COLUMBUS, Ohio — Dr. Amy Acton is defending herself after several controversial ads have aired, accusing her of being an alcoholic, a drug addict and of causing the death of an elderly woman during the pandemic. While these ads have shocking claims, there is much more to the stories.
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy and supportive groups are spending millions on ad buys, painting Acton as an alcoholic, which she flat-out denies.
"It's horrible to make lies about alcohol and drug abuse," Acton said.
Back in 2019, while Acton was Ohio's health director, her daughter made a 911 call. The daughter reported that her “stepdad and mom are fighting and mom has been drinking and throwing things and breaking glass,” according to Bexley police logs.
"Drinking, drugs, disaster, disqualified," an attack ad made by V-PAC, Victors not Victims, states.
RELATED: Amy Acton's team defends 2019 police visit as a 'simple argument' amid GOP criticism
A police report states that there was a "domestic dispute," and that Acton and her husband had allegedly gotten in a “verbal argument” over her “extended work hours.”
The report states that both Acton and her husband had admitted to drinking earlier and that “Acton stated that she had taken an unknown amount of prescription medication.” Police wrote that Acton told them that she wanted to leave and had gone into the garage, but her husband talked her out of it.
According to the report, a Columbus Fire Medic advised Acton to go to the hospital, but she refused. However, the police officer wrote that there was "no evidence of any physical violence" and it was a "verbal dispute only." There is nothing in the report stating that Acton was intoxicated at the time of the police visit.
Her team has said that Acton only had one glass of wine and wasn't drunk. Their campaign added that the prescription was a migraine medication.
"Seeing that there was just a normal routine fight, [the police] left," Acton said. "To blow it up, to bring family into it, to lie or to make the extrapolations — it's just what you tend to expect in politics at this point."
But GOP strategist Bob Clegg says that the ads are accurate.
"She's trying to deflect from, you know, a pretty serious charge about her," Clegg said. "This happened, there's a police report."
But that's not the only ad the Democrats are pushing back on.
In another ad by the Ramaswamy campaign, a local Cincinnati GOP official, Linda Caudill, tells the story of how her mother died alone in a nursing home due to the COVID stay-at-home order.
"I had to put my mother in a nursing home because she had fallen. A few weeks after that is when Amy Acton shut down the state. My mother didn't understand it. It traumatized her. She didn't know why her family couldn't come visit her. Two months later she died. Amy Acton is to blame for this,” Caudill said.
As it turns out, public records show that the mother lived and died in Kentucky, two months after the stay-at-home order was lifted. This was six weeks after Acton had already resigned. In addition, the stay-at-home order that Gov. Mike DeWine put into place, and takes credit for, had exceptions for those taking care of elderly loved ones.
"It's a lie; it's a complete fabrication," Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein, who endorsed Acton, said. "I think it speaks volumes to the type of person that Vivek Ramaswamy is and the type of governor he will be, that he's going to lie, cheat, and steal his way to the governor's office."
Ramaswamy's team pointed us to a statement they gave another outlet, saying that Acton was now trying to "smear" Caudill.
"I'm sure there are hundreds of people out there that could have done that ad that did have parents in Ohio," Clegg said.
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.
