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Ramaswamy’s Team Confirms Ad Featuring Amy Acton’s Estranged Mother, Launches $4 Million Blitz
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Ramaswamy's campaign confirmed producing the attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother. Campaign plans to spend about $4 million promoting the ad.
Ramaswamy Ad Backlash
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s team confirmed late Tuesday that it produced a controversial advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton and said it will spend $4 million to promote it in Ohio’s governor’s race. Donna Arthur appears in the ad calling Acton “a liar” and saying “She lies about her past,” while the ad also insinuates she has mental health issues. Amy Acton condemned the ad in a Spectrum News interview, saying, “I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I’m 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,”.
Ramaswamy’s campaign spokesperson Connie Luck said Acton’s mother was not paid for the one-minute video, which Luck said will stream online and air on television. The ad’s origins drew scrutiny after it circulated online without the “paid for” tag that is legally required to air on television so viewers can know who produced and paid for it.
Family Denounces, Campaign Defends
Philip Stearns, Acton’s brother, condemned the ad as a “revolting attack,” and he said it was “not surprising that Vivek Ramaswamy has sunk so low as to try to turn the sexual overstep that Amy suffered when she was 12 years old at the hands of our biological mother into a political talking point.” Ramaswamy told reporters Tuesday that the ad came from his campaign and that he considered it “true,” while he said Acton’s mother did not receive compensation. Connie Luck defended the campaign’s decision by saying, “We do not know what happened between Amy and her mother, who spoke about Amy for the first time in 2020, but 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.”
Acton’s campaign released a video featuring Stearns, who recalled his older sister taking “the worst” of the abuse they faced as children in order to protect him. The Washington Post described the ad as a 60-second video that initially circulated on social media Monday night and included no disclosure of who produced or financed it.
What’s at Stake in Ohio
The controversy unfolded as Democrats said Ramaswamy was growing desperate with more than 676,000 people having already cast ballots in Ohio.
Sherrod Brown described the spot as “disgusting” and said everyone, including his opponent, Sen. Jon Husted, should be willing to condemn it.
Ramaswamy’s campaign said it would air the ad both online and on TV as Election Day draws near, and it defended the ad’s content by pointing to what it said “Every person who appears to know her the best … have told voters not to vote for her but to vote for me instead.”
The Washington Post reported that Acton’s campaign provided documentation from court records, and it said Acton approached her mother in the courtroom after her stepfather was charged.
The dispute also tied into the campaign’s broader spending and messaging, with the Washington Post citing AdImpact that Ramaswamy and his allies had aired close to $140 million in advertising, more than three times what Acton and hers have.