic, and it looks like that's being done on TV, but to ask somebody to go back and put themselves in a position at a certain point in time, I think, is unfair," the governor responded.
RELATED: Dr. Amy Acton responds to attack ads about alcohol, COVID death
Now, Republicans are having to defend a brand new ad of their own.
Democrats say a pro-Ramaswamy ad is misleading, one in which his wife Apoorva is talking about his upbringing.
"He went to public schools that taught him to work hard,” the ad says.
This omits that Ramaswamy graduated from a Catholic high school, Democrats argued.
"I went to public schools through eighth grade because private schools were not on the table for us," Ramaswamy said after winning the primary, and has said similar statements at more than three other public events. "I went to St. [Xavier] for high school."
Education leader Melissa Cropper, who runs the Ohio Federation of Teachers, believes many of his policy positions would hurt public schools.
"We're seeing this mismatch between what's being said in this ad," Cropper said. "He doesn't believe that there's a school funding problem and so he's not willing to put more money into the public education system."
RELATED: Ohio Gov. DeWine urges next governor to continue his literacy efforts
Casey argued that the complaints about the ad aren't warranted. Ramaswamy did go to public school.
"In 30 seconds in a TV commercial, you can't give a person's whole resume and state everything they did from birth to adulthood now," he said. "That's part of what campaigns, like in a court of law, are about. Each side presents its best evidence."
If you have seen a campaign ad that you want me to fact-check, email or message me on any social media platforms.
Follow Statehouse and Columbus bureau reporter Morgan Trau on X, Instagram and Facebook. Email her at Morgan.Trau@wews.com.
