COLUMBUS, Ohio — With four days left before Ohioans choose their next governor, the people Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign has put on television screens and on its endorsement list carry documented histories that his opponent’s do not.
J News Network reviewed the people featured in the Ramaswamy campaign’s advertising, the state lawmakers whose names have appeared on his endorsement list, and his highest-profile endorser, checking each against court records, the state sex-offender registry and published reporting. Five of them carry a criminal conviction, an indictment, a formal allegation or a civil finding of the kind detailed below: Vernon Edwards, Cledith Arthur, state Reps. Rodney Creech and Gary Click, and President Donald Trump. Two more people in this review — Patty Edwards and Donna Arthur, the women who fronted the campaign’s two most talked-about ads — are not accused of any crime. They are included because of the documented records of the men they are married to. The same review of the people appearing in Democrat Dr. Amy Acton’s advertising, on her ticket and on her endorsement list found nothing comparable.
The farm ad
Patty Edwards of Amherst frets about losing the family farm in a Ramaswamy campaign ad built from footage of the couple’s meeting with the candidate at the Lorain County Fair in September. Her husband, Vernon Edwards, appears in the ad’s fair footage, including a handshake with Ramaswamy. He was not the ad’s focus and did not speak in it.
Vernon Edwards is a registered sex offender. In October 2006, he pleaded guilty in Cuyahoga County to two counts of gross sexual imposition against his niece, a girl under the age of 13, and stipulated to being classified a sexual predator, according to the Ohio appeals court decision in State v. Edwards, 2007-Ohio-6068. The court record states that Edwards inappropriately touched his niece, that two of the four indicted counts were dropped in exchange for his plea and predator stipulation, and that he was sentenced to consecutive four-year terms — eight years in prison. The opinion also records that, at sentencing, it was revealed Edwards had molested several other nieces, but the statute of limitations had expired on those allegations, so no charges were brought. His sentence was affirmed on appeal. Ohio’s registry lists him in Lorain County.
Reporting by The Bulwark first identified Edwards in the ad in October. In that reporting, Patty Edwards defended her husband: “He served his sentence,” she said, calling him “an exemplary citizen.”
After The Bulwark reported his record, the campaign removed Vernon Edwards from the ad and deleted a related social media video of the fair encounter. “We had no knowledge of the circumstances now being reported. The man has been removed from the ad,” campaign spokesman Evan Machan told The Bulwark.
The mother ad
The campaign’s most controversial spot featured Donna Arthur, Acton’s birth mother, calling her daughter a “liar” and suggesting she has mental health problems. Acton has said she has not seen her mother in nearly 50 years.
Donna Arthur is not accused of a crime. The controversy is the ad itself — and what it left out.
According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Donna Arthur’s husband, Cledith Arthur — Acton’s stepfather — was arrested in July 1978 and charged with raping Acton when she was 12. The AP reported the alleged abuse ran from December 1976 to April 1978, that Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty, and that a Mahoning County grand jury indicted him that September. He failed to appear at a later court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He was never tried and has since died. Donna Arthur remained married to him until his death in 2004. FactCheck.org, reviewing the same court records, concluded they back Acton’s account of her childhood. She lost custody of her children in 1978; her son, Philip Stearns, said in a statement released by the Acton campaign that the children were removed after the indictment, and that Acton last saw her mother in a courtroom that year.
The Ramaswamy campaign initially said it would spend $4 million to keep the ad on the air through Election Day. Ad-tracking firm AdImpact data reported by the AP put the actual spend at roughly $1 million. On Thursday, Oct. 29, Ramaswamy said the ad’s planned run was over; the campaign said it had “ran to completion.” He had defended the ad before ending its run.
The endorsers
Two state representatives whose endorsements the campaign has carried faced allegations of their own. Both cases ended without charges, and both men deny wrongdoing.
State Rep. Rodney Creech was accused in 2023 by a minor relative of inappropriate conduct. According to Bureau of Criminal Investigation records reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Dayton Daily News, Creech told investigators he had gotten into bed with the minor while wearing only his underwear, and denied anything sexual occurred. BCI investigated, and Clark County Prosecutor Daniel Driscoll declined to file charges in October 2024, writing that Creech’s behavior was “concerning and suspicious” but that the evidence fell short of the threshold needed for prosecution. Creech has said he is “100 percent innocent of any wrongdoing” and called the allegation false. In April 2026, after reporting on the campaign’s endorsements, Creech’s name was removed from Ramaswamy’s endorsements page.
State Rep. Gary Click faced a complaint alleging he abused a young woman who had attended his church years earlier. Police investigated and, in the finding reported by StayTunedSandusky on Oct. 9, 2026, “found no victim and nothing credible.” Click responded: “Clearly, the allegations against me are not only false but malicious.” His endorsement was removed from Ramaswamy’s campaign site in April 2026 and then restored within hours, according to Columbus Dispatch reporting.
The top endorser
Ramaswamy’s most prominent endorser is President Donald Trump, who backed his campaign and publicly defended the Donna Arthur ad. In May 2023, a federal jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll, as Reuters and the Associated Press reported at the time — a civil finding, not a criminal conviction. Trump has denied Carroll’s allegations, saying he did not know her, and called the verdict “a disgrace” and “a continuation of the greatest witch hunt of all time.”
The other side of the ledger
JNN ran the same checks on the other campaign. The people appearing in Acton’s advertising, the running mate on her ticket, and the officials and organizations on her endorsement list were reviewed against the same sources — court records, the state registry and published reporting. Not one carries a documented criminal conviction, charge, allegation or civil finding of the kind catalogued above in the sources reviewed.
The contrast is not about the candidates’ own records. It is about who each campaign chose to put in front of voters — and what was in those people’s pasts when they were put there.
Sources: State v. Edwards, 2007-Ohio-6068 (Ohio Court of Appeals); Ohio sex-offender registry; The Bulwark (October 2026); The Associated Press (October 2026); Cincinnati Enquirer and Dayton Daily News (BCI records reporting); Columbus Dispatch (April 2026); StayTunedSandusky (Oct. 9, 2026); Reuters (May 9, 2023).
