Democrat Amy Acton Cancels Campaign Event with Randi Weingarten

Democrat Amy Acton missed a campaign event over the weekend featuring left-wing activist Randi Weingarten. The event’s host stated that Acton was unable to attend because she “lost her voice.” Weingarten was in Ohio for a meet-and-greet to support Acton, who is competing against Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to replace outgoing Governor Mike DeWine.

Acton previously led Ohio’s Department of Health and held the title of “COVID Czar” at the start of 2020, notably leading the nation in closing public schools. Weingarten, as a long-standing leader of the American Federation of Teachers, advocated for keeping schools shut for several years, even as studies indicated that this decision negatively impacted students.

During Acton’s tenure, Ohio public schools saw significant challenges. Students in urban settings faced higher chronic absenteeism, and a report from February 2021 highlighted a steep decline in test scores compared to previous years.

According to a report from the state’s education department, “Across most grades, English language arts proficiency rates generally decreased by about eight percentage points and math proficiency rates decreased by approximately 15 percentage points.” Additionally, third-grade students showed nearly 20 percent less learning on average between November 2020 and April 2021 compared to earlier cohorts.

Acton eventually stepped down from her role as health director, citing that “the demands of the job were too great.”

Now that she is running for governor, Acton has brought Weingarten on board to assist with her campaign.

Weingarten expressed her admiration for Acton, stating, “You all know Amy better than I know Amy… I love her, I think she’s fantastic. The courage that she had to try to navigate through COVID, the understanding about how important public education is, as a way of creating pluralism in this country… she feels and understands and she knows it. She lived it.”

She concluded her remarks by highlighting a “No Kings” event from the previous day and noted that her union has committed substantial resources to support Acton’s election efforts.

After the Ohio event, Weingarten is set to campaign in Michigan alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jocelyn Benson on Tuesday.