2026-10-22T09:00:15.081Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/22/politics/amy-acton-response-mother-ad-vivek-ramaswamy
俄亥俄州沃顿——
艾米·阿克顿在俄亥俄州西北部的一场农场活动中，正谈论着学校预算、当地医院和世代传承的农业，这时她邀请一名与会者发言，询问对方是否有什么想分享的内容。
卡伦·洛茨并不想谈论这些议题。
“我真心为你感到难过，”洛茨说，“我可以拥抱你吗？”
艾米·阿克顿回应维维克·拉马斯瓦米提及她母亲的广告
俄亥俄州民主党州长候选人艾米·阿克顿接受了CNN记者劳伦·福克斯的采访，目前其共和党对手维维克·拉马斯瓦米的竞选团队发布了一则包含其 estranged 母亲的争议广告，引发的 backlash 持续升级。
https://www.cnn.com/
阿克顿表示，自其对手拉马斯瓦米的竞选团队发布一则 featuring 其 estranged 母亲称她为骗子的政治广告以来，她近日收到了大量反馈，而这场互动只是其中一个缩影。这一事件让这场全美竞争最激烈的州长竞选之一再次受到关注，阿克顿正与拉马斯瓦米角逐该州首位民选女性州长，以及二十年来首位民主党州长。
阿克顿的母亲在阿克顿12岁时失去了对她和她弟弟的抚养权。她的继父曾被大陪审团起诉，罪名是对她实施性虐待。
“这很难受。这是房间里的大象，对吧？”洛茨提起那段视频后，阿克顿在周三说道，“我和我弟弟有一个苦苦挣扎的母亲，我们经历了大量的忽视和虐待。”
这则广告在该州引发了轩然大波，再次将人们的注意力聚焦到阿克顿的童年经历上，而她在州长竞选活动以及担任州卫生专员期间，曾公开谈论过这段经历。
“我之所以在当下谈论我的童年，原因只有一个：我开始意识到，这或许能给其他人带来希望，让他们知道你可以摆脱困境。我记得人们曾对苦难视而不见，体制也未能正常运转，但我也记得更多没有袖手旁观的人，”她说。
艾米·阿克顿拥抱因争议广告向其表达支持的女性
https://www.cnn.com/
近日，这则广告让阿克顿的州长竞选成为焦点。但数月来，她与拉马斯瓦米之间争夺这个全美第七大州领导权的竞选，早已是全国视线之外最为激烈的选战之一。
周三的活动中，阿克顿多次提及她与该州知名共和党人的关系，并试图缓和紧张局势。
“每个人都疲惫不堪。这十年太过漫长，”阿克顿对选民们说，“有人三次投票给特朗普……MAGA妈妈们出现在我的活动现场，她们深受伤害。还有那些不支持疫苗接种但深爱孩子的妈妈们，她们也来到了现场。我们必须修复这个已经破碎的国家，而我想说的是，领导人的言辞至关重要，”她说。
许多俄亥俄州民众最初认识阿克顿是在新冠疫情爆发期间，当时她作为俄亥俄州卫生部门主任。
她由共和党州长迈克·德怀因任命，与德怀因一同出席每日新冠疫情简报会，在疫情初期的几周里成为了众人熟悉且令人安心的存在。但这一职位也让她卷入了一系列有争议的决策，比如关闭企业和要求民众居家隔离。她于2020年6月辞职。
阿克顿曾考虑在2022年竞选该州开放的参议院席位，但最终决定放弃。当时与其合作的民主党战略家杰夫·拉斯纳克表示，即便如此，他仍能看出她在疫情期间与俄亥俄州选民建立了特殊联系。
“每次我和她在一起时，都会有人走上前说‘我可以拥抱你吗？’”拉斯纳克说，“人们会崩溃落泪——无论男女，无论民主党人、共和党人还是无党派人士。”
共和党人试图将这段经历变成她的政治包袱，称她为“俄亥俄州的安东尼·福奇”。
“在新冠疫情期间，她毁掉了人们的生活，”参议员伯尼·莫雷诺周日在当地共和党活动中告诉CNN。莫雷诺指出，在她的指导下，俄亥俄州是疫情期间首个关闭学校的州。
阿克顿总体上为自己的疫情防控记录辩护。尽管德怀因已背书拉马斯瓦米，但他表示，阿克顿不应为他批准的疫情相关决策负责。
314 Action是一个长期支持阿克顿的以科学为导向的政治团体，其执行主任埃里克·波利亚克表示，有些人可能从竞选一开始就错误地认为，她的任期会成为政治障碍。
“但从我们在这场竞选中开展的首次民调来看……她在新冠疫情期间的领导能力并非负面因素，”波利亚克说，“显然，那对许多美国人来说都是一段非常艰难的时期……但俄亥俄州民众记得，她是一位带着同情和关怀领导国家的领导人。”
即便在提及阿克顿母亲的广告发布之前，这场竞选就已经充斥着针对阿克顿的恶毒攻击广告。
支持拉马斯瓦米的超级政治行动委员会投放的广告，突出了2019年警方针对阿克顿家的一起“家庭纠纷”出警情况，据NBC新闻获得的警方报告显示。阿克顿表示，这些广告夸大了她当晚的行为。
“艾米·阿克顿：酗酒、吸毒、酿成灾难、丧失资格，”该超级政治行动委员会的一则广告写道。
阿克顿的竞选团队在9月初的一份声明中，以选战的激烈基调为由，宣布她不会与拉马斯瓦米进行辩论。
“阿克顿博士的重点是与俄亥俄州民众沟通，而非为一个散布关于她和她家人毫无根据谎言的骗子提供平台，”阿克顿的竞选经理菲尔·斯坦说。
