An armed individual lunged at Ohio gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton at the Canfield Fair on Sunday, injuring multiple people, her campaign confirmed.
“While attending the Canfield Fair, an armed individual lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people,” Acton campaign communications director Addie Bullock said in a statement.
“Dr. Acton and Eric are grateful for the swift and decisive action of law enforcement and are praying for the recovery of those injured,” Bullock said. “This kind of violence has no place in Ohio. Dr. Acton will always stand up to the chaos, hate and vitriol that pits us against one another.”
The campaign did not say whether Acton herself was hurt in the incident.
Authorities have not released details about the alleged attacker, the weapon used, or the condition of the injured. It remains unclear what triggered the confrontation and whether anyone has been arrested. Fox News Digital reached out to the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office for more information.
Acton is a physician who rose to prominence as director of the Ohio Department of Health during the COVID-19 pandemic, appearing alongside then-Gov. Mike DeWine at televised briefings as the state enacted shutdowns and other restrictions. That record has become a flashpoint in her run for governor, with Republican nominee Vivek Ramaswamy and his allies criticizing her handling of the pandemic while her campaign defends the decisions as necessary at the time.
Ramaswamy and his running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, condemned Sunday’s violence. “Candidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence,” Ramaswamy campaign communications director Connie Luck said in a statement. “What happened today is completely unacceptable and has no place in politics, and we hope that no one was hurt,” she added.
Acton and Ramaswamy are set to face off in November’s election to replace the term-limited DeWine.
A Broader Warning on Political Violence
The Canfield Fair incident came the same day Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, speaking generally about the state of political threats in the country and not in direct response to the Acton incident, warned that public figures remain at risk as the campaign season heats up.
“You’re never safe in the public eye,” Mullin told Fox News’ Peter Doocy on “The Sunday Briefing.”
“If you read any of the social media posts, which I choose not to, but you see the type of rhetoric and the hatefulness that’s out there,” Mullin said. “The threats to our elected officials, they don’t go away. We’ve got to bring down the temperature, but the temperature is not going to go down on itself.”
Mullin argued that Americans must accept political disagreement as part of self-government while drawing a hard line against violence. “The American people have to realize that we do have a republic, and the republic has different opinions, and it’s OK to have different opinions,” he said. “When you cross a line and say that that different opinion needs to be silenced — it needs to be silenced through violence — that’s where Homeland comes into place. Free speech is something we all protect, but there’s a line that you can cross that goes from free speech to inciting dangerous behavior.”
