For Ohio, anybody but Acton

By Rory Ryan
The Highland County Press

For more than a half century, I have heard – or uttered – the phrase "The weak run in packs." The idiom applies to individuals who lack the personal fortitude, courage or capability so they rely on the safety of numbers and the collective power of a group to survive or intimidate others.

From what we all witnessed and endured during the CoVid-19 lab leak, the phrase certainly applies. Day after day, doctors like Fauci on the global stage and Acton in Ohio lied to us. 

They lied about origin. They lied about existing treatment options. They lied about masks. They lied about social distancing. And they lied about the so-called "vaccines," which were shots, not true tested vaccines.

("If you get the vaccine, you're safe; still, everyone must get the vaccine." Huh? If you got the shot, you should be fine. End of argument. Follow the science. Etc., etc.) 

The collective actions of these two doctors closed churches, schools, county fairs, businesses and family gatherings, the repercussions of which are still being felt.

Last month, Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times during a Senate hearing. What's he afraid of? The truth?

In Ohio, the DeWine administration provided political cover for Acton and took responsibility for closing polling locations for the 2020 primary election. 

That contradicts a March 16, 2020 order by Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, who issued an order regarding closure of the Ohio polling locations across the state for the Tuesday, March 17, 2020 election.

The order was signed by Acton and no other administrative official, including DeWine. See below.

In April of this year, Jack Windsor of the Ohio Press Network pointed out the apparent contradiction at https://www.theohiopressnetwork.com/news/ohio/an-open-letter-to-ohio-go….

In a letter to DeWine, Windsor notes that Acton's order occurred after a Franklin County Common Pleas judge DECLINED to postpone the March 2020 election.

Windsor's letter reads, in part:

Dear Governor DeWine,

I am preparing coverage for my radio show and news publication on your April 16, 2026, statements to NBC4, in which you denounced a gubernatorial campaign ad as “inaccurate” and asserted that Dr. Amy Acton would not have issued the 2020 polling-closure order “without your approval,” stating explicitly: “I told her to issue the health order. The decision was mine.”

This claim directly contradicts the official record issued by your own office in March 2020 — a record that remains live on governor.ohio.gov.

The headline on the press release on your government website reads: “Ohio Department of Health Issues Order on Closure of Polling Locations.”

The lead paragraph states: “Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton, M.D., MPH, tonight issued an order regarding Closure of the Polling Locations…”

Your own statement that night: “Health Director Dr. Amy Acton will order the polls closed as a health emergency.”

Dr. Acton personally signed the Director’s Order, citing authority granted to her under Ohio Revised Code § 3701.13 — the same statute she invoked for mass-gathering bans, business closures, the Stay-at-Home Order, and every other restriction on Ohioans’ freedoms.

If Acton's misinformation during CoVid-19 wasn't bad enough, she also had a little 2019 run-in with law enforcement after drinking and having a domestic dispute with her husband.

NBC4i.com reported, "According to police records, Bexley police responded to Acton’s home after an adult family member who had been at the home called to report a domestic verbal dispute in August of that year between Acton and her husband..." See more at https://www.nbc4i.com/news/your-local-election-hq/husband-of-ohio-guber…

Acton resigned as health director on June 11, 2020, and later stated in 2025 interviews that a major breaking point for her departure was the intense pressure from lawmakers to sign an order reopening county fairs without what she considered a sound scientific basis.

A sound scientific basis?! As we now know, there was no sound scientific basis for the Fauci and Acton shutdown orders. We were Faucied and Actonnated, if not vaccinated. (I was neither. I ignored both of them. I do not run in packs, and I do know spit from shinola.)

And now Amy Acton wants to be governor?

She may be the least qualified candidate from the two major political parties to run for governor of Ohio in my lifetime. As bad as the 2002 Democrat ticket of Tim Hagan and Charleta Tavares was, the Acton and David Pepper ticket is at least as bad, if not worse.

By the way, Hagan got 38 percent of the vote and lost to a not overly popular Republican in Bob Taft, who garnered 58 percent of the vote.

Without reservation, I'll vote for Vivek Ramaswamy and his running mate, Ohio Senate President Rob McColley, in the 2026 Ohio gubernatorial election this November.

According to his campaign site, Ramaswamy is a husband, father and proud Cincinnati native running as the Republican nominee for Governor of Ohio in 2026. He and his wife of 10 years, Dr. Apoorva Ramaswamy (a throat surgeon at Ohio State), are raising their family in greater Columbus. Running on a conservative, business-grounded agenda, Ramaswamy’s campaign seeks to expand economic opportunity, empower parents in education and strengthen local communities across all 88 Ohio counties.

Ramaswamy is not only a far better choice than Acton, he may prove to be a much better governor than DeWine.

Rory Ryan is publisher and owner of The Highland County Press, Highland County's only locally owned and operated newspaper.