{"id":19095,"date":"2026-04-16T21:23:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19095"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:23:41","slug":"candidate-acton-impresses-her-toledo-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/candidate-acton-impresses-her-toledo-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Candidate Acton Impresses Her Toledo Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By Fletcher Word<\/em>
\nThe Truth Editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gone backwards in every single measure in this state,\u201d said Dr. Amy Acton last week during a conversation at NHA\u2019s Nexus with about 40 of Toledo\u2019s most prominent citizens \u2013 elected officials, pastors, agency leaders \u2013 in attendance. \u201cWe have got to fight. I am definitely a fighter and we have got to fight to end the corruption.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Acton, who is a Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, will be on the ballot against Republican candidate Vivek Wamasawamy in November an effort to overturn the grasp that the GOP has had on Ohio\u2019s state government over the last two decades or so.<\/p>\n

\u201cI need to hear from some of your thoughts,\u201d she told the gathering. \u201cIt\u2019s all about relationships and what we are going to do together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Yvonne Harper, Doni Miller and Toledo Clerk of Court Vallie Bowman English<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Dr. Acton was in Toledo for a day of events organized by state Senato Pasula Hicks-Hudson, who also served as the moderator for last week\u2019s event at Nexus. Hicks-Hudson opened the event before the candidate\u2019s appearance in order to impress the attendees the importance and necessity of reaching out to voters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese things are very dire \u2026 an abomination,\u201d said Hicks-Hudson. \u201cPublic education has been chopped, health care is on the block. An assault is happening because we don\u2019t vote.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hicks-Hudson informed the audience that Lucas County was the 87th<\/sup> out of 88 Ohio counties in voter turnout in the last election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to go to where our folks are \u2013 the beauty shops, the barber shops. When we vote, we win; when we show up, we can make a change,\u201d she said. \u201cWe must decide that we are going to put together a plan to get the vote out.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the candidate\u2019s speech, Dr. Acton explained why she is running, detailed her background and spoke about specific issues she will address once elected to office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am running because people in this state are struggling,\u201d she said. \u201cThere is no more breathing room in this state and it is time for a change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Acton spoke of the difficulty Ohioans have with rising health care costs, the difficulties presented by the impact of the Republican voucher program on public schools, rising costs brought on by Republican policies in Washington \u2013 including the war.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Jordan Hawkins, the Acton campaign political director<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had it bad up to now, but my opponent [will make it worse],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Amy Acton was born and reared in Youngstown, experiencing a very difficult childhood \u2013 neglect, abuse and homelessness – difficult enough that she recounted one winter sleeping in a tent. Fortunately, she was able to excel in high school and enter a medical program when she enrolled in college.<\/p>\n

Most of her medical career has been in public service \u2013 a \u201clifelong public servant,\u201d she said – \u00a0working for five governors starting with Robert Taft.<\/p>\n

She made quite a name for herself during the COVID pandemic crisis, working with Gov. Mike DeWine to establish a government response to the health crisis that was precedent setting \u2013 the first state in the nation to close schools, for example.<\/p>\n

After Republican state legislators and then-Speaker of the House Larry Householder introduced bills she thought would violate her Hippocratic Oath, she resigned as director of the Department of Health.<\/p>\n

For to her work as director, she received a \u201cProfile in Courage Award\u201d from Caroline Kennedy and Jack Schlossberg and was named by the New York Times as \u201cThe Leader We Wish We All Had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Acton is on the ballot for the May 5 primary but without an opponent. Ramaswamy has two opponents: Casey Putsch, a northwest Ohio business owner, and Heather Hill, a former school board president from southeast Ohio.<\/p>\n

\"\"Ramaswamy is a heavy primary favorite due to his unlimited funding, his name recognition and the endorsement of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

In the November\u2019s general election, Dr. Acton has a solid chance to break the Republican grip on state government. Recent polls have shown her with a lead. The worrisome state of the economy will favor the out-of-office party, both locally and nationally \u2013 as special elections have already demonstrated over and over again over the last year. In addition, Trump\u2019s recent war with Iran along further blows to the economy will continue to make life difficult for Republican candidates around the nation.<\/p>\n

Dr. Acton will make the case in the general election that her opponent\u2019s money holds no advantage for ordinary Ohioans.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to tell you that you cannot buy this state,\u201d she said of her election plans. \u201cYou cannot buy us.\u201d She will also be making the point to voters of her opponent\u2019s shortcomings.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not just out of touch, he\u2019s completely dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Fletcher Word The Truth Editor \u201cWe\u2019ve gone backwards in every single measure in this state,\u201d said Dr. Amy Acton last week during a conversation at NHA\u2019s Nexus with about 40 of Toledo\u2019s most prominent citizens \u2013 elected officials, pastors, agency leaders \u2013 in attendance. \u201cWe have got to fight. I am definitely a fighter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19098,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,252,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[343],"class_list":["post-19095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-politics","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19101,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19095\/revisions\/19101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19095"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}