Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign for Ohio governor made an attack ad starring his opponent’s mother. In it, Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of Democrat Amy Acton, calls her daughter a liar and tells Ohioans, “Don’t let her become your governor.” Acton has said she hasn’t seen her mother since she was 12, when her mother’s husband, Acton’s stepfather, was prosecuted over Acton’s sexual abuse, NBC News reported.
Ohio’s Republican governor says the ad is wrong and should come down. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance say it should stay up. Ramaswamy’s campaign is putting $4 million behind it.
What does the Ramaswamy ad say about Amy Acton?
In the one-minute video, Arthur says Acton lied about growing up poor and homeless, at one point living in a tent, and suggests her daughter has mental health problems, WOSU reported. The campaign says Arthur wasn’t paid. It first circulated online Monday night without the required political ad disclaimer, and Ramaswamy later confirmed his campaign made it. “Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth,” campaign spokesperson Connie Luck said.
Acton’s brother, Philip Stearns, said Ramaswamy “has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at 12 years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point.” He said their mother “stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died.”
How did Amy Acton respond?
“My mother is not well,” Acton told Columbus station WBNS. “So, I think it’s despicable.” She described the last time she saw her: “12 years old in a courtroom in Youngstown, Ohio. I went to give her a kiss on the cheek and she turned away.” She said Ramaswamy “will do anything or say anything to get ahead,” calling him “frankly a danger.” Acton was Ohio’s health director early in the COVID-19 pandemic, appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine.
Why are Trump and Vance defending the ad?
Because they think it works. Trump said the ad was “hitting pay dirt,” called Acton “fair game” and said he told Ramaswamy to “ride with it.” “I only wish I could have had an ad like that against somebody,” he told an Iowa rally, the AP reported. He also suggested DeWine “probably wants a Dumocrat to win.”
Vance, an Ohioan, told Republicans to “stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days.” He said he was “a little bit disgusted” by the complaints and that “whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern.”
Which Republicans are against the ad?
A lot of Ohio’s. “It’s wrong to run this ad,” DeWine said. “I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down.” He still hasn’t pulled his endorsement. Sen. Jon Husted said he “would not have run that ad,” and Rep. Nancy Mace called it “the most shameful, disgusting, offensive ad this election season.”
Ramaswamy’s campaign points to an earlier attack from Acton, who cited an investigative report to accuse Ramaswamy of “hiring his own mother to manipulate clinical trial data” at a company he ran. His campaign called that “slanderous.” DeWine said that was wrong too, since “family members have always historically been off limits,” but noted it was never turned into a multimillion-dollar ad.
The BeezLoop Take
Both campaigns dragged a mother into this race, and both were wrong to. But they’re not the same. One was a line about a business record. The other is a $4 million ad using a woman her own daughter hasn’t seen since the man she stayed married to was prosecuted for abusing that daughter. DeWine, Husted and Mace saw the difference.
The president and vice president telling Republicans to “stop whining” and “ride with it” says a lot about where the party’s leadership is. When an ad is this ugly, “it’s working” isn’t a defense. It’s the problem.
The open question: will Ohio voters reward the ad in 11 days, or punish it, in a governor’s race that’s tighter than anyone expected?
Also on BeezLoop: a soldier’s widower confronted JD Vance at a CBS town hall, and Trump’s approval hit a second-term low in the NBC poll.
Sources: NBC News · Associated Press, via Yahoo News · WOSU · PBS NewsHour / AP · Associated Press (video)
