DeWine didn’t know about 2019 police call to Acton’s house as campaign plays the victim card

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters this week that he didn’t know police were called to the home of his then Department of Health director in August 2019, and he said he wishes she had informed him.

Amy Acton, who is seeking to replace her former boss, is running as a Democrat and is likely to face Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in November’s gubernatorial election. DeWine and President Donald Trump have endorsed Ramaswamy, a billionaire entrepreneur and Cincinnati native.

“First of all, I don’t know what happened. I was not there,” DeWine told reporters, per Statehouse News Bureau. “The only thing that I have said is that I wish she had reported that to us—just the police coming to a house, whatever the facts are. But I have no idea what the facts are.”

Acton, whose campaign did not respond to an Ohio.News request for comment about the August 2019 police call-out, was a controversial figure during the COVID-19 pandemic and drew criticism from many Ohioans and business owners for what they viewed as heavy-handed measures. Although DeWine did not endorse her, the governor continues to provide cover for his former cabinet member, saying he is responsible for decisions made at the time.

“I’m going to say what I [have] always said: Amy Acton, I thought, did a good job as director,” DeWine said, according to Statehouse News Bureau. “I’m the one who appointed her. The fact is she worked for me, as all the members of the cabinet do. And decisions that were made were made by the governor. So if there is a member of the cabinet who issues an order, that was at my direction.”

Now, as any good Democrat, Acton is playing the victim card, claiming that Ramaswamy and her political opponents are using the 2019 call, first reported by NBC News, as a cudgel against her.

“Amy Acton worked around the clock on behalf of Ohioans while serving as health director,” Acton campaign spokesperson Addie Bullock told The Columbus Dispatch. “For Vivek Ramaswamy’s allies to dishonestly attempt to smear her for what amounted to a private verbal disagreement between Amy and her husband reveals the level of desperation Ramaswamy is feeling as Ohioans continue to reject him and his cost-raising scams.”

In a Monday interview with News 5 Cleveland, Acton’s running mate, David Pepper, further tried to spin the news against Ramaswamy.

“This is sort of a desperate attempt to try and tear Amy Acton down,” Pepper told the station. “What do you do when you’re a desperate billionaire and underwater? You use your money and your resources to try and smear the other person.”

Spin it as they will, one political strategist told the Cleveland station that the disclosure of the police call could be a problem for Acton.

“It’s problematic for a campaign to have something like this come out,” Republican strategist Bob Clegg told News 5 Cleveland.

According to the NBC News report, police in the tony Columbus suburb of Bexley were dispatched to Acton’s house at 9:45 p.m. on the evening in question. She allegedly pulled a mirror off the wall, “shattering the glass,” when she “became upset,” apparently believing her husband “was antagonizing her,” NBC News reported.

The outlet, citing a police report, indicated that Acton told the officers that she had been drinking, had taken an unknown amount of prescription drugs, and was about to drive away in her car. Her husband, however, allegedly convinced her it was a bad idea.

When a medic at the scene told Acton to go to a hospital, she reportedly “refused.” Police eventually concluded that there was only a “verbal argument over her extended work hours” and not evidence of any physical violence between Acton and her husband.

Per The Columbus Dispatch, the state’s policy is that “a state employee who observes, becomes aware of, or suspects non-emergency illegal or improper activity should immediately notify his or her supervisor or the Chief Legal Counsel for the Department and/or the Department Director.”

“It would have been the governor’s expectation that this type of incident be reported to him and his senior team,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney told the Columbus newspaper. “That did not occur.”