Around 2:30 on Sunday afternoon, an incident occurred involving the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, Dr. Amy Acton, at the Canfield Fair.
She was standing in the Mahoning County Democratic Party's tent, talking to a crowd of supporters. It was the kind of stop every candidate makes — funnel cake, livestock barns, and a folding table with yard signs and buttons on it.
A 38-year-old Canfield man named Patrick Havas walked into the tent holding up his cell phone as if he were recording. Then, according to the Mahoning County Sheriff's Office, he started shoving his way through the crowd.
Two people in the crowd were knocked down by Havas.
Former U.S. Rep. John Boccieri, who was there, said one of them was an elderly man.
Three witnesses told NBC News on Monday that they saw two older attendees hit the ground and then watched Acton kneel down and take care of them.
Troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol's executive protection unit — assigned to Acton because she's a candidate for governor — grabbed Havas before he reached her. Canfield Fair police took him into custody. When they searched him, they found two handguns, a Taser and a set of brass knuckles.
The Ohioans for Amy Acton campaign released the following statement following the incident:
“While attending the Canfield Fair, an armed individual lunged at Dr. Acton, injuring multiple people. Dr. Acton and Eric are grateful for the swift and decisive action of law enforcement and are praying for the recovery of those injured. This kind of violence has no place in Ohio. Dr. Acton will always stand up to the chaos, hate and vitriol that pits us against one another,” said Addie Bullock, Communications Director for the Acton campaign.
The candidate wasn't hurt. She’s a physician and she stayed at the scene to help treat one of the people who were injured before she left.
Campaign Event: Dr. Amy Acton at the Canfield Fair
Havas was booked into the Mahoning County Jail on two counts of assault and one count of disorderly conduct. Jail records list the assault counts as felonies. No bond was set, and because the courts were closed for Labor Day, his first appearance is expected Tuesday in Mahoning County Court.
Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene said the troopers confronted Havas as he pushed toward the front of the tent, and that two people went down while that was happening. Former Rep. Boccieri, who was standing inside the tent, described a large man barreling through and shoving people down as though he were trying to rush her, phone camera held up the whole time.
Investigators have been clear about one thing: Havas never drew a weapon. Troopers say nothing came out of a holster. That caveat matters legally, and it's also why the charges aren’t more serious.
No one in law enforcement has announced a motive. The Highway Patrol and the sheriff's office are still investigating what led up to it. Mahoning County Democratic Party Chair Chris Anderson, who was there, said that he doesn't know why Havas came to the tent — that's for investigators to figure out. He also said the party abhors political violence in all forms
and called on leaders in both parties to condemn it.
Voter records reviewed by Newsweek show Havas is a registered Republican and a licensed nurse. He last voted in 2024. His only prior conviction in the county is a disorderly conduct plea from 2008.
There's one more thread that should be handled carefully. TiffinOhio.net confirmed that Patrick Havas is the brother of Andrew Havas, a Statehouse lobbyist who gave more than $10,000 to Vivek Ramaswamy's campaign and who resigned in July as Sen. Jon Husted's Franklin County campaign chair after NBC News asked about a 2009 case involving a 15-year-old girl. Acton had pub called out Ramaswamy publicly over that money, writing in July that she finds it appalling
that he took it.
That's a real connection between two brothers, but that doesn’t mean anything. It’s not evidence of a motive, and investigators haven’t revealed one yet. Havas is charged, not convicted, and he's entitled to the presumption of innocence like anyone else. We're reporting that this link exists because it's on the record — not because it explains anything.
Not the First Time
Ohioans who lived through 2020 remember the first time armed men threatened Dr. Amy Acton.
When she was running the Ohio Department of Health under Gov. Mike DeWine, she became the face of the state's COVID stay-at-home orders. Protesters showed up outside her home in Bexley multiple times in May of that year. Some carried semiautomatic rifles.
One held a sign depicting a mouse with a Star of David and the words "the real plague” (Acton is Jewish).
The Ohio Capital Journal documented that the man with the mouse sign was a neo-Nazi. He later pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge.
Acton resigned that June. She was one of at least 27 state and local health officials in 13 states who left their jobs in the first months of the pandemic, many of them after threats.
Six years later, she's the Democratic nominee for governor, running against Ramaswamy in one of the closest and most-watched races in the country — and she needs a trooper detail to walk into a county fair.
Everyone Condemned it — the Easy Part
The statements came quickly from both sides. DeWine, who appointed her, said he spoke with Acton and that violence or the threat of violence at political or public events is always unacceptable
.
Ramaswamy's campaign called it completely unacceptable and said it has no place in politics
.
Husted said on X that there is no place for this kind of behavior
.
Ohio Attorney General Andy Wilson said the same.
Sen. Mark Kelly, whose wife Gabby Giffords was shot in the head at a constituent event in 2011, called Acton to check on her.
Good. It’s the right thing to do, and it’s not difficult.
Here come the statistics. U.S. Capitol Police investigated 14,938 threats against members of Congress and their families and staff last year — up 58% from 2024 and 87% from 2023.
The Carnegie Endowment found that nearly 90% of state legislators experienced threats or attacks between 2021 and 2024, and that more than half of locally elected officials — school board members, county commissioners — reported the same.
Campaigns now budget for private security the way they budget for mailers.
The Canfield Fair permits firearms in most areas of the grounds. A man can walk through a political tent carrying two loaded pistols, one in each hand, but until he puts his hands on someone, he hasn't broken the law.
The Highway Patrol detail was the only thing between an armed man and a candidate in the Ohio governors’ race — and only candidates for statewide office get one.
Acton's campaign said she will always stand up to the chaos, hate and vitriol
that turns neighbors against each other. She'll be back out on the trail this week.
The Next Morning
Acton didn’t take a day. On Monday, she was in Cleveland at the 11th Congressional District Community Caucus Labor Day Parade and Festival, telling the crowd yes, we had a rough day yesterday and thanking the first responders who helped the people who were hurt.
Then she called herself a fierce warrior in this fight
and tied it back to growing up a struggling kid in Youngstown — she refuses to look the other way, she said, because people looked the other way at her.
Organizers ramped up security for the Cleveland event. Rep. Shontel Brown said they were equally concerned and adjusted accordingly. Sherrod Brown, running for U.S. Senate, praised Acton for getting right back out among supporters and said politicians need to turn down the rhetoric
when they attack people personally.
Ramaswamy’s campaign and his allies are simultaneously attacking Acton’s character — casting her as a quitter for resigning in 2020, and circulating a 2019 incident at her home that police logged as a domestic dispute and that produced no charges against anyone. You can condemn violence on Sunday and spend Monday telling voters a woman is unstable and weak. Both things are happening at once, and only one of them is being called out.
Real Leader
Two Ohioans showed up on a Sunday to hand out literature and talk to their neighbors. They weren’t expecting to get knocked to the ground. But everyone in that tent got to see who Dr. Amy Acton is — a leader who puts constituents first.
