COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Vice President JD Vance defended an announcement Wednesday by Vivek Ramaswamy which includes the ex-mother of Dr. Amy Acton, his Democratic opponent for Ohio governor, and highlights the abuse she suffered as a child, even as the Republican, in a tight race to retain Vance’s Senate seat, distanced himself from the publicity.
During a campaign visit to Ohio, Vance told reporters he was “disgusted” by fellow Republicans who opposed the ad, then later won applause at a political rally when he defended Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire and 2024 presidential candidate.
Vance said he’s seen Democrats “throw all the political dirty tricks at Vivek,” whom he considers a close personal friend — even calling him a “murderer” — while “all this time Vivek has been standing up and talking about what he wants to accomplish.”
“And now the media and Democrats in the state of Ohio are obsessed because, guess what, Vivek Ramaswamy had the audacity to air a TV ad that tells the facts as they are and calls Amy Acton a liar,” he said.
During the same rally, U.S. Sen. Jon Husted shared the stage with Vance and Ramaswamy, but avoided discussing the ad in which Acton’s biological mother, Donna Arthur, calls her daughter a “liar” and insinuates that she has mental health issues. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather was charged with raping Acton and the contestant hasn’t seen her since 1978.
“I would not have run that ad,” Husted said in a statement to The Associated Press. A day earlier, his Democratic opponent, former Sen. Sherrod Browncalled the place “disgusting” and said everyone – including Husted – should report it.
Acton, Ohio former state health directorspent the day traveling to a planned campaign appearance in rural Wyandot County, in the northwest part of the state. Her campaign also released a positive new ad, in which – somewhat ironically – she called on voters to “find more respite and heal what has divided us.” She has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child.
In Cincinnati, the vice president said that “politics is a tough business” and that the content of Ramaswamy’s announcement “didn’t really concern me.” He said he was focused on supporting Republican candidates in the midterm elections.
“I’m a little bit disgusted when I see Republicans across the country complaining more about this ad than what Democrats in Congress and other Democrats want to do to the United States of America,” Vance said in his first public comments on the ad, which shook up one of the country’s most controversial and controversial ads. expensive gubernatorial races in the country.
AP AUDIO: Vance says ‘disgusted’ by GOP rejection of Ramaswamy ad featuring Amy Acton’s ex-mother
Republican candidate for Ohio governor Vivek Ramaswamy is under fire for a campaign ad that dredges up his opponent’s painful past. AP correspondent Donna Warder reports.
The video was criticized by both Democrats and Republicans when it exploded in front of the public on Tuesday, just two weeks before Election Day.
Nikki Haley, who feuded with Ramaswamy during the 2024 Republican presidential primary over the personal nature of his attacks, called him “nasty” in a social media post Tuesday. “It’s a shame he keeps getting away with it,” she wrote. Meghan McCain called it “despicable” and Dan Hauser, a longtime aide to Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his post sharing the video once he realized “the very serious accusations that were at the root of their problems.”
The Ramaswamy campaign’s initial statement on the ad did not claim responsibility for its production, but the candidate ultimately did so when he spoke to reporters at an evening campaign event. His campaign will spend $4 million to broadcast it on television and online in the final weeks of the race, despite backlash. He did not address the ad at the rally where Vance spoke outside Cincinnati.
Police and court records show that Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with raping her stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton’s biological father reported him to authorities. The abuse allegedly occurred from December 1976 to April 1978. Cledith Arthur, who has since died, failed to appear for her court appearance and became a fugitive.
Acton said she has not seen her mother since she appeared in court in the late 1970s. On Tuesday, her campaign released a video of her brother that supported her story of living in a tent and being abused.
Vance told reporters before the rally that Acton “lies about every position he has.”
Acton’s campaign declined to respond to Vance’s comments, saying his painful history was not the centerpiece of his gubernatorial bid.
Michael Wedding, 20, came to Vance’s rally Wednesday — but not to support the Ohio Republican ticket. He said he would break away from his large Republican family and vote for Acton for governor, adding that he attended the rally largely to see Ramaswamy in person.
He said he saw the ad and found it “very, very disgusting”.
“She was sexually abused as a child,” he said of Acton, “and I thought it was a little gross that they used that in an ad. I don’t think it’s right to use her sexual abuse as a child, or to give any kind of platform to that.”
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Binkley reported from Washington. Associated Press video journalist Patrick Aftoora-Orsagos contributed to this story from Sharonville, Ohio.
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