Ramaswamy’s ugly Ohio ad points to a crisis in plain sight

By Darcy Olsen

Published October 27, 2026 9:00am ET

In 1978, a 12-year-old girl told authorities her stepfather had raped her. A grand jury indicted him, but he fled the state and was never convicted.

That girl is Amy Acton, now the Democratic nominee for governor of Ohio. Last week, her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, put millions behind an ad in which Acton’s estranged mother calls her a liar, casting doubt on Acton’s accounts of growing up poor and suffering abuse.