The advertisement omits Acton’s rape allegation and is criticized across party lines
Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign released the commercial on social media Monday evening, but the video did not identify who paid for or authorized it. Ramaswamy confirmed on Tuesday that the campaign produced it and later pledged $4m (£2.9m) to air it further in the race for Ohio governor.
The Republican candidate’s advertisement features Democratic candidate Amy Acton’s estranged mother, Donna Arthur. Arthur asks Ohioans not to elect her daughter and says, “She’s lied her entire life.” BBC News called the spot “one of the most viral attack ads of the midterm elections campaign.”
The commercial does not mention Acton’s allegation that her stepfather and Donna Arthur’s husband, Cledith Arthur, raped her 40 years ago when she was 12. The BBC reported that Acton and her brother, Philip Stearns, were removed from their mother’s custody when Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged in 1978.
Acton told The Vindicator, an Ohio news outlet, that 1978 was the last time she spoke to her mother. Donna and Cledith Arthur fled Ohio, and Cledith Arthur was never prosecuted on the rape charge. He died in 2004.
Stearns called turning the alleged sexual assault into “a political talking point” a “despicable low.” Experts told the BBC that the advertisement’s personal nature would likely lead it to backfire.
The BBC sought comment from Ramaswamy’s campaign. In a statement to the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, a campaign spokesman reiterated the advertisement’s assertions that Acton was untruthful but said, “We don’t know what happened between Amy and her mother.”
Acton’s team released its own campaign advertisement on Tuesday. The 30-second clip featured Stearns recounting childhood abuse and saying, “Amy always got the worst of it.” He then says, “Shame on Vivek,” and adds, “It’s the contempt he has for Amy. It’s the contempt he has for Ohio.”
The Ramaswamy advertisement was criticized by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who called it “an abhorrent attack” on X. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, whom the BBC described as a 2028 presidential hopeful, said Ramaswamy “has reached a new low by launching these vile and false attacks.”
Some Republicans also criticized the advertisement. Nikki Haley, who ran against Ramaswamy for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, said, “he’s a bad guy. It’s a shame he continues to get away with it.” When the BBC asked Vice-President JD Vance whether the advertisement was appropriate, he did not answer that question. He said, “It’s not really my concern,” adding, “What is my concern is who’s going to govern the next generation of American government.”
Political attack advertisements are not new in US politics, but experts told the BBC they have grown more coarse. David Lublin, a professor at American University’s School of Public Affairs, said, “They have become more intense, and the boundaries have stretched in terms of what one attacks about.”
Lublin said relatives have also been used against political opponents, citing family members who testified against Robert F Kennedy Jr before his confirmation as health secretary. He said the Ramaswamy advertisement was different because Acton and her mother were estranged over a rape allegation rather than policy. “But this is of a different order,” he said. “They’re estranged not over policy but over a rape allegation.”
Lublin said President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and campaigns have helped act as a catalyst for the coarsening of American political discourse. He cited an occasion when Trump appeared to mock a reporter in Ohio who had a disability. “We live in an age where certainly many candidates can appear mean and even inappropriate at times,” Lublin said.
On the purpose of attack advertisements, Lublin said, “The key purpose of attack ads isn’t necessarily to convert the followers of your opponent, but more to depress their turnout.” He expects the Ramaswamy advertisement to backfire. Lublin said the attack could indicate that the campaign is desperate to swing momentum in an increasingly competitive Ohio governor race, even though a Democrat has not been elected governor in the state in more than two decades.
Cook Political Report, a nonpartisan website that rates and tracks US elections, moved the Ohio governor’s contest from “leans Republican” to “toss up.”