Amy Acton Returns to Campaigning a Day After Armed Man Rushed Her at Ohio Fair

Ohio’s Democratic candidate for governor was back in front of voters on Monday, one day after the Amy Acton Canfield Fair incident in which law enforcement say an armed man charged toward her through a crowd.

Speaking at a Labor Day parade and festival in Cleveland, Acton acknowledged what had happened without dwelling on it. She told the crowd they had come through a rough day, then framed it as a reason to keep going.

She described herself as a fierce warrior in the fight, saying that is exactly why she is running. She said she refuses to look the other way, the way people looked the other way when she was a struggling child in Youngstown — and told the crowd they were refusing to look away as well.

What Happened at the Fair

The incident took place Sunday at the Canfield Fair in Mahoning County, near Youngstown.

According to accounts from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol, a man approached the local Democratic Party’s tent while Acton was speaking and forced his way through the crowd toward her. The Highway Patrol, which provides Acton with a security detail because of her candidacy, said he knocked multiple fairgoers over as he advanced.

Acton’s campaign spokesperson, Addie Bullock, said the man lunged at her.

Acton was not hurt. Several others in the crowd were.

The Suspect and What He Was Carrying

Patrick Havas, 38, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and assault. Gerry Ricciutti, a spokesperson for the Mahoning County sheriff and prosecutor, said formal charges could come as soon as Tuesday.

Officers searching him after the arrest reported finding two handguns, brass knuckles, and a Taser.

The Sheriff’s Office said he did not display any of the weapons during the incident. Officials have not publicly addressed what may have motivated him.

Witnesses Describe the Moment

Three people who saw it happen spoke to NBC News on Monday. All described the same sequence: two older attendees knocked to the ground, and Acton — a physician and Ohio’s former state health director — immediately treating them.

Lindsay Yaggi wrote in a Facebook message that Acton went straight into action, providing care until emergency medical technicians arrived. She said Acton apologised to the injured for what had happened and made sure they were all right before allowing her detail to move her away.

Former Rep. John Boccieri, a Democrat, said he was standing within arm’s length of Acton and that the man got within feet of her. He said the suspect entered the tent appearing to want to ask questions, filming on his cellphone as he came.

Boccieri recounted him shouting Acton’s name repeatedly. When Highway Patrol officers and the security detail seized him, he protested that he had only been trying to ask a question.

Boccieri described what he saw as an aggressive move by a very large man who started rushing and barrelling toward her. He was blunt about the intent: the man was not entering the tent to give her a hug.

One older man knocked over during the rush landed face down in the mud directly in front of Acton, Boccieri said. She began treating him at once.

Who Amy Acton Is

Acton, 60, ran Ohio’s health department under Republican Governor Mike DeWine during the early phase of the Covid pandemic.

Her role in issuing stay-at-home orders made her a focal point for conservative anger. Protesters gathered outside the Statehouse in Columbus and outside her home, some reportedly carrying firearms and signs bearing antisemitic messages. Acton is Jewish.

She resigned in June 2020 and has consistently played down those incidents as a reason for leaving.

The Race She’s In

Acton faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in November. Polling has shown a close contest in a state that has shifted rightward since Donald Trump’s rise, and Trump backed Ramaswamy’s campaign early.

Ramaswamy, 41, has made Acton’s pandemic record a central theme. His campaign and allied groups have also targeted her personally, seeking to characterise her as a quitter and drawing attention to a 2019 call to her home that police recorded as a domestic dispute. No charges resulted from it.

His campaign responded to Sunday’s incident directly. Spokesperson Connie Luck said candidates should be able to meet voters without fearing threats or violence, called what happened completely unacceptable and out of place in politics, and expressed hope that no one was injured.

Why the Canfield Fair Matters

The fair is in its 180th year and is the largest county fair in Ohio. It has long functioned as a required stop for politicians working the Youngstown area — a region that, like the state as a whole, has moved to the right in recent cycles.

Both Trump and then-Vice President Joe Biden appeared there in 2016.

Boccieri put the scale of the event alongside the danger it created. With thousands of people present, he said, knowing someone was walking around armed with a gun and brass knuckles and rushing at a gubernatorial candidate is frightening. He credited the security detail with preventing something worse.

The Larger Concern

Nothing in the available facts explains the man’s intent, and charges so far are limited to disorderly conduct and assault.

What the episode does illustrate is the tension now built into ordinary campaign appearances. County fairs are the most accessible form of American politics — open ground, no ticketing, candidates standing under a tent talking to whoever walks up.

That accessibility is the point. It is also what made Sunday possible.

Acton’s response was to appear at another public event the following day.