This is an editorial, the opinion of Florida Man News Network. It is separate from our news reporting. We take no money from campaigns, and no candidate asked for or saw this endorsement before publication.
Every campaign has a line. Vivek Ramaswamy found Amy Acton's and drove a truck over it.
In July 1978, Acton's stepfather was arrested and charged with raping her. She was 12. He was indicted, pleaded not guilty, skipped court, stayed a fugitive until at least 1981, and has since died (AP via WSB-TV; AP via WFTV). Acton and her brother were taken from their mother's custody. Her brother says their mother "stayed married to Amy's rapist until he died" (CNN via CP24).
Two weeks before Election Day, Ramaswamy's campaign put that mother in an ad calling Acton "a liar" and suggesting she has mental health problems (AP via AJC). At first his campaign wouldn't say who made it. Then Ramaswamy owned it: "It is an ad from our campaign." He put $4 million behind it (CNN via CP24).
Acton answered: she was removed from her mother at 12 "for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse" (AP via AJC). Her brother cut his own ad: "Shame on Vivek" (CNN via CP24).
Republicans winced too. Meghan McCain called the ad "dastardly." A strategist for Republican Sen. Mike Lee deleted his post sharing it once he learned why Acton was taken from her mother (AP via WFTV). Casey Putsch, who ran against Ramaswamy in the Republican primary, said he'd vote for Acton because of it (NBC).
Ramaswamy saw a child rape survivor running for governor and paid $4 million to call her a liar on TV. A man who does that to win will do anything with the power of a governor.
Ohio, elect Dr. Amy Acton.
$101 million in smears
That ad wasn't a slip. It was the strategy. Ramaswamy and his allies ran $101 million in ads against Acton by mid-October, $36 million of it his own money (MultiState). Here's what that money bought.
A story records say didn't happen. A Ramaswamy campaign ad featured Linda Caudill, who blamed Acton for her mother dying alone under Ohio's stay-at-home order. Public records show her mother lived and died in Kentucky, about two months after Ohio's order was lifted and six weeks after Acton had resigned. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein called it "a complete fabrication" (News 5 Cleveland).
"Drinking, drugs, disaster, disqualified." A pro-Ramaswamy super PAC built this ad on a 2019 police visit to Acton's home during a family argument over her long work hours. The officer found "no evidence of any physical violence," called it "verbal dispute only," and the report doesn't say she was intoxicated (News 5 Cleveland). They took a married couple's argument and sold it as addiction. "It's horrible to make lies about alcohol and drug abuse," Acton said.
Cherry-picked records. The same super PAC said her medical knowledge was rated "insufficient." Later reviews rated it "excellent." It claimed she praised Zohran Mamdani, citing a source that doesn't mention her (ABC6).
"Dr. Lockdown." This is Ramaswamy's main attack. The Republican governor who actually made the COVID calls, and who endorsed Ramaswamy, says it's wrong. "I told her to issue the health order. The decision was mine," Mike DeWine said of the 2020 primary delay. "I ultimately thought if I did not make that decision people were going to die" (NBC4 via Tiffin Ohio). On Acton's role overall: "The buck stops with me" (Columbus Dispatch via Yahoo). When your own endorser says your attack is false and you keep running it, you are lying on purpose.
"She defied a judge." A judge declined to postpone the 2020 primary. He didn't order it held through a health emergency. The governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, Acton and both party chairs agreed to close the polls, and voting moved to mail (Tiffin Ohio).
After all that, Ramaswamy complains that Acton wouldn't debate him. She declined, citing his lies and personal attacks (NewsNation). You don't share a stage with a man who just paid to put your abuser's wife on TV.
Who Vivek Ramaswamy is
He got rich off COVID. His biotech company made more than $2 billion from the COVID-19 vaccine (NewsNation). In 2020 he pitched a plan where people "on the basis of a biomarker are segregated," with at-risk Ohioans kept under a mandatory stay-at-home order (NBC4). Now he runs against "lockdowns."
He thinks Medicare and Medicaid were "a mistake." He said so on Ezra Klein's podcast (WVXU). Acton's answer: "Are the 4 in 10 babies born in Ohio under Medicaid coverage a mistake?" (Acton campaign, from her Columbus Dispatch op-ed).
He flies over Ohio. Heartland Signal, citing campaign filings, reported about $780,000 on private jet travel in 2025 (Heartland Signal).
He's Trump's pick, and proud of it. Trump rallied with him in Youngstown and called Acton "a radical left lunatic." Ramaswamy promised to be "the most conservative governor" in Ohio history (MultiState).
Who Amy Acton is
Acton survived homelessness and abuse as a child and became a physician (AP via WSB-TV). She ran the Ohio Department of Health under a Republican governor at the start of COVID-19 (Newsweek). When Ohio was scared, she stood at the podium every day and told people the truth. Ramaswamy spent $101 million trying to make you forget that.
The Columbus Dispatch endorsed her (MultiState). Barack Obama rallied with her in Cleveland (DeFi Rate, citing Statehouse News Bureau). Large public employee unions back her (Columbus Dispatch via Yahoo). She leads, 48.4% to 45.1% in PollCheck's Oct. 27 average (PollCheck). That's close enough to lose.
Our endorsement
Ohio can reward the man who paid $4 million to call a child rape survivor a liar, or it can elect the doctor who got the state through its worst year. Florida Man News Network endorses Dr. Amy Acton for governor of Ohio.
How to vote
Polls are open 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Absentee ballots must reach your county board of elections by 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. Don't take an absentee ballot to your polling place; it won't count there. Find your polling place at VoteOhio.gov.