Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign released a video on social media on Monday evening in which Donna Arthur, the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, calls her daughter a “liar” and urges Ohioans not to vote for her. The video did not initially say who had paid for or authorised it.
Ramaswamy confirmed on Tuesday that the ad was his campaign’s work and said he would spend $4 million airing it across Ohio. Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur and former 2024 GOP presidential candidate, said: “I would love for this race and this election to be about the substantive issues that impact Ohioans, and unfortunately, Amy Acton has been hiding from those issues”.
Acton, the former head of the Ohio Department of Health, has said that her stepfather sexually abused her when she was 12 years old. She has not seen Arthur since 1978, when she was removed from her mother’s custody after her stepfather’s arrest on rape charges.
Acton has said Arthur stood by the man she alleges abused her. Cledith Arthur was never prosecuted on the rape charge and died in 2004.
Her brother, Philip Stearns, released a response advertisement on Tuesday recounting the childhood abuse. In a 30-second clip, he said: “Shame on Vivek. It’s the contempt he has for Amy. It’s the contempt he has for Ohio.”
Stearns said Ramaswamy was seeking to turn “the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point”.
The ad prompted criticism from within Ramaswamy’s own party. Representative Nancy Mace called it “disgusting”, while Jon Husted said he “would not have run that ad”. Secretary of State Frank LaRose was also among the Republicans who criticised it.
On Wednesday, Vice President JD Vance defended Ramaswamy at an event in Cincinnati. “Politics is a tough business, and my message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days,” he said.
Vance said he was “a little bit disgusted” by Republicans who were “whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America”. Asked by BBC News whether the ad was appropriate, he replied: “It’s not really my concern.”
President Trump also stood by Ramaswamy. “I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter,” Trump said. “You have to figure that out. It’s a very unusual situation to have a mother hate her daughter that much.”
The contest for the governorship is essentially tied with two weeks remaining before the election. Cook Political Report has moved the race from “leans Republican” to “toss up”, and a Democrat has not been elected governor of Ohio in over two decades.
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