Key Ohio Republicans criticize Ramaswamy’s ad with Acton’s estranged mother, even as Vance warned them not to

Amy Acton, former director of the Ohio Department of Health and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, speaks on affordability while campaigning at Bottoms Up Coffee in Columbus, Ohio, US, on April 6. Stephen Zenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images via CNN Newsource

Some leading Ohio Republicans began distancing themselves from a controversial new ad from their gubernatorial nominee, Vivek Ramaswamy, even as Vice President JD Vance warned the party not to break ranks over the commercial.

“I would not have run that ad,” Sen. Jon Husted, who is in one of the country’s most competitive Senate races, said in a statement to the Associated Press published shortly after Husted appeared at a Cincinnati rally with Vance and Ramaswamy.

The Ramaswamy ad has drawn bipartisan criticism for featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent, Amy Acton.

In the video, Acton’s mother called her daughter a liar and urged voters not to support her. Acton has said she has not seen her mother since she was about 12 years old, when the man her mother married sexually abused her and faced criminal charges.

Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose told the ABC affiliate in Columbus that he “probably wouldn’t run an ad like that.” LaRose is running for state auditor.

On Wednesday morning, Vance, a former Ohio senator, instructed his fellow Republicans to set aside any reservations about the ad.

“Politics is a tough business, and my message to my fellow elected Republicans is if you actually believe in the things you say you believe in, stop whining about an advertisement and go win the race in 13 days,” Vance said at a news conference in Cincinnati.

The initial video – which was shared widely on social media, including by the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr. – has been roiling the gubernatorial race since it first showed up on social media, bringing the abuse Acton said she suffered at the hands of her stepfather to the forefront.

Until Wednesday afternoon, the GOP criticism of the ad was mainly coming from national figures like Nikki Haley, who ran against Ramaswamy for president in 2024. But the comments by Husted and LaRose began to show cracks in the relative quiet among Ohio Republicans.

Asked about the ad at the news conference, Vance declined to weigh in on its appropriateness but said he was “a little bit disgusted” that some Republicans appeared more outraged about it than they are about Democrats and their policies.

Speaking later at a rally in Cincinnati that Ramaswamy attended, Vance brought up the ad on his own. He argued it was a justified response because Democrats have used “every dirty trick in the political book” against 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.

Ryan Smith, the former GOP speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, pushed back against Vance’s criticism of fellow Republicans responding to the ad.

“Stop normalizing bad behavior and embarrassing the party,” Smith wrote on X. “Ohio deserves better than this!

Ramaswamy’s campaign leaned into the controversy over the ad Tuesday night, announcing it would spend US$4 million to run the spot.

“She’s lied her entire life,” Donna Arthur says in the minute-long spot. “My daughter needs help, and she can’t help you if she needs help herself. People can change, but first they have to tell the truth, and my daughter still isn’t doing that.”

The video was first published on Monday night by an Ohio political blogger, D.J. Byrnes, who is known as “The Rooster.” Byrnes told CNN he obtained the video from a voter who saw it as part of a poll and recorded it. On Tuesday morning, Acton’s campaign released a statement from her brother, Philip Stearns, denouncing the video and linking it to Ramaswamy.

“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,” Stearns said. “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.”

Later Tuesday, Acton’s campaign released a new ad featuring Stearns making similar points. “Shame on Vivek,” he says in the spot.

Ad did not initially have political disclaimer

Ramaswamy’s campaign initially did not confirm their involvement in the ad Tuesday, saying only that Ohioans “deserve to know” what Acton’s mother says about her daughter. But later in the day, Ramaswamy confirmed, “It is an ad from our campaign.”

The incendiary spot will run on TV and streaming platforms, according to a spokesperson for the Ramaswamy campaign, Connie Luck. Axios first reported the news.

When it first circulated, the video did not have the standard disclaimer that political ads carry saying who paid for or authorized them, nor did it show up Tuesday morning as a paid ad in the race on AdImpact, the political ad-tracking service.

And the first Ramaswamy campaign statement from Luck did not address whether it was responsible for the video. It suggested voters should consider the message from Acton’s mother and repeated her attack, asserting that “we know that Amy Acton is a serial fabulist who has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of before deciding who to entrust as governor.”

The statement went on to argue that people who know Acton well — including “her own mother” — “are clearly warning Ohioans not to vote for her.”

“Ohioans deserve to know that,” Luck said.

An official with V-PAC, the main super PAC backing Ramaswamy, said it did not make the video. CNN has attempted to contact Arthur for more information about how the video came together.

Ramaswamy was heckled at a campaign event Tuesday evening by a person appearing to cite the viral video. Within seconds of Ramaswamy taking the stage at a Columbus-area town hall, an audience member rose up and began yelling at him, making a reference to “Amy Acton’s mother” and the abuse that the candidate says she suffered from her mother’s husband at a young age.

“Sir, if you want to be patient and you want to ask a question at the end, you’re free to do that,” Ramaswamy said as the man was escorted out. “Thank you for your contribution today.”

Speaking with reporters after the event, Ramaswamy took responsibility for the ad and reiterated that voters should take into account what people who know Acton “well” are saying about her. He said he has never met the mother and that she was “not compensated” for the ad.

Acton herself weighed in during an interview with WOSU Public Media.

“It’s awful to see her this way, and it’s even more incredible to see that my opponent (Ramaswamy) has taken advantage of someone who’s clearly not well, who is older, and this is totally in line with who he is,” Acton said.

The ad drew criticism even from some Republicans. Haley, Ramaswamy’s former rival in the 2024 presidential primary, said it was the latest evidence that Ramaswamy is “a bad guy.”

“It’s a shame he continues to get away with it,” she wrote on X.

Meghan McCain, the daughter of the late Arizona GOP Sen. John McCain, said on X that the ad was “dastardly” and “never should have been created.”

Sherrod Brown, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Ohio, said on X that the video was “disgusting” and that Husted should condemn it. The Democratic Governors Association said in a statement that the video was part of a “relentless smear campaign” that Ramaswamy has waged against Acton.

Acton and Ramaswamy are locked in one of the most competitive governor’s races in the country, vying to replace term-limited Republican Mike DeWine. The ads in the race have been especially nasty, fueling a controversial decision by Acton to decline to debate Ramaswamy. Republican candidates in the state are preparing for a statewide bus tour starting Friday.

DeWine’s office also has not commented on the ad. He defended Acton earlier in the campaign against criticism about Acton’s work as state public health director during the Covid-19 pandemic.

A member of DeWine’s Cabinet, Lydia Mihalik, said Tuesday on X that the ad crossed a line.

“We can disagree on plenty of things without losing our sense of decency,” said Mihalik, director of the state’s Department of Development. “I don’t have to agree with Amy Acton’s politics to believe that exploiting someone’s childhood trauma is wrong.”

Nick Owens, a Republican activist in Ohio, told CNN the ad is “frankly despicable” and would help Acton raise “a lot of money.” Owens, who calls himself a lifelong Republican, is a former county GOP chair in the state who’s been organizing opposition to data centers.

Acton, the former Ohio public health director, has spoken before about her estrangement from her mother and hardscrabble childhood. In a 2019 interview with the Youngstown Vindicator, she said her mother married a man when she was between ages 9 and 12 who abused her and who faced criminal charges. The family was living in a tent at a campground outside Youngstown at the time.

According to legal documents provided by the Acton campaign, Acton’s allegations against her stepfather emerged in July of 1978 when her father testified to police his daughter was sexually abused by her stepfather. A day later, her stepfather was arrested for rape. He pleaded not guilty but was indicted by a grand jury in September of that year. By October, prosecutors asked for a warrant for his arrest. In the early 1980s, one record shows authorities were still looking for him, but there is no record of any further action in the case.

“I was lucky that it got bad enough, because it got me out of there,” Acton told the Vindicator.

She said the last time she saw her mother was at the courthouse when she tried to give her a kiss and Acton rejected her.