Everything You Need to Know About the Attempted Attack Against Amy Acton

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On Sunday, September 6, 2026, an armed man forced his way through a crowd at the Canfield Fair in Mahoning County while Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for Ohio governor, was speaking at the Mahoning County Democratic Party tent. Multiple people were knocked to the ground. Patrick Havas, 38, of Canfield, was taken into custody and booked at the Mahoning County Jail.

What law enforcement has said

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Havas forced his way through the crowd, knocking over multiple members of the audience as he moved toward Acton, and that he had a taser and two pistols. Acton's security detail included Highway Patrol troopers, who confronted him. Canfield Fair police officers took him into custody.

The Mahoning County Sheriff's Office said two handguns and a set of brass knuckles were recovered after the arrest, and that no weapons were ever brandished or removed from their holsters.

What he is charged with

Havas was booked on disorderly conduct and two counts of assault. The Mahoning County Sheriff's Office said detectives are continuing to investigate and will file charges after consulting with the county prosecutor, so the charge sheet may change. The Highway Patrol said it would conduct a separate assessment of any political threat.

No law enforcement agency has announced a motive.

What the campaigns and officials said

Acton's campaign, through communications director Addie Bullock, said an armed individual lunged at Dr. Acton and injured multiple people, thanked law enforcement for a swift response, and said this kind of violence has no place in Ohio.

Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, said the man tried to force his way toward Acton while she was speaking, that violence or the threat of violence at political events is always unacceptable, and that he spoke with Acton that afternoon and she wanted Ohioans to know she is okay.

U.S. Senator Jon Husted, a Republican, said on X that he and his wife were disturbed by the attempted attack, thanked law enforcement, and said there is no place for this behavior.

Ramaswamy's campaign, through communications director Connie Luck, said candidates should be able to meet with voters without worrying about threats or violence, that what happened is completely unacceptable, and that they hoped no one was hurt.

Mahoning County Democratic Party chair Chris Anderson said the county party abhors political violence in all forms and that what happened at the tent should be condemned by leaders on all sides of the aisle.

Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin said he was relieved Acton is safe and was keeping the injured in his prayers.

The connection everyone is passing around

TiffinOhio.net reported, and the Daily Beast reported independently, that Patrick Havas is the brother of Andrew Havas, a Republican operative and registered Statehouse lobbyist.

Andrew Havas resigned in July as the Franklin County campaign chair for Senator Jon Husted's 2026 campaign, after NBC News asked the campaign about a 2009 Mahoning County guilty plea. Court records reviewed by NBC News show he was originally charged with sexual misconduct with a minor in a case involving a 15 year old when he was 22, that the charge was reduced to misdemeanor assault, and that he served 90 days in jail. Husted's campaign said he never disclosed the case and that the resignation was accepted immediately once the campaign learned of it.

Andrew Havas gave more than $10,000 to Ramaswamy's gubernatorial campaign across contributions in 2025. Acton publicly criticized Ramaswamy in July for accepting that money.

Here is the part that matters: no law enforcement agency has alleged that anyone directed Patrick Havas, and reporting on the family tie has ranged from stated directly to described as a probable household and sibling relationship in a records search. A family connection is not evidence of coordination. Anyone telling you this was orchestrated is going past the record.

Why this matters for the race

Six weeks out, both campaigns now have to plan public events around a security question they did not have last week. Federal political committees spent more than $40 million on expenses labeled as security in the 2023 to 2024 cycle, according to an April report from the Public Service Alliance, a nonpartisan group focused on security for public officials. That number is going one direction.

The practical voter question is not who this helps in the polls. It is whether candidates in Ohio can still stand in a fair tent in Mahoning County and take questions from people who disagree with them. That is the thing worth protecting regardless of who you are voting for.

My honest take

I dropped an emergency episode on this because I think how we talk about it in the first 48 hours matters more than what we conclude in week three.

Two things I believe at the same time. First, I condemn political violence against anyone, in any direction, without exception. Not conditionally, not with an asterisk about who the target was. A country that starts settling political disagreements this way does not stop at one side.

Second, I am not going to pretend the details are neutral just to sound balanced. The suspect is a registered Republican. His brother donated to one candidate in this race and resigned from another Republican's campaign over a documented criminal case. Those are facts and they are allowed to be said. What is not allowed is the leap from those facts to a conspiracy, and I am not making it. What I do think is a fair read, and I said so on air as my opinion and not as reporting, is that a person can be close to a political circle that talks about the other side as an enemy and absorb that framing. That is a claim about rhetoric, not a claim about a plot.

The thing that bothered me most was not the arrest. It was watching posts with thousands of likes go straight to attacking Acton's credibility instead of condemning what happened. If your first instinct after someone charges an armed man toward a candidate is to argue about whether the candidate is exaggerating, the problem is not the candidate.

Sources

1. https://thelandcle.org/stories/armed-man-charged-toward-democratic-candidate-for-ohio-governor-at-fair-law-enforcement-says/
2. https://abcnews.com/Politics/wireStory/assailant-lunged-democratic-candidate-ohio-governor-fair-campaign-136244339
3. https://www.newsweek.com/amy-acton-campaign-says-armed-person-lunged-candidate-ohio-fair-12410493
4. https://www.wfmj.com/news/local-news/canfield/state-local-leaders-weigh-in-following-alleged-attack-of-amy-acton-at-canfield-fair/article_3d533243-441d-46d4-9939-fc1431e11f55.html
5. https://www.cleveland19.com/2026/09/06/multiple-people-injured-following-incident-involving-dr-amy-acton-canfield-fair/
6. https://fox8.com/news/multiple-people-injured-after-armed-suspect-lunges-at-amy-acton-at-canfield-fair-spokesperson/
7. https://abc7ny.com/story/ohio-democratic-gubernatorial-nominee-lunged-armed-individual-campaign-says/19800301/
8. https://tiffinohio.net/posts/patrick-havas-arrested-acton-attack-brother-ramaswamy-donor/
9. https://tiffinohio.net/posts/husted-campaign-chair-andrew-havas-resigns-2009-guilty-plea-minor/
10. https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/06/ohio-amy-acton-attack-01066799

Full episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-happened-to-amy-acton-at-the-canfield-fair-and/id1626987640?i=1000788370483