Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy on Tuesday night defended a controversial campaign advertisement featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton, after acknowledging that his campaign produced the spot.
“It is an ad from our campaign,” Ramaswamy said of the sharply worded, one-minute video. In it, Donna Arthur accuses her daughter of being a “liar” and of embellishing allegations about abuse she says she endured as a child.
“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,” Ramaswamy said, explaining why his campaign released the ad.
The biotech entrepreneur and former 2024 Republican presidential candidate said the advertisement was prompted by Acton’s refusal to debate him and what he described as “disparaging lies” she had circulated about him.
“She won’t debate me. She doesn’t allow cameras at her events, and I think her record of continuously, certainly during this campaign, I would say spreading some defamatory, disparaging lies about me and my family, that does deserve to be scrutinized,” Ramaswamy told reporters, including NBC4 Columbus.
Ramaswamy said Arthur was “not compensated” for appearing in the advertisement. He also said he has “never met” Acton’s mother.
Acton, who led the Ohio Department of Health from 2019 to 2020, has been estranged from Arthur since 1978. That year, according to the outlet, Acton’s father was arrested and charged with raping Acton, who was then 12 years old.
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Acton has also said she experienced homelessness during her childhood, a claim Arthur challenged in the campaign ad.
“She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true,” Arthur said. “She’s lied her entire life.
“My daughter needs help.”
Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, accused Ramaswamy of exploiting “the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband” for political gain.
“After he was arrested and Amy and I were removed from their custody, our birth mother stayed married to Amy’s rapist until he died,” Stearns said in a statement released by Acton’s campaign.
“This desperate, disgusting attack reveals exactly who Vivek Ramaswamy is at his core — a pathetic excuse for a man who is willing to hurt anyone as long as it gets him what he wants.”
Acton holds a 3.7-percentage-point lead over Ramaswamy in the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, even though Ohio has elected only one Democratic governor, Ted Strickland, since 1990.
