Democrat Amy Acton in Ohio pushes back against unattributed ad featuring her estranged mother

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor who has made no secret of a difficult childhood that included homelessness and sexual abuse, pushed back forcefully Tuesday against an unattributed ad circulating online in which her long-estranged mother calls her “a liar” and insinuates she has mental health issues.

The ad began circulating overnight, just two weeks before Election Day. Acton, Ohio's former public health director, is in a tight race with Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate who has benefited from spending on his behalf that has exceeded $120 million.

The online ad, which first surfaced in a post by an Ohio political blogger, spread quickly across social media platforms. It does not include the “paid for” tag that is legally required to air on TV so viewers can know who produced and paid for it. D.J. Brynes, who blogs as “The Rooster,” told CNN he got the video from a voter who viewed it as part of a poll and recorded it.

It was not clear if Acton's mother was paid for the one-minute spot. Her last known telephone number has been disconnected.

Acton suggested Ramaswamy was behind the ad.

“I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I’m complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse," she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.

She said Ramaswamy was accused of similar personal attacks during his run for the GOP presidential nomination: “This is a lifelong pattern with my opponent.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign issued a statement that did not address if he was responsible for the ad or knew who produced it. In the statement, campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck said Acton “has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of.”

In a statement released by Acton's campaign, her brother, Philip Stearns, said the two were removed from their mother Donna Arthur's custody as children after their stepfather, Arthur's husband, was indicted for raping Acton as a child. Acton has not seen Arthur, whose last known address was in Pennsylvania, since they were in a courtroom together in 1978.

Later Tuesday, the Acton campaign released a response ad featuring Stearns, who recalls his older sister taking “the worst” of the abuse they faced as children in order to protect him and disparages Ramaswamy and his allies for exploiting the situation.

According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton's biological father reported his alleged conduct to authorities. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978.

Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury that September, but failed to show at a court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died.

High-profile Republicans who back Ramaswamy — including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer — elevated the video in online posts.

But other Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the ad. Meghan McCain called it “dastardly” and Dan Hauser, a strategist for Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his retweet of the ad once he realized “the very serious accusations that caused their issues.”

The Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, described the spot as “disgusting” and said everyone — including his opponent, Sen. Jon Husted — should be willing to condemn it. A spokesperson for Husted's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Acton's mother does not mention Ramaswamy's name in the ad, but she suggests that Acton has misrepresented her opponent and the time her family was homeless and living in a tent when she was a child — an experience Stearns corroborates.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump listens as gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) — Nigeria confirmed an Ebola case in its capital, Abuja, on Tuesday after a woman who arrived from Uganda tested positive for the virus, the Health Ministry said.

The woman began showing symptoms on Oct. 7 and was admitted to a private hospital in Abuja on Oct. 11, where she was later diagnosed with Ebola. It is unclear when she arrived in Nigeria.

Health Minister Muhammad Pate said authorities had begun tracing 44 people identified as contacts of the patient. “We are doing everything possible to contain this case by tracing all the contacts the individual may have had,” he said.

Uganda had previously reported Ebola cases, but it later declared itself free of the virus.

Uganda's Ministry of Health said the patient had only transited through Uganda and that she is a Nigerian woman who had been on a business trip to Congo's eastern region. The Nigerian authorities have not disclosed her nationality.

“Travel through Uganda does not establish that infection occurred here. The location of exposure remains under investigation,” the ministry said in a statement. The ministry insisted Uganda has “no confirmed active Ebola cases."

Nigeria is the latest country to report an Ebola case as the latest outbreak spreads across the region. Kenya confirmed its first case earlier this month and has since recorded nine infections.

Dr. Jean Kaseya, director general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control, said on X that “we are facing an extremely serious threat,” with a fatality rate of nearly 50% of cases.

“This Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak has already become the most geographically extensive in history, affecting several countries spread across three regions of Africa,” he said.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said two weeks ago it was stepping up surveillance following the detection of Ebola in Kenya and strengthening the country’s preparedness for a potential outbreak.

“These efforts have focused on early detection, isolation and referral, laboratory diagnosis, infection prevention and control, contact tracing, risk communication and protection of health care workers,” the agency said.

Nigeria established an Ebola task force in June following the outbreak in Congo in mid-May.

“We do not want a repeat of what happened during the last outbreak when a carrier entered the country, and everyone was scrambling to respond," Femi Gbajabiamila, chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, said when the task force was announced. “We have covered a lot of ground and established structures to address any potential threat.”

The spread of Ebola beyond Congo has heightened longstanding fears among health authorities about the rapid transmission of the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has infected more than 9,500 people and killed more than 4,600 people.

The latest outbreak is the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak on record and is on track to exceed the deadliest on record, West Africa’s regional outbreak between 2014 and 2016, which killed 11,000 people, WHO has said. Nigeria was one of the countries affected, recording 20 cases before the outbreak was declared over in the country after three months.

AP’s Africa coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

FILE - Cars drive past the National Assembly building in Abuja, Nigeria, on Nov. 2, 2023. (AP Photo/Chinedu Asadu, File)

A health care worker administers a dose of Ervebo vaccine against the Ebola virus in Beni, North Kivu province, eastern Congo, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Sebastien Kitsa Musayi)