Ramaswamy Admits His Campaign Was Behind Ad of Opponent’s Mother Denouncing Her as ‘Liar’

The Republican candidate for governor in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy, is embracing a controversial ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic rival, Dr. Amy Acton, publicly acknowledging that his campaign produced it one day after facing criticism for a low blow.The Ramaswamy campaign came under fire this week after it released a video spotlighting Dr. Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, calling her a “liar.” Dr. Acton responded to the ad, writing in a post on Facebook that she was sexually abused by Ms. Arthur’s late husband, and that her mother “did nothing to protect me.” The Democrat said that her mother is “deeply sick and unwell” and that it is “sad to see Vivek Ramaswamy exploit her all for his own political gain.”In the ad, her mother says she has “lied her entire life” and “needs help” and cannot “help you if she needs help herself.”While Democrats and conservatives pointed the finger at the Ramaswamy campaign, it was not clear on Tuesday where the ad came from nor did it include a disclosure about who paid for it. It appears the video that surfaced on social media had been recorded and leaked by someone who was asked by a market research platform to rate its effectiveness, which would explain why the video does not include the disclosure. But on Tuesday evening, Mr. Ramaswamy put any questions about its origin to rest. “It is an ad from our campaign,” Mr. Ramaswamy told reporters. “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.”The Republican accused Dr. Acton of spreading lies about him during the campaign and said she should participate in a debate to refute the allegation that she is a liar.Mr. Ramaswamy’s campaign is planning to spend $4 million to promote the ad in Ohio, Axios reported on Tuesday. A state and governors correspondent at National Journal, Abby Turner, shared screenshots from a market research platform, Dynata, that appeared to be testing the effectiveness of the ad before it was released. The screenshots show that after watching the ad, viewers were asked to answer a series of questions, including whether they believed it is true that Dr. Acton was sexually abused as a child. Democrats and conservative commentators denounced the ad. The director of Ohio’s Department of Development, Lydia Mihalik, wrote on X, “I don’t care what political party you belong to or which candidate you support. There are lines we shouldn’t cross, and this is one of them.”“We can disagree on plenty of things without losing our sense of decency,” she said, “I don’t have to agree with Amy Acton’s politics to believe that exploiting someone’s childhood trauma is wrong … I haven’t changed my political beliefs. I’m simply unwilling to set aside my personal values to defend a political ad.”Ms. Mihalik was appointed by Ohio’s outgoing Republican governor, Mike DeWine, who also appointed Dr. Acton to lead the state’s health department in 2019.State Republicans have attacked Dr. Acton over school and business closures during the pandemic, casting her as the architect of the government’s response because of her role at the health department. However, Mr. DeWine, who endorsed Mr. Ramaswamy in January, has tried to shift some of the blame to himself, saying that the buck stops with him. Mr. DeWine has not publicly commented on the ad as of Wednesday morning. The ad comes just two weeks before the election and as polls have found Dr. Acton leading Mr. Ramaswamy. RealClearPolitics’ average of polls shows her with a 3.7-percentage-point lead. If Dr. Acton were to win, it would mark the first time since 2006 that a Democrat was elected governor in Ohio. The furor over the ad has led to concerns that Mr. Ramaswamy could hurt other Republicans running in Ohio, including Senator Jon Husted, who former Democratic senator Sherrod Brown is seeking to unseat. RealClearPolitics’ average of polls shows Mr. Brown has a 2.4-percentage-point lead in that race. Despite outrage over the nature of the ad and concerns about its potential negative impact on the race, some conservative commentators were praising Mr. Ramaswamy for doubling down on its message. A conservative activist who promoted the ad on Monday, Walter Curt, wrote on X that it was “good” that the Ramaswamy campaign is promoting it, arguing that it should “put it on every television in Ohio” until the election. An independent journalist, Natalie Fertig, wrote on X late Tuesday that while the “political class might be aghast” at the ad, local Republican officials said that voters in rural areas had only heard the warnings from Ms. Arthur about Dr. Acton being a liar and had not heard allegations of sexual abuse. With early voting ongoing in Ohio, she suggested that the ad’s message that Dr. Acton is a “liar” — absent the details of the relationship — may convince voters to back Mr. Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy Admits His Campaign Was Behind Ad of Opponent’s Mother Denouncing Her as ‘Liar’

Ramaswamy Admits His Campaign Was Behind Ad of Opponent’s Mother Denouncing Her as ‘Liar’

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