YOUNGSTOWN — A judge has ordered a Mahoning County man to have no contact with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton after he allegedly charged toward her through the crowd at a Youngstown campaign event. Acton faces Republican Vivek Ramaswamy in November’s election for Ohio governor, one of the highest-profile races in the country.
Prosecutors say the man, identified as Havas, forced his way through the crowd as Acton spoke and was intercepted by her Ohio State Highway Patrol security detail. Two people were treated at the scene and released, according to a Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office incident report. Havas’s attorney said his client — who has lived with his mother in Canfield for the past 30 years — simply wanted to ask the candidate questions and is not a flight risk. A highway patrol spokesman said the agency had no bodycam footage from the incident.
The judge also ordered Havas to forfeit any firearms and barred him from speaking with the media. Acton’s campaign said she and her husband were “grateful to see the rule of law upheld” and extended their thanks to law enforcement. Ramaswamy’s campaign called the incident unacceptable. With about six weeks until Election Day, both campaigns are entering the final stretch of a race drawing national attention.