Vivek Ramaswamy on Amy Acton: ‘If you cannot debate, you cannot lead the state’

STRONGSVILLE — When the history of the 2026 Ohio governor’s race is written, one topic that will surely be examined is Democrat Amy Acton’s refusal to debate her Republican opponent.

Whether it works or backfires will be clear in mere days.

While the mainstream media has been fixated on Vivek Ramaswamy’s decision to run an ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother, for his part, Ramaswamy said he would prefer to debate his opponent on the issues facing Ohioans.

“If you cannot debate, you cannot lead the state,” Ramaswamy told Ohio.News. “Amy Acton — she is ill-prepared to answer on any policy position. And the truth is, she has lied to the public repeatedly.

“This is somebody who quit on Ohio halfway through the job; she quit when times got tough,” Ramaswamy added. “This is not someone whose failure we can afford to reward with a promotion. We’re not going to let that happen.”

Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told https://t.co/hiZiD2ofSW that candidates who cannot debate cannot lead the state, and he blasted his Democratic opponent, Amy Action, saying, “She has lied to the public repeatedly.” pic.twitter.com/w7z7qZUWmO

— Ohio.news (@RealOhioNews) October 28, 2026

Ramaswamy’s campaign had been prepared to debate Acton, who served as the state’s health director during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but quit her position in June 2020. On Sept. 2, Acton’s campaign released a statement defending its position to skip debating Ramaswamy.

“I think it’s a shame that we haven’t been able to have an open debate between two candidates,” Ramaswamy said. “My invitation and openness to having a debate remains open, but the fact that she’s hiding from her record should tell voters that this is actually criticisms that are true.

“If she believed these criticisms weren’t legitimate, if she believed that the criticisms weren’t true, she would want to defend herself on a debate stage,” Ramaswamy said. “I know that because she’s lobbed lies against me, and I want to defend myself in a fair debate.”

The Ramaswamy campaign has pointed to Acton’s decision to include Ramaswamy’s mother in a release. In it, the Acton campaign alleged that Ramaswamy used his mother to manipulate clinical trials as part of a “pump and dump” scheme, a claim that even the left-leaning PolitiFact rated as “mostly false.”

In Ramaswamy’s ad, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, said the Democratic gubernatorial candidate lies and cannot be trusted as governor.

The controversy centers on allegations that Arthur’s husband and Acton’s stepfather, Cledith Arthur, abused Acton and her brother. The Associated Press reported that Arthur was charged with the rape of his then 12-year-old stepdaughter, pleaded not guilty, then fled and was not convicted before he died in 2004.

“It is a shame that when a candidate refuses to show up on a debate stage, it forces the electorate to have to make judgments based on a 30-second ad, and that is not the ideal way to do politics,” Ramaswamy said.

“The ideal way is we should be able to debate in a civil way and talk to each other,” Ramaswamy added. “But when she shuts the door on that, even on networks like NBC and CNN, I think unfortunately voters have to … get the bit pieces, the sound bites, and the 30-second clips.”

Last week, Ramaswamy kicked off a statewide bus tour ahead of the election. For his part, Ramaswamy told Ohio.News that through the tour, he will “actually show up in person, tell people the truth, who we are, what we stand for, and why we’re doing it, and that ultimately is the way we’re going to win this election.”

“The fact that she won’t do it should tell voters everything they need to know,” Ramaswamy said. “They’re now lying about an ad that highlights her lying, and I think that should also tell voters all they need to know.

“The media is trying to cover for her, but the voters of the state are too smart to let that happen,” Ramaswamy added. “And what I care about is actually making lives better, bringing down the property tax burden, bringing down the electric bills, prosecuting crime. That’s what matters, and I can get that done in a way that I know no one else can.”