Ramaswamy defends ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother calling her a liar

The ad and its subject

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, the party's nominee for Ohio governor, is running an attack ad that features Donna Arthur, the estranged birth mother of Democratic rival Amy Acton. In the video, Arthur accuses her daughter of lying about her past, disputes Acton's account of living in a tent as a child and urges voters not to elect her. The campaign confirmed on Tuesday, 20 October, that it was behind the spot and said it would spend $4 million promoting it. The ad had begun circulating online on Monday, 19 October. Acton, a former Ohio public health director, has spoken publicly about facing homelessness and abuse as a child, and the ad makes no mention that mother and daughter have been estranged since 1978.

Court records from 1978

Police and court documents obtained by the Associated Press show that Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged in July 1978 with raping his stepdaughter, then 12, after Acton's biological father reported him to authorities. The abuse allegedly took place from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty, was indicted by a grand jury that September and failed to appear at a court hearing, remaining a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died. FactCheck.org found records linking him to the campground where Acton said her family lived in a tent, which contradicts Arthur's claim that the family never lived there. According to Acton's brother, Phil Stearns, Donna Arthur stayed married to her husband until his death.

Acton's response

Acton has condemned the ad. In a statement released on Tuesday, her campaign recounted her childhood and released a response ad featuring her brother. Acton told Spectrum News, an Ohio cable outlet, that she "won't normalize" anyone who describes her childhood as something she is simply complaining about. Stearns said the abuse he suffered was real and that his sister shielded him from it.

I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it.

Ramaswamy rejected the criticism on Friday, 23 October, at a campaign stop in northeast Ohio, where he said the ad had nothing to do with childhood abuse.

The irony is they're lying about an ad that is about lying.

Republican criticism and Trump's defence

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, asked Ramaswamy's team on Thursday, 22 October, to take the ad down.

It's wrong to run this ad.

Donald Trump backed the spot anyway, calling it "hitting pay dirt" and telling a rally in Iowa on Thursday that Ramaswamy had phoned him for advice. Trump urged him to keep running it, then attacked DeWine on Truth Social, calling the governor incompetent and disloyal. Senator Jon Husted said he would never have run a similar message, and Nikki Haley distanced herself from the ad. JD Vance said he was disgusted that some Republicans complained more about the advertisement than about Democratic policies.

The race ahead of the midterms

The ad comes less than two weeks before the midterm elections on 3 November. Polls cited in Portuguese reporting put Ramaswamy four percentage points behind Acton. Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and former presidential candidate, says Democrats are the ones lying, and he has not withdrawn the spot despite calls from senior Republicans. Acton's campaign has answered with its own statement and the response ad, leaving the contest focused on a family dispute that dates back almost half a century.