Amy Acton is a doctor (the licensed MD kind) who, in 2020, served as Ohio's director of the Department of Health. During her time as pandemic guru, she was one of the proponents who believed in and instituted isolation and distancing. According to her rosy Wiki bio, she earned accolades and awards for her swift actions in efforts to curtail the virus's spread.

...In 2020, before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Acton advised DeWine, who became the first U.S. governor to close schools and limit gatherings to 100 people. Acton soon estimated that Ohio's then 5 confirmed cases likely translated to 100,000 actual cases, making national news.[18] In mid-March, she predicted cases could peak in late April to mid-May.[19]

On March 12, Acton said of the pandemic, "This will be the thing this generation remembers."[18][20][21] Ohio House Minority Leader Emilia Sykes called her "the real MVP of Ohio's coronavirus response."[5] The Dayton Daily News called her "Ohio's trusted face during the pandemic."[10]

Acton was an advocate of postponing the 2020 Ohio Democratic presidential primary, which was slated for March 17, 2020. The day before the scheduled election, DeWine canceled it, but a judge ruled he did not have the authority to do so. Acton then ordered polling places closed due to a public health emergency.[22] It was later determined that the election would be conducted entirely by mail-in absentee ballot for those who had not participated in early voting.[23] In April 2020, CNN called her "the Buckeye state's version of the straight-talking Dr. Anthony Fauci".[6]

...Due to her work as the Director of the Ohio Department of Health, she received a Profile in Courage Award from Caroline Kennedy and Jack Schlossberg. The New York Times called her "The Leader We Wish We All Had".[35]

Oh, heady stuff, indeed.

Acton is also, reportedly, the victim of child abuse. She and her brother were removed from her divorced mother's custody when she was twelve, after accusing her stepfather of molesting her. Her mother refused to leave her husband, and the siblings are said to have been estranged from her ever since. Details of that period have become an important part of Acton's origin story.

Growing up in Youngstown, in a family who’d worked in the steel mills, Amy Acton faced a difficult childhood. She overcame periods of abuse, hunger, and neglect, and even wound up living in a tent in the middle of winter. That challenging upbringing molded the values and determination that have shaped a career dedicated to lifting others.

Before and after her time at the Ohio DoH, she worked at non-profits.

This year, she is the Democrat candidate for governor of Ohio, running against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, and has, besides carrying the burden from her COVID czar days, been the subject of scrutiny for other incidents, which have now been accentuated by some exceedingly awkward campaign events.

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There have already been questions about police being called during a 2019 incident at her home.

Acton's daughter called 911

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.

She can be really awkward with a mic in her hand.

And the 'drunk' accusations that follow her around are not helped by incidents where campaign hysteria hyperinflates facts. For instance, in early September, when an 'armed man came at her.'

A man accused of inducing panic during gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton’s campaign event last month was back in court on Friday.

Patrick Havas, 38, had a pretrial hearing on charges of assault, inducing panic and disorderly conduct after the incident on Sept 6 at the Canfield Fair in Mahoning County.

Havas is accused of entering a tent where Acton was speaking, pushing his way through the crowd when Acton's security detail, made up of Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers, confronted him

Once the prosecutor had a chance to see the available video of the incident...

...The tape doesn’t match. 

Media runs the vibes anyway — until a prosecutor kills it with facts. You get accountability. 

...there was nothing pointing to an attempted assault or threat to Acton. He simply wanted to ask Acton questions and was rude to others in the crowd as he shoved forward. He never unholstered or brandished his weapons, and they were all legal.

...No one has publicly said what 38-year-old Patrick Havas wanted to ask Acton, but authorities have said he never brandished or unholstered the weapons he had on him and they haven’t found any threats in a search of his cellphone. As he charged toward Acton, authorities said, he knocked down two people before troopers stopped him.

Havas pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault, one count of disorderly conduct and one count of inducing panic. His bond was set at $5,000.

The Acton campaign and media rode the 'candidate attacked by armed man' scenario like a race pony - for all it was worth.

In fact, even now, it's damned near impossible to find out it was a nothingburger. It took me forever.

We're just a couple of weeks out, and Vivek Ramaswamy has a bit of an edge on the doctor.

His campaign [Beege notes: not definitive yet exactly who] just dropped a barnburner of an ad on Acton that has stirred up a whirlwind of controversy.

