‘Take This Down’: Ohio Gov. urges Ramaswamy to pull Acton attack ad despite Vance’s support

WASHINGTON, DC: Even as Vice President JD Vance urged Republicans to stop criticizing Vivek Ramaswamy over his controversial attack ad targeting Amy Acton, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has called the ad deeply troubling and urged the GOP gubernatorial nominee to “take this down.”

Republican gubernatorial nominee Vivek Ramaswamy released a campaign ad featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic rival, Amy Acton, criticizing her daughter and urging voters not to support her.

Ohio GOP Governor calls successor nominee’s poll ad ‘wrong’

Outgoing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) has urged Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee to succeed him, to take down the controversial ad, which has intensified tensions in an already fiercely contested race.

The ad featuring Acton’s mother surfaced online earlier this week and was later claimed by Ramaswamy’s campaign. It has since sparked backlash from both sides of the political aisle.

In the ad, Acton’s mother, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter a liar and questions her character. Acton has said she suffered abuse during childhood at the hands of her mother’s then-husband. At age 12, she and her brother were removed from their mother’s care after the man faced criminal charges.

Critics have accused Ramaswamy’s campaign of exploiting Acton’s childhood trauma for political gain.

“The ad on its face is deeply, deeply troubling,” DeWine told reporters on Thursday, October 22.

“But when you know the rest of the story, you know, the backstory, when you know that the husband of the mom was indicted by a grand jury after hearing testimony, and then he took off along with the mother, and the children never saw, I guess, the mother,” DeWine said, referring to Acton’s family history.

“It makes it just more wrong, so it’s wrong to run this ad,” he added.

“I would just urge the Ramaswamy campaign to take this down. It’s just wrong,” the outgoing governor said, adding that the ad was still airing on television on Thursday morning.

JD Vance tells Republican to ‘stop whining’ about ad Ramaswamy released

Vice President JD Vance defended Ramaswamy amid the backlash, urging Republicans to stop complaining about the ad and focus on winning the election.

“And 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 on Wednesday, Oct 21.

Acton’s brother, Phil Stearns, appeared in a response ad released by her campaign, pushing back against the portrayal of their childhood in Ramaswamy’s advertisement.

“I received a lot of abuse, but Amy always got the worst of it. She continued to receive that abuse because she knew she had to protect me from that, and that if she hadn’t done that, who knows where I would have ended up,” Stearns said.

Stearns also criticized Ramaswamy, saying the Republican candidate showed the same contempt for Ohio that he had shown toward Acton and was “not fit to lead.”