Leading Off
OH-Gov
Ohio Republican Vivek Ramswamy was engulfed in a firestorm on Tuesday after an attack ad featuring his opponent’s estranged mother leaked from his campaign.
The ad, which was first reported by the newsletter The Rooster and was revealed as part of an online poll, stars Donna Arthur, who identifies herself as Democrat Amy Acton’s mother.
“I love my daughter,” she begins, “but when I saw her lying about her opponent—and it’s not easy for a mother to say this—but Amy has a serious problem. She is a liar. She lies about her past. She says she grew up living in a tent. None of that is true. She’s lied her entire life. My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself.”
Democrats across the country responded to the ad with fury. Acton’s campaign put out a statement from her brother, Philip Stearns, lambasting Ramaswamy, whose campaign acknowledged it made the ad to News 5 after previously refusing to confirm or deny its involvement.
“It’s not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has stooped to such a despicable low as to attempt to turn the sexual abuse Amy endured at twelve years old from our birth mother’s husband into a political talking point,” said Stearns. “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.”
Acton recounted the story for the Vindicator in 2019, not long after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine—the man she and Ramaswamy are both hoping to succeed—appointed her state health director. She told the paper that after the man’s arrest when she was 12, she was able to live with her father, who had unsuccessfully tried to win custody of her when she was a toddler.
Later on Tuesday, Acton released a new commercial starring her brother addressing the new attack ad.