Vivek Ramaswamy ad featuring Amy Acton's estranged mother sparks backlash

An election advertisement released by Ohio governor candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, featuring the estranged mother of his Democratic opponent Amy Acton, has drawn criticism from Republicans and Democrats, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

The 60-second advertisement shows Acton's mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a liar and urging voters in Ohio not to support her. Acton, who has a narrow lead over Ramaswamy in the governor's race, has not been in contact with her mother since she was 12.

Acton and her brother were removed from Arthur's home after a grand jury indicted Arthur's second husband on a charge of raping Acton.

"I won't normalise somebody who has said that my childhood is 'something I'm just complaining about', who today, just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect and sexual abuse," Acton told HQ News Now.

US President Donald Trump said he did not believe the controversy had anything to do with Ramaswamy. Vice-President J D Vance also backed his old friend and criticised Republicans who had condemned the advertisement.

Illinois Governor J B Pritzker's wife announced a USD 500,000 donation to Acton after reports said Ramaswamy's campaign was spending USD 4 million to air the commercial.

"Bad men gain power when we refuse to stand up and fight," she wrote in a statement reposted on X by her husband, who is a potential candidate for the 2028 presidential election.

Several Republicans, including Senator Jon Husted, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Meghan McCain, as well as several conservative commentators, criticised the advertisement.

Former Republican strategist Mike Murphy, now a prominent critic of the Make America Great Again movement, wrote on X: "This Ramaswamy ad in OH is looking more and more like political suicide."

Trump, however, appeared to support Ramaswamy. "I know nothing about it, but I hear the mother went very rogue on the daughter and doesn't have a lot of respect for the daughter. It is 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," Trump told reporters in Washington, according to PTI.

While campaigning in Ohio, Vance defended Ramaswamy and criticised fellow Republicans over their response to the advertisement.

"I have to admit that I am a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country who are whining more about that advertisement than they are about what the congressional Democrats and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America," Vance said.

"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," the vice-president said.

"Politics is a tough business. 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," he added.

Ramaswamy, 41, entered the race as the clear favourite after being endorsed by Trump last year, but now faces a strong challenge from Acton, a former state health chief.

If Ramaswamy wins the November 3 election, he will become the third person of Indian descent to serve as a US state governor, after Bobby Jindal in Louisiana and Nikki Haley in South Carolina.

The biotechnology billionaire has faced difficulties during the campaign. An attempt to reach out to college students in Ohio ended badly in July when a right-wing crowd forced him off the stage over his "winners versus whiners" speech.

"Are you in the camp of people in this country who want to win? Or are you in the camp of people who want to whine?" he asked the young crowd. The audience responded with boos and heckling, prompting him to "peace out".

A CNN-SSRS poll conducted between September 29 and October 5 gave Acton an eight-point lead over Ramaswamy. Ohio last elected a Democratic governor in 2006, when Ted Strickland won.

However, an ActiVote survey conducted between September 27 and October 19 gave Ramaswamy a three-point lead over Acton. On Wednesday, prediction market Kalshi placed Acton's chances of winning at 77 per cent, compared with 24 per cent for Ramaswamy.

Born in Cincinnati on August 9, 1985, Ramaswamy traces his roots to Palakkad in Kerala, where his parents lived before moving to the US. Raised in Ohio, he was an accomplished pianist and a nationally ranked tennis player. He was already a millionaire when he graduated from Yale Law School in 2013.

Ramaswamy launched a presidential campaign in 2023 but withdrew after a poor performance in the Iowa primaries and endorsed Trump. After winning the 2024 election, Trump appointed Elon Musk and Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency. Ramaswamy left soon afterwards to contest the Ohio governor's election with Trump's support.

The controversy over the advertisement has intensified an already close contest between Ramaswamy and Acton, with polls presenting different leads ahead of the November 3 election.

With PTI Inputs

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