Ramaswamy faces firestorm over US political ad featuring Democrat rival’s estranged mother

Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for Ohio governor, faced a firestorm of criticism Wednesday over an ad featuring Democratic rival Amy Acton’s estranged mother, whose husband was charged with raping Acton when she was a child.

Acton has not spoken with her mother, Donna Arthur, since her childhood, when she accused her then-stepfather of sexually abusing her for years.

In the ad, Arthur says her daughter has “lied her entire life”.

“Don’t let her become your governor. If you think she’ll make your life better, you’re fooling yourself,” Arthur says.

On Tuesday, Acton issued a statement saying she and her brother “endured abuse, hunger and neglect” as children.

“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I was sexually abused by her husband, while my birth mother did nothing to protect me,” 60-year-old Acton said of Arthur.

Arthur’s husband fled before he could be tried on the sexual assault charges and is now dead. Acton said she had not seen Arthur since 1978.

Acton said it was “sad to see Vivek Ramaswamy exploit her all for his own political gain”.

Ramaswamy, a billionaire biotech entrepreneur who ran in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries, is facing off against Acton, a medical doctor by training and former state health department director, in the race to be Ohio’s next governor.

The contest is deemed a toss-up by Cook Political Report.

In an open letter to The Columbus Dispatch newspaper, the city’s former mayor Michael Coleman called the ad “the most vile, disgusting and lowest point I have ever seen in 35 years of political engagement”.

MK Pritzker, the wife of Illinois’s billionaire Democratic Governor J.B. Pritzker, immediately announced a US$500,000 donation to Acton’s campaign.

“Bad men gain power when we refuse to stand up and fight,” she said in a statement.

Ramaswamy, who has reportedly planned to spend US$4 million airing the ad, enjoys the support of US President Donald Trump, who opted only to weigh in by saying Arthur had gone “very rogue on the daughter”.

“The mother is a witness to things also. So, who knows?” he said.

On the campaign trail on Wednesday in Ohio, his home state, Vice-President J.D. Vance defended his “good friend” Ramaswamy.

“Now the media and the Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because guess what? Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to run a TV commercial which calls it out like it is, and calls Amy Acton a liar,” Vance said.

Republican strategist Jeanette Hoffman, however, said the ad was already backfiring for Ramaswamy.

“A lot of times, political ads that are negative, they work. But to work, they have to have credibility behind them,” Hoffman told NewsNation, calling the ad “horrific”.

“This ad is so outrageously offensive it is backfiring on Vivek because you’re making Amy Acton the victim, and Vivek is looking like the villain because Amy Acton is a victim here. She’s a victim of sexual assault.”

Acton’s campaign ran a video featuring her brother Phil Stearns, who said: “She was 11 and 12 years old, and to think that that’s somehow a talking point. Shame on Vivek.”