Beege ADDS: Here for those who can't play the above video

Acton's brother almost immediately released a scorching 'how dare you' statement for platforming their 'abusive and estranged mother.'

But this is where it gets weird.

No one has been able to produce any of the records that would verify any part of Acton's story. There is - so far - no record of the children being taken, no record of the couple being charged for skipping town as the doctor claimed they did, and no record of her stepfather's conviction or incarceration.

...Acton said both her stepfather and her mother were charged criminally. Acton also claims her mother and stepfather skipped their bond to avoid prosecution. 

This is central to Acton's biography. 

If this happened, there will be paperwork documenting the criminal charge. The only source I found who looked for the paperwork said they found nothing. This should be easy to prove one way or another. 

Either there is paperwork, or there isn't.

And Dr. Acton's mother is refusing to go quietly into that good night. According to a Grok summary obtained on X, which did a deep dive for both the legal paperwork and any previous statements from Acton's mother, there may well be none.

Obviously, this is a serious issue for both campaigns, and it depends entirely on your point of view.

Many reactions I've seen are horrified that Ramaswamy would drop this bomb, but, on the other hand, more seem to be in the camp of 'why shouldn't voters know there's a dispute since Acton has made this a public part of who she is.'

Is this going to change the dynamics of the race at the last minute?

That's hard to say. But I would posit that if some sort of official record of either the children being removed or the conviction for abuse Acton claims happened isn't found, pretty stat, that it's going to be more than a flesh wound.

She's already a polarizing figure because of her COVID fascism.

Were she running against anyone but Ramaswamy, she'd probably already be toast. 

This will be a brouhaha for a while, guaranteed.

Beege UPDATES: Let me just add for clarification that this ad doesn't have a Ramaswamy disclaimer on it, so saying that it 'came from' the campaign could well be wrong. The Daily Wire tried to identify a source.

...There is no evidence that Ramaswamy or his campaign were behind the ad, which does not identify when the video was produced, who financed it, or whether it is airing on television. Independent journalist Walter Curt posted the clip on X late Monday night.

 And the NYTimes noted the same in its rush to condemn it.

...Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign did not immediately respond to questions about the ad, including whether Ms. Arthur was paid to participate. It is unclear if the ad came from Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign or another organization that is backing his race.

Their article has some more meat on the bone regarding Dr. Acton's claims of abuse, but again, there are no receipts. Their article relies on the same 2019 interview everyone repeats.

...In 2019, Dr. Acton gave an interview to The Vindicator, the since-folded daily newspaper of Youngstown, Ohio, in which she disclosed being sexually abused between the ages of 9 and 12. In 1978, after her biological father made a report to police, her stepfather was charged with rape and indicted by a grand jury. He pleaded not guilty.

In 2020, Ms. Arthur came forward to a conservative website to say her daughter’s claims of homelessness were exaggerated. Ms. Arthur shared that after her husband was arrested, Dr. Acton testified against him in court. Ms. Arthur supported her husband, rather than her daughter.

So ugly, the whole thing.

Someone should be able to find that conviction.

More: A Yahoo News article on the ad has a link to a clipping about the stepfather's arrest, as her mother has also acknowledged. The new article includes that the parents fled the state, but doesn't have any documentation attached or indicate whether there was a conviction.

...However, a lengthy court record shows that Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with rape on July 14, 1978. He pleaded not guilty, and Acton testified as a witness in the case before her stepfather fled the state with her mother in October 1978. Mahoning County, Ohio, subsequently labeled him a fugitive and "ordered that a warrant for the arrest of the defendant, Cledith Arthur, shall issue forthwith." A second arrest warrant was issued in 1981, and records show the county was still looking for him as of 1983.

But what they do have seems to indicate the stepfather had a track record already, and that Acton's mother has some sincere credibility issues of her own.

...Court and newspaper records also show that Cledith Arthur was indicted for incest in 1974, before Acton's mother married him, due to allegations that he had raped his eldest daughter.

Cledith and Donna Arthur moved to Pennsylvania to evade justice. There, Donna Arthur racked up a long rap sheet of criminal complaints, including being found guilty of animal neglect in 2021 and theft by deception for passing bad checks in 1995 and 1996. A court found her to be "not credible" in the case of animal neglect.

Another old clipping on the arrest and grand jury proceedings here.