拉马斯瓦米随后指责阿克顿害怕俄亥俄州选民，并指出他自己也一直是攻击性广告的目标。在阿克顿的一则广告中，一名自称妻子患有阿尔茨海默病的男子指责拉马斯瓦米推广一种无效的阿尔茨海默病药物。
“拉马斯瓦米先生，你根本不在乎任何人，”该男子说。
拉马斯瓦米及其支持者援引民主党对他的攻击，为这则包含阿克顿母亲的广告辩护。在周二为该广告辩护时，拉马斯瓦米表示，阿克顿一直在“散布一些对我和我的家人具有诽谤性、贬损性的谎言，这确实值得审视”。
对于阿克顿的支持者来说，拉马斯瓦米最新发布的这则广告印证了她放弃辩论的决定是正确的。
“他不配拥有辩论的机会，”拉斯纳克说，“而他刚刚也证明了这一点——直截了当地说。”
CNN记者摩根·里默为本报道贡献了内容。
Amy Acton opens up about her painful childhood after an attack ad featuring her estranged mother
2026-10-22T09:00:15.081Z / https://www.cnn.com/2026/10/22/politics/amy-acton-response-mother-ad-vivek-ramaswamy
Wharton, Ohio—
Amy Acton was talking school budgets, local hospitals and generational farming at a farm event in northwest Ohio when she called on an attendee and asked her if there was anything she wanted to share.
Karen Lortz didn’t want to talk about those issues.
“My heart goes out to you,” Lortz said. “May I give you a hug?”
Amy Acton responds to Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad featuring her estranged mother
Ohio Democratic gubernatorial nominee Amy Acton spoke to CNN’s Lauren Fox as backlash grows against her opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, whose campaign put out a controversial ad featuring her estranged mother.
https://www.cnn.com/
The interaction was just a sliver of the outpouring Acton said she’s received in recent days since a political ad from her Republican opponent, Vivek Ramaswamy, surfaced featuring her estranged mother calling her a liar. It has drawn even more attention to one of the most competitive governor’s races in the country, in which Acton is battling Ramaswamy to become the state’s first elected female governor and first Democratic governor elected in two decades.
Acton’s mother lost custody of her and her brother when Acton was 12 years old. Her stepfather was indicted by a grand jury on charges of sexually abusing her.
“It’s hard. It is the big elephant in the room, isn’t it?” Acton said Wednesday after Lortz raised the video. “My brother and I had a mom who struggled, and we experienced a lot of neglect and abuse.”
The ad has sent shockwaves through the state and once again directed focus back to Acton’s childhood, which she has talked about openly in the gubernatorial race and during her time as the state’s health director.
“The reason I talk about my childhood when I do is just one, I started to realize it might give other people hope that you can, you know, get out of circumstances. I remember people looking the other way and systems not working, but I also remember more the people who didn’t look the other way,” she said.
Amy Acton hugs woman who offers support over incendiary ad
https://www.cnn.com/
Acton’s campaign for governor has come under the spotlight in recent days because of the ad. But for months, the battle between her and Ramaswamy to lead the seventh-largest state has been one of the nastier contests under the national radar.
She spent a lot of time during Wednesday’s event referencing her relationships with prominent Republicans in the state – and trying to turn down the temperature.
“Everyone is exhausted. It’s been a long decade,” Acton told voters. “We’ve got folks voting Trump three times showing up … MAGA moms showing up at my stuff, and they are hurting. And moms who don’t love vaccines but love their kids, and they are showing up. And we’ve got to heal this thing that has been broken, and what I would say is the words our leaders use matter,” she said.
Many Ohioans first got to know Acton, a Youngstown native, as the director of the Ohio Department of Health when the Covid-19 pandemic broke out.
Appointed by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, Acton joined him at his daily coronavirus briefings, becoming a familiar, reassuring presence in the early weeks of the pandemic. But the role also put her at the center of a slew of controversial decisions, such as closing businesses and requiring people to stay at home. She resigned in June 2020.
Acton considered running for the state’s open Senate seat in 2022 but decided against it. A Democratic strategist working with her at the time, Jeff Rusnak, said he nonetheless saw how she had developed a special connection with Ohio voters from the pandemic.
“Every time I was with her, somebody would come up to her and say, ‘Can I hug you?’” Rusnak said. “People would break down in tears – men, women, Democrat, Republican, independent.”
Republicans have sought to make that period a political liability for her, calling her “the Anthony Fauci of Ohio.”
“She destroyed people’s lives during Covid,” Sen. Bernie Moreno told CNN on Sunday at a local Republican event. Moreno noted that, under her guidance, Ohio was the first state to shut down schools during the pandemic.
Acton has generally stood by her pandemic record. And while DeWine has endorsed Ramaswamy, he has said Acton should not be blamed for pandemic-related decisions he approved.
Erik Polyak, the executive director of 314 Action, a science-focused political group that has long backed Acton, said some may have mistakenly assumed from the outset of the race that her tenure would be a political obstacle.
“But we’ve seen from the very first polls we’ve done in this race … her leadership in Covid is not a negative,” Polyak said. “Obviously that was a very difficult time for many Americans … but Ohioans remember she was the leader who led with compassion and care.”
Even before the ad featuring Acton’s mom, the race had become filled with brutal attack ads targeting her.
A super PAC supporting Ramaswamy ran ads highlighting how police responded to her home in 2019 for a “domestic dispute,” according to a police report obtained by NBC News. Acton has said the ads exaggerate her actions that night.
“Amy Acton: Drinking. Drugs. Disaster. Disqualified,” one ad from the super PAC says.
Acton’s campaign cited the tenor of the race in an early September statement revealing that she would not debate Ramaswamy.
“Dr. Acton’s focus is on talking with Ohioans, not platforming a scam artist who spreads baseless lies about her and her family,” Acton campaign manager Phil Stein said.
Ramaswamy has since hounded her as scared of Ohio voters – and pointed out that he also has been on the receiving end of harsh ads. In one Acton ad, a man who says his wife had Alzheimer’s accuses Ramaswamy of promoting an Alzheimer’s drug that did not work.
“Mr. Ramaswamy, you don’t give a damn about anybody,” the man says.
Ramaswamy and his supporters have cited the Democratic attacks on him to justify the ad with Acton’s mom. In defending the ad Tuesday, Ramaswamy said Acton has been “spreading some defamatory, disparaging lies about me and my family that does deserve to be scrutinized.”
For Acton’s supporters, Ramaswamy’s latest ad vindicates her decision to skip debates.
“He doesn’t deserve it,” Rusnak said, “and he just proved it – point-blank.”
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.