{"id":1048236,"date":"2026-09-07T05:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1048236\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T05:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:11:18","slug":"armed-man-charged-toward-democratic-ohio-governor-candidate-law-enforcement-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1048236\/","title":{"rendered":"Armed man charged toward Democratic Ohio governor candidate, law enforcement says"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 An armed assailant charged toward the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, Amy Acton<\/a>, on Sunday during a campaign stop at the Canfield Fair, injuring several people before he was stopped by troopers, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. <\/p>\n

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a statement that a man it identified as Patrick Havas, 38, forced his way through a crowd, knocking over multiple members of the audience as he moved toward Acton, the state\u2019s former public health director. He had a taser and two pistols, the statement said. <\/p>\n

The Mahoning County Sheriff\u2019s Office said two handguns and a set of brass knuckles were recovered after his arrest, and \u201cno weapons were ever brandished or even removed from their holsters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Havas was taken to the county jail and booked on charges of disorderly conduct and two counts of assault, the highway patrol statement said, adding that no other details were available pending an investigation. Online court records didn\u2019t yet list the case, and it wasn\u2019t clear as of Sunday night whether Havas has an attorney.<\/p>\n

Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement.that the man \u201ctried to forcefully push himself\u201d toward Acton as she was speaking at the fair in Canfield, in northeastern Ohio. \u201cViolence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The attempted attack is the latest political violence to roil the United States. And the Ohio gubernatorial race is one of the most high-profile races this year as the campaigns enter the final six weeks of campaigning before the election in November. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Vice<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Gov.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Acton is facing Republican Vivek Ramaswamy<\/a>, who has parlayed his national name recognition, tech industry connections and alliance with President Donald Trump<\/a> into a record fundraising haul that he is tapping for advertising spots aimed at the November election. He is using campaign rallies and advertising to criticize Acton.<\/p>\n

Ramaswamy\u2019s campaign called the incident Sunday unacceptable.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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\n Your guide to the biggest stories in politics, policy and U.S. elections.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cCandidates should be able to meet with voters without having to worry about threats or violence. What happened today is completely unacceptable and has no place in politics, and we hope hope that no one was hurt,\u201d Ramaswamy\u2019s communications director, Connie Luck, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Addie Bullock, communications director for Acton\u2019s campaign, said in a statement that the suspect \u201clunged\u201d at Acton. She said the Democratic candidate \u201cwill always stand up to the chaos, hate and vitriol that pits us against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

The incident brought condemnation from Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who said on X that he and his wife were \u201cdisturbed by the attempted attack on Amy Acton today at the Canfield Fair. We are grateful for law enforcement\u2019s quick response. There is no place for this kind of behavior, and it must never be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country has seen a rise in political violence<\/a> over the past decade<\/a>. That includes the 2017 shooting at a Republican congressional baseball team practice in Alexandria, Virginia; the 2022 hammer assault<\/a> on the husband of Democratic then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in California; the 2024 assassination attempt<\/a> on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally during his presidential campaign as well as another on the president at this year\u2019s White House Correspondents\u2019 Association Dinner<\/a> in April; and the assassinations last year of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker<\/a> and her husband and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk<\/a> in Utah.<\/p>\n

Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security during the 2023-24 campaign cycle, the most recent one for which data is publicly available, according a report released in April from the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group that focuses on security for public officials.<\/p>\n

Before running for governor, Acton was recruited by DeWine in 2019 to lead the Ohio Department of Health while serving as an associate professor of public health at Ohio State University. As the COVID-19 pandemic ramped up in early 2020, she was thrown into the state and national spotlight \u2014 becoming a source of comfort to many viewers of the governor\u2019s daily news conferences.<\/p>\n

For her service as health director, Acton earned the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation\u2019s Profile in COVID Courage Award, the Columbus Foundation\u2019s Spirit of Columbus Award and Ohio State\u2019s highest alumni honor, the Alumni Medalist Award.<\/p>\n

Her position as the face of the DeWine administration\u2019s aggressive stance against the virus also earned Acton many enemies, among them Statehouse Republicans and average Ohioans who opposed pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press writer Ryan J. Foley in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 An armed assailant charged toward the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, Amy Acton, on Sunday…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1048237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[7373,419445,318086,119587,394333,19719,419789,69,90,22016,57,51,12790,262436,120630,59971,50,1574,1573,419788,3674,80,881,52,61,90724],"class_list":["post-1048236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-2026-elections","tag-addie-bullock","tag-amy-acton","tag-assassination-of-charlie-kirk","tag-attempted-assassination-of-donald-trump-in-pennsylvania","tag-charlie-kirk","tag-connie-luck","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-fairs-and-festivals","tag-general-news","tag-headlines","tag-john-f-kennedy","tag-jon-husted","tag-mike-dewine","tag-nancy-pelosi","tag-news","tag-oh-state-wire","tag-ohio","tag-patrick-havas","tag-political-violence","tag-politics","tag-public-health","tag-top-stories","tag-u-s-news","tag-vivek-ramaswamy"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117228043704480161","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1048236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1048236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1048237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1048236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1048236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1048236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}