A new television ad from a super PAC backing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy builds its case against Democrat Amy Acton on a premise that is false: that Acton, rather than Gov. Mike DeWine, decided to shut down Ohio during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two of the ad’s central claims do not hold up against the public record, and a third puts a position in Acton’s mouth she has never taken.
The 30-second spot, paid for by V-PAC: Victors Not Victims — the super PAC formed by Ramaswamy’s allies — brands Acton “the liberal who shut down Ohio” and warns that “it gets worse from here.” Here is what the record shows.
False as framed. Acton was DeWine’s appointed director of the Ohio Department of Health from February 2019 to June 2020 and signed the orders that closed schools and businesses — but she did so under emergency authority the governor granted her, and DeWine has repeatedly said the decisions were his. “The decisions that were made during COVID, they were my decisions, so no one should blame someone else if they don’t like it. The buck stops with me,” DeWine told NBC4 in December. DeWine, a Republican, has since endorsed Ramaswamy. Senate President Rob McColley, R-Napoleon, disputes DeWine’s account and calls Acton the “central architect” of the restrictions, but the governor who held the authority has said the calls were his alone.
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