Ramaswamy should drop ad featuring Acton's mom, GOP governor says, as Vance accuses critics of "whining"

Ohio's GOP Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday that Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican nominee to replace him, should take down an ad that features Democratic opponent Amy Acton's estranged mother calling her a liar. 

DeWine's comments come one day after Vice President JD Vance told Republicans to "stop whining" about the ad. 

"It's wrong to run this ad," DeWine told reporters. "I would urge Ramaswamy's campaign to take this down."

DeWine, who is term-limited, called the ad "on its face, deeply, deeply troubling" but said when one knows the backstory of allegations of abuse and neglect, "it makes it even more wrong." 

DeWine refused to say if he had spoken with the Ramaswamy campaign, but said he was not rescinding his endorsement of Ramaswamy. 

In response to DeWine's comments, Ramaswamy campaign spokesperson Connie Luck doubled down in defense of the ad, saying "the first and only candidate to attack the mother of her opponent in this race was Amy Acton." 

"Acton's mother is speaking out about her clear pattern of lying — not abuse — and it should be covered as such, not just with the Acton campaign spin," Luck said.  

The ad first circulated Monday night on social media with unclear origins, before Ramaswamy confirmed Tuesday it was "an ad from our campaign." 

In it, Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, whose husband was accused of raping Acton when she was a child, says, "It's not easy for a mother to say this, but Amy was a serious problem. She is a liar; she lies about her past." 

Acton, who served as the state's public health commissioner under DeWine during the pandemic, has previously talked about being abused by her now-deceased stepfather. According to documents provided by the campaign, in 1978, Arthur was charged with raping Acton, when she was between 10 and 12 years old. He entered a not guilty plea and left the area while out on bond; the case never went to trial.

Acton has not been in touch with her mother since a court date after her stepfather was arrested. The court records also show that the family lived in a tent, which Arthur disputed in the ad.

Ramaswamy on Tuesday defended the content of the ad, saying, "Every person who appears to know her the best … have told voters not to vote for her but to vote for me instead."

Acton said Thursday on CNN that she had hoped Ramaswamy "wouldn't sink this low, but of course he did." 

She said some Republicans "just don't have the courage" to speak out about an ad she said crossed "everyone's boundary that has ever been done before."

But Vance, who represented Ohio in the Senate before becoming vice president and was campaigning in the state on Wednesday, had a different reaction, telling reporters that "whether the ad was appropriate or not is not really my concern."

"Politics is a tough business," Vance said. "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." 

DeWine is not the only Republican to speak out against the ad. Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, who is in a tough reelection battle against Democrat Sherrod Brown, said Wednesday in a statement to The Associated Press that he would not have run it.

Former Republican Rep. Jim Renacci posted on social media that "any Republican who fails to distance themselves from this ad risks taking on water as well."

When asked about the ad on Wednesday, President Trump said, "I know nothing about it." He added, "It's a very unusual situation to have a mother hate a daughter that much, but I don't think that has anything to do with Vivek."

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who was subjected to personal and family attacks by Ramasway in the 2020 GOP presidential primary campaign, responded to the ad in a social media post saying that she's "just seeing what we tried to tell everyone back then. He's a bad guy. It's a shame he continues to get away with